No. 4 Texas suffered its second season-ending injury at running back Monday when true freshman Christian Clark tore an Achilles tendon in practice, the school announced Tuesday.
Texas said Clark will have surgery and will miss the remainder of the year, six days after announcing CJ Baxter, last year’s opening-game starter, will undergo season-ending knee surgery.
The losses leave the Longhorns with three scholarship running backs.
Jaydon Blue, who has appeared in 23 games at Texas, rushing for 431 yards with three touchdowns, is expected to shoulder the load this season. He had four catches for 45 yards in the Longhorns’ College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Washington, in which he also returned three kickoffs for 80 yards.
Behind Blue, the Longhorns have sophomore Quintrevion Wisner, who played in all 14 games last season on special teams, and freshman Jerrick Gibson, who was ranked as the No. 2 running back and the No. 59 prospect in the 2024 ESPN 300.
Clark, a four-star recruit from Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix, signed with Texas in December.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian told reporters Monday that Clark and Gibson, despite both fumbling in Saturday’s scrimmage in what he described as a “welcome to college football moment,” were coming along and were “further down the road than some may think.”
“It definitely hurts to see that go down,” Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers said of the injuries in a post-practice video session with reporters Tuesday night. “Injuries do happen. It’s just a part of the game we play. I think [running backs coach Tashard] Choice and Coach Sark do a good job of recruiting good running backs that can ultimately fill in the position if needed. … I think we have guys that are going to be more than capable of stepping in and filling up those roles.”
Ewers rushed for five touchdowns last season and gained confidence in his running ability, including 29- and 30-yard touchdown runs against Baylor and Kansas, with Sarkisian saying after the Kansas game that Ewers discovered, “Man, maybe I’m a little faster than I thought.”
Ewers said Tuesday that if more running responsibility falls on him, he’s happy to do it.
“Ultimately, I’m just trying to do whatever I can to help this team win football games,” Ewers said. “So if that means I need to run more, so be it.”
