Alabama Offensive Players to Watch vs. Texas in Week 2

The Longhorns will have quite the test against one of the top offenses in the nation

Matt Galatzan | Sep 6, 2022

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Texas Longhorns

The Texas Longhorns will get the biggest test of the Steve Sarkisian era on Saturday when Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide come to Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

The No. 1 ranked Tide will be coming off of a dominant 55-0 win over Utah State in Week 1, in which they looked every bit as potent offensively as they did in 2021.

Last season, the Alabama offense averaged 39.87 points per game (No. 1 in the SEC) along with an impressive 488 total yards on offense per game. When looking at the offensive line, Alabama will be returning Seth McLaughlin at center, Javion Cohen at right guard and will also add Vanderbilt transfer Tyler Steen at left tackle.

Make sure to stick with LonghornsCountry.com through our season preview series, where we will analyze every opponent on the Longhorns schedule in 2022. We've already looked at the Alabama matchup as a whole.

Now, let's take a look at the offensive players on Alabama's roster that the Longhorns should keep an eye on:

QB Bryce Young

No surprise here. Young put up huge numbers last year in his first season starting at Alabama, having nearly 5,000 yards in the air along with 47 touchdowns, and becoming the first Tide quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy.

Last week in limited action, he threw for 195 yards and five touchdowns. He also rushed for a touchdown.

RB Jahmyr Gibbs

Transfer running back Jahmyr Gibbs (from Georgia Tech) enters Alabama as one of the most electrifying athletes in all of college football. Gibbs will have a high contribution on the ground and in the air.

In his career at Georgia Tech, Gibbs rushed 232 times for 1,206 yards (5.2 avg) and eight touchdowns. He also had over 750 yards receiving with five touchdowns, as well as a kick return touchdown.

Last week, Gibbs rushed nine times for 93 yards.

WR Jermaine Burton

Yet another transfer who has become one of Bryce Young’s favorite targets early on. With big-play ability and quick speed, the Longhorn defense will need to be on its toes.

In two years at Georgia, Burton had 53 catches for 903 yards and eight touchdowns, averaging 17 yards per catch.

Against Utah State in Week 1, Burton had five catches for 35 yards and two scores.

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Published Sep 6, 2022

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.