The Longhorns are close to full health heading into preseason camp.
In an interview with Craig Way at SEC Media Days, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian provided an update on the team’s injury situation with two weeks until preseason camp starts in preparation for the season opener against the Ohio State Buckeyes on Aug. 30.
“The one guy who I think is probably going to be the most limited at the start of camp will be Smith Orogbo, which we knew when we signed him a year ago, and so hopefully we can get him back going kind of in the middle of camp,” Sarkisian said.
A 6’4, 222-pounder, Orogbo is an early enrollee EDGE from Alief Hastings who was ranked as the No. 104 player nationally and the No. 11 EDGE in the 2025 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Orogbo suffered the injury early in his senior season, but has put on 14 pounds since the team’s spring roster update.
“Everybody else is going to be practicing camp. Some guys may be a little more limited than others,” Sarkisian said.
One of those players is junior running back CJ Baxter — the medical staff is taking a cautious approach with the nation’s No. 1 running back in the 2023 recruiting class after he tore his ACL and PCL in preseason camp last year.
“Hey, I would love Cedric Baxter to go out the first day and be ripping and running, all those things, but we’ve got to be smart,” Sarkisian said. “This is a long journey. This is a long season that we’re about to embark on, and I want to make sure that he can continue to grow and get better and better and better and become the best player that he can be in the second half of this season. So we’re going to be mindful of that in training camp.”
Junior safety Derek Williams is also recovering from a knee injury he sustained in the blowout win over Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.
“There’s a few other guys that are maybe not quite that extreme — Derek Williams seems great. It’s great to have him back in the secondary,” Sarkisian said.
Super senior safety Michael Taaffe is impressed by how quickly Williams recovered.
“Crazy how you hurt your knee — I don’t know what OU was, Week Six or Seven — and you can be running full speed by June. I think even before that, he was running full speed in the winter. So crazy talent on him, and crazy perseverance and just putting your head down and doing the work. He’s doing really good,” Taaffe said during the media scrum.
Now the challenge is to maintain a high level of health through preseason camp in preparation for a season that is once again expected to last into January.
“We feel good about it health wise, but see me at the end of the first week of training camp and hopefully I don’t have to say what I said last year where we were looking for a running back in the portal after five practices,” Sarkisian said.