Deep, talented Texas RB room seeks elite status

Tashard Choice left Chat Scott a group that has plenty of talent, but does it have the type of game-breaking talent it’s had in previous years?

In Texas Longhorns lore, the sideline picture of Keilan Robinson, Roschon Johnson, Jonathan Brooks, Jaydon Blue, and Bijan Robinson taken by superfan Rocky Osborn has taken on a well-deserved iconic stature as each player was selected in the last three NFL Drafts.

Those five running backs selected are the most of any school in the country over that span.

But although former running backs coach Tashard Choice left a talented room on the Forty Acres when he departed in mid-February to coach for the Detroit Lions, it’s a group that doesn’t have a transcendent talent like Robinson, a hard-nosed leader with the physical running style of Johnson, a back with the high-level fluidity of Brooks, or a player with Blue’s elite game-breaking speed.

Those characterizations aren’t meant to take away from the talent of junior Quintrevion Wisner, now a team leader and proven commodity after a breakout season, the buzz surrounding redshirt sophomore CJ Baxter in his return from injury, or the promise of players like sophomore Jerrick Gibson and early enrollee James Simon. A year and a half ago, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was comparing 2024 signee Christian Clark to Robinson, his fellow Arizona product, a truly lofty comparison.

It’s just fair to wonder about the upside of this group after seeing so much talent impact the Forty Acres in recent years.

The conversation starts with Wisner, a projected core special teams contributor in 2024 who was thrust into the spotlight when injuries decimated the running back position during preseason camp and non-conference play.

Once considered a questionable take by Choice after a transfer to DeSoto and a position change to wide receiver to help the team, Wisner took advantage of his opportunity, narrowly extending Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian’s streak of 1,000-yard rushers with the benefit of the longest season in school history.

In addition to carrying the ball 226 times for 1,064 yards and five touchdowns, Wisner added 44 receptions for 311 yards and one touchdown through the air.

After that unexpected breakout season, Wisner is the SEC’s only returning 1,000-yard rusher and a preseason first-team All-SEC pick.

“The thing with Tre, man, he’s just tough, he’s mature, and he has the respect of everybody on this team,” Blue said at the Texas Pro Day in the March.

During spring practice, Wisner continued to build on his breakout season.

“Tre Wisner has had a great spring. He is the real energizer bunny on offense. He provides the spark, the juice, the energy, but yet he’s making really competitive, tough plays. He looks really good. He’s playing physical,” Sarkisian said in early April.

Wisner is considered one of the toughest players on the team, manifesting with his power as a runner despite playing at a listed weight of 200 pounds last year. Against Texas A&M, Wisner delivered an iconic performance that set the tone for the edge Texas played with that day, gaining a career-high 186 rushing yards with eight broken tackles and 147 of those yards coming after contact (79 percent).

But after breaking 17 tackles in gaining 241 yards after contact in wins over Kentucky and Texas A&M, Wisner struggled to match the promise of those efforts down the stretch. Wisner was able to go over 100 yards in the win over Clemson as the Tigers struggled to defend the run, but gained only 142 yards on 60 carries in games against Georgia, Arizona State, and Ohio State, making him an avatar for the boom-and-bust nature of the Texas running game.

So one of the glaring offseason questions facing the Longhorns is whether an offensive line that replaces four starters can open more consistent holes against elite defenses — or any holes at all — and whether running backs like Wisner can more consistently pick up yards after contact when the line struggles.

The greatest hope in that regard lies in the rehabilitation efforts of redshirt sophomore running back CJ Baxter, who missed the 2024 season after tearing his ACL in preseason camp. Taking notice of the recurring ACL tears suffered by former Texas players like running back Jonathon Brooks and linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, the staff has taken a cautious approach with Baxter, who has a high center of gravity at a leggy 6’1, waiting until the third week of summer conditioning to fully clear him.

“I think CJ has come along,” Sarkisian said at SEC Media Days. “We had a nice visit here about two weeks ago of where he was at. There’s always going to be days when you’re coming off of a significant injury like his where he feels great and looks great, and there’s other days where maybe he’s a little bit frustrated because he’s not quite where he wants to be yet, and that’s okay.”

The Texas head coach has tried to publicly reduce expectations for Baxter early in the season.

“Right now, he’s doing everything we’re asking of him. Training camp, that’s the next phase when we get to that,” Sarkisian said.

When Baxter’s recovery timetable does allow him to make a full return during the 2025 season, his 10-pound weight gain to 230 pounds makes him the anomaly in new position coach Chad Scott’s room.

To improve in short-yardage situations, especially at the goal line, but also in the red zone in general, Texas may need Baxter to emerge as a tough inside runner who can move piles — Gibson possesses that mentality, but he’s about 25 pounds lighter than Baxter.

The inability to pick up that hard yardage was a fatal flaw for the 2024 Longhorns on the season’s most decisive plays when Sarkisian called a jumbo package run for Gibson on 1st and goal from the Ohio State 1-yard line down by seven points with less than seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

When Gibson was stuffed for no gain, Sarkisian went away from the jumbo package, trying to run sideways on a pitch play instead that lost seven yards, effectively ending the comeback hopes that were fully dashed when quarterback Quinn Ewers was sacked on consecutive plays, fumbling on a fourth-down dropback that was returned for the game-sealing touchdown.

The sequence was emblematic of the continued short-yardage and red-zone struggles for the Horns as Texas converted third-and-short opportunities on the ground at a rate of 62.1 percent in 2024 and averaged only 1.8 yards per carry in the red zone, contributing to a touchdown rate 63.8 percent that ranked 54th nationally.

Baxter still has plenty to prove in short yardage himself after going 5-for-9 in converting third and short in 2023 (55.6 percent), but he did average 4.4 yards per carry and scored four touchdowns in the red zone.

While Texas has approached Baxter’s rehabilitation cautiously, the surprising development was the quick return of redshirt freshman Christian Clark from the torn Achilles he suffered in preseason camp.

“He’s come back in attack mode. He’s not playing timid,” Wisner said during the spring in naming a player in his room who has impressed him.

Sarkisian took the praise a step further in Atlanta.

“I’m fired up about Christian Clark, how far he’s come back,” Sarkisian said.

Clark’s strong lower body and pass-catching ability could help him factor into the rotation this season, especially when the frontline players inevitably get banged up going through the grind of SEC play.

By the end of the season, redshirt sophomore quarterback Arch Manning believes that Clark will be a player that no one talked about enough heading into that campaign.

Gibson earned the nickname “Baby Rhino” because of the youthful energy inherent in his downhill running style, employing a level of physicality belied by his listed weight of 205 pounds.

“I’ll be honest with you — I’m fired up about Jerrick Gibson, what he did as a true freshman for us last year,” Sarkisian said.

As a freshman, Gibson finished the season with 78 carries for 377 yards and four touchdowns as 210 of those rushing yards came during non-conference play when Blue and Wisner were beat up and another 100 came in extended garbage time against Florida.

But Gibson also had some ball-security issues, fumbling three times as a freshman for a fumbling grade of 33.8 by PFF, and wasn’t especially polished as a pass catcher with three receptions for 28 yards, two areas for improvement as Gibson heads into his second season on the Forty Acres.

Of the two 2025 signees, Shreveport (La.) Calvary Baptist Academy’s James Simon arrived more highly rated than Tyler Chapel Hill’s Rickey Stewart Jr., ranked as the No. 13 running back nationally. Simon also drew more buzz during the spring, quickly impressing Wisner despite his youth.

“He’s very smooth. I just like the way he uses his eyes. His feet are nice. He moves have to move really quickly in tight spaces and that’s something you have to have as a running back at the University of Texas,” Wisner said in April.

For Sarkisian, Simon’s natural feel stood out — his body lean, balance, and body control, in addition to his hands out of the backfield.

Stewart took longer to flash during the spring.

“Rickey maybe was a little behind early, but the moment we put the pads on and you start to see him run, you see the burst, you see the acceleration,” Sarkisian said.

The questions still remain about the group’s ultimately upside as the Texas head coach repeatedly used the word “solid” to describe the running back room throughout the spring and summer.

“That room is solid for us. We feel good about the room. We’re probably gonna need all those guys — and James Simon and Ricky Stewart, too — just knowing the grind of what this league is about, not to mention the non-conference schedule, then you start looking at the playoffs and things of that nature, we’re gonna need all those guys. And so I love the trajectory of Cedric, but I also like the depth of that room and the quality of the depth,” Sarkisian said.