Steve Sarkisian Preparing Young Texas Longhorns Players Amidst Injuries

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarksian said on Monday that the bye week will include training fresh faces for the field while injuries continue to plague the starting roster.

Oct 26, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Texas Longhorns wide receiver Ryan Wingo (5) warms up before a game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Headed into its second bye week of the season, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian made it clear on Monday that his team needs this extended time to recover.

He isn't just talking about making sure the fresh names on the injury report remain short-lived but also recovering the depth of the entire roster in the wake of the number of cuts and scrapes the team has faced halfway through the season.

"I was thinking to myself, 'Okay, we're seven and one, we're eight games into the season, and the goal is to be playing January 20. And if you want to play on January 20, you're minimum playing eight more games," Sarkisian said during Monday's media availability. "When you look at it this way, we're at the halfway point and might have to play nine, you know, depending on how it goes. So what are we doing this week to continue to build up the depth of our roster, of our younger players, because we never know. We've seen the injury bug bite us at a few positions now where young players need to get ready to play."

The injury report against Vanderbilt on Saturday featured two new names ruled out since the Longhorns' spit with Georgia the week prior: senior safety Andrew Mukuba and junior wide receiver Isaiah Bond. The absence of these two starters comes after the loss of safety Derek Williams Jr. due to a season-ending knee injury suffered during the Red River Rivalry game.

Under these unfortunate circumstances, Sarkisian gave freshman wide receiver Ryan Wingo and sophomore defensive back/safety Jelani McDonald their first starts of the season to accommodate.

While the Longhorns were still able to come away with a 27-24 win over the Commodores, Sarkisian said he's using the bye week as crucial time to train the underclassmen for similar situations so that they can play to the best of their abilities when the time comes alongside letting everyone recharge.

"This week is really important for that of making sure that we're getting our young guys ready to go when their numbers called, we need to get some of the guys that have been nicked up healthy, and get them back into the field, and then we need our other guys to get fresh," Sarkisian said.

It's undoubtedly been a grueling season so far for Texas, and a harsh past three weeks, as players dealt with the stress of the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma, a top-five matchup versus Georgia, and a too-close-for-comfort game in Nashville. Sarkisian said he understands that nobody is feeling perfectly healthy, but time and space to rest, both physically and mentally, will allow the team to finish out the regular season on a high note.

"At this point in the season, at the end of October, as we head into early November, nobody's operating at 100% of what their ability is," Sarkisian said. Everybody's dealing with something, but as I touched on with the team, as close as we can get them back to 100% the better that's going to serve us over this four-game stretch here that we have coming up."

Following the bye week, the Longhorns will face off against the Florida Gators in Austin as they return home to Darrell K. Royal Stadium, with kickoff set for 11 a.m. CT.

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