Five days until Texas Football: Adonai Mitchell, newcomer of the year?; Malik Muhammad offers unexpected physicality
Inside Texas is putting a new twist on long-time photographer Will Gallagher’s time-honored countdown to Texas football kickoff. In addition to Will’s great pictures, the Inside Texas staff will go through every player on the roster by jersey number and offer a season outlook on each, from five-star to walk-on.
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We’ll also look back at other greats to wear that day’s number, with special reverence to some of Texas’ best.
Today is five days until kickoff. No. 5 for the Longhorns this season will be worn by Adonai Mitchell, a junior wide receiver, and Malik Muhammad, a freshman defensive back.
Adonai Mitchell season outlook
Last year in the Texas passing game, Xavier Worthy needed help.
Worthy needed help to take attention off of him, but he also needed help to provide Quinn Ewers with easier pitch-and-catch opportunities instead of consistent deep passes that fell incomplete.
Enter Adonai Mitchell. Mitchell, originally from “Mo City, Texas,” moved back to the Lone Star State from Georgia to be closer to his family, specifically his daughter. Mitchell wasn’t a replacement player for the back-to-back champion Bulldogs. Mitchell caught touchdown passes in all four of UGA’s recent College Football Playoff appearances, including the pivotal score versus Ohio State in the most recent semifinal.
Mitchell has been everything the coaches expected him to be and more, and could be one of the best offensive players in the conference thanks to the talent around him and Ewers’ improvement. Health will be paramount for Mitchell — it’s been what has held him back most in his career.
Should he stay healthy, and the Texas staff made sure to do everything they could to maintain his health, Mitchell is primed to have a massive year and join Worthy in the national consciousness when college football fans think about the receiver position. He’s already a frontrunner for Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.
Mitchell has earned a spot in the Longhorns’ starting lineup after transferring from Georgia, where he played in 21 games with 15 starts during his career. He registered 38 catches for 560 yards (14.7 ypc) and seven touchdowns over the past two seasons in helping the Bulldogs win back-to-back National Championships. In 2022, he missed nine games due to injury, but played in six with three starts and recorded nine receptions for 134 yards (14.9 ypc) and three touchdowns.
Adonai Mitchell as a recruit
Malik Muhammad season outlook
Nick Saban wanted Malik Muhammad, but Texas won out for the state champion defensive back.
Muhammad was originally cast as a cover cornerback who would play mostly on the wide side of the field. However, something that has caught Steve Sarkisian and other coaches by surprise over the course of Muhammad’s time at Texas is the physical nature of his game. That’s allowed Texas to try him out on the boundary behind Ryan Watts in a position where run-stuffing ability is of near-equal importance to coverage.
Watts has the top spot locked down, but like at field corner, there’s enough talent specifically with Muhammad to where he’ll play this year for reasons of ability, not out of necessity.
Malik Muhammed as a recruit
Recent player to wear No. 5: Bijan Robinson
We don’t have to go very far back to get to Robinson, but maybe you’ve forgotten some of the stats he racked up in his three years on the 40 Acres.
Robinson played in 31 games and made 28 starts and won the 2022 Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back. He ranks fourth all-time in Longhorn history with 3,410 rushing yards and 41 total touchdowns (33 rushing, eight receiving) and was a unanimous All-American in 2022, the fourth UT running back to earn the honor, joining James Saxton (1961), Earl Campbell (1977) and Ricky Williams (1997, 1998).
Robinson finished ninth in Heisman Trophy voting in 2022, He had 18 career 100-yard rushing games, including a streak of seven-straight games that is the third-longest in program history. His 33 career rushing touchdowns are the third-most in Texas history and he ranks fourth all-time in UT history in tandem yards (4,215), eighth in all-purpose yards (4,231) and ninth in points scored (246).
Robinson also had 805 career receiving yards, the third-most all-time for a Texas running back and his eight career receiving touchdowns are the most-ever for a Texas running back.
All-Americans to wear No. 5
Bijan Robinson, RB, 2022
Joe Cook co-authored this article.
