Steve Sarkisian updates Texas injuries ahead of Big 12 Championship
After wrapping up the regular season with a big win against Texas Tech, the Texas Longhorns are turning their attention to Oklahoma State and the Big 12 Championship Game. Ahead of that game, head coach Steve Sarkisian is hoping to get the team as healthy as possible.
For now, though, there are still multiple key players who are questionable for the game.
“Just a little bit of an injury update,” Steve Sarkisian said. “[Ryan] Watts and Austin Jordan will be questionable here for Saturday.”
Watts and Jordan are both defensive backs. Watts has been a key piece of the secondary for the Longhorns. If he can’t go, then his experience will especially be missed on the back end. Meanwhile, Jordan brings more youth to the position but has still proven to be important for the Texas defense.
Luckily, for Texas, Sarkisian had a more positive update on wide receiver Xavier Worthy and backup quarterback Maalik Murphy.
“Xavier will be good to go and Maalik Murphy practiced today as well,” Sarkisian said. “So, feel good about those two guys.”
Maalik Murphy was a surprise injury. He was standing on the sidelines and got hit, injuring his shoulder according to Steve Sarkisian.
“It’s unfortunate, on Keilan’s kick return, Maalik got caught watching the game and got hit on the sidelines,” Sarkisian said. “So we had to take him in, and we’ve got to see just kind of how injured. He kind of hurt his non-throwing shoulder, so hopefully we can get him back and get him healthy. Just an unfortunate situation that way.”
Steve Sarkisian evaluates Arch Manning’s college debut
In the regular season finale, Arch Manning finally made his college debut for Texas in mop-up duty. After the game, Steve Sarkisian broke down what he saw from Manning.
“Backups are always kind of the fan favorite, but when Arch went in the crowd was buzzing. We had to try to quiet the crowd. Probably there are some butterflies and some anxiousness first time playing early on,” Sarkisian said.
“But one thing I was impressed with was in that last 90-yard drive with our 2s. What a drive for those guys. Super proud for them. Two good third-down conversions in there, the conversion to Johntay [Cook], the conversion to Casey Cain. In the previous drive, he used his legs really well. Things for him to build upon moving forward but happy he was able to get in.”