Texas RB Jaydon Blue Addresses Being Benched

Texas Longhorns running back Jaydon Blue lost two fumbles in the win over Mississippi State.

Sep 28, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns running back Jaydon Blue (23) runs the ball in front of Mississippi State Bulldogs linebacker Stone Blanton (7) in the first half at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images / Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

AUSTIN -- Texas Longhorns running back Jaydon Blue faced the media -- and his fumbling issues -- head-on following Saturday's 35-13 win over Mississippi State.

A week after scoring four touchdowns against Louisiana-Monroe, Blue lost two fumbles in Texas' inaugural SEC game, which low-lighted a sloppy performance by the offense as a whole. Instead of avoiding questions about his miscues, Blue showed why he's one of the team's most important leaders and addressed things with reporters afterwards.

"It was hard of course," Blue said. "I think the defense did a good job of getting after to the ball. Of course I have to do a better job of securing the ball, so that doesn't happen. But just something to learn from going into next week."

Blue admitted that Steve Sarkisian and running backs coach Tashard Choice chose not to put him back in the game after his second fumble on the first play of the third quarter. Quintrevion Wisner and Jerrick Gibson took the lead in the backfield for the remainder of the game. Wisner finished with a career-high 88 yards on 13 carries.

"Of course I wanted to play, but Coach Sark and Coach Choice decided not to put me back in," Blue said. "But you know, it's okay, because Tre is one of my closest friends on the team, and I think he went in and played pretty well. I'm proud of how he played. So, you know, it's always good when the younger players can go in and we can still be able to run a ball."

Blue finished with six carries for 36 yards and a touchdown while adding one catch for 10 yards. Despite missing the UTSA game due to injury, he's still Texas' leading rusher through the first five weeks with 51 rushes for 239 yards and four scores. He's also 11 passes for 87 yards and two more touchdowns.

Sarkisian made it clear following the game that the team isn't giving up on Blue after one forgettable game.

“We'll work on it this week with him, Coach (Tashard) Choice, he is a great coach," Sarkisian said. "They've got great rapport. We'll get that figured out because we're going to need (Blue). We're going to need Blue throughout the season. So I don't want anybody think like we're giving up on Jaydon Blue, but in this game, sometimes you have to shift and you have to pivot and we're fortunate enough to have Tre Wisner healthy this week to step in. I thought he played a heck of a second half for us and gave us a really nice spark in the run game.”

No. 2 Texas has a bye week before taking on Oklahoma in Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on Saturday, Oct. 12.