{"id":22810,"date":"2025-06-28T21:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T21:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/22810\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T21:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T21:27:13","slug":"steve-sarkisian-provides-an-update-on-texas-rb-cj-baxter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/22810\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Sarkisian provides an update on Texas RB CJ Baxter"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an appearance on \u201cAlways College Football<\/a>\u201d with Greg McElroy on Thursday, Texas Longhorns<\/a> head coach Steve Sarkisian provided an update on redshirt sophomore running back CJ Baxter as he continues his recovery from the LCL and ACL tears that ended his 2025 season during preseason camp.<\/p>\n

According to a report from Inside Texas 10 days ago<\/a>, Baxter was cleared for football activities, marking the first time he\u2019d participated in drills since suffering the injury.<\/p>\n

But the Longhorns staff continues to take a risk-averse approach with the 6\u20191, 232-pounder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been methodical in our approach with him,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cHe\u2019s done everything we\u2019ve asked of him in his recovery. My thing with that is, I don\u2019t want to put him out there before he\u2019s really ready to play. He\u2019s given me no reason not to think that he\u2019s not going to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the caution is a result of lessons learned from former Texas players who pushed hard to return from ACL injuries only to re-tear the same ligaments, situations that created serious setbacks for Carolina Panthers<\/a> running back Jonathon Brooks and Dallas Cowboys<\/a> linebacker DeMarvion Overshown.<\/p>\n

The other aspect of the caution employed by Sarkisian is the quality depth in the position room assembled by recently-departed assistant Tashard Choice, now with the Detroit Lions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I\u2019m being a little more cautious than most, because I can be knowing that, hey, I\u2019ve got I\u2019ve got these three other guys in that room. I\u2019ve got a wild card in Ryan Niblett. I\u2019ve got a true freshman in James Simon. Like we have other players in that room,\u201d Sarkisian said.<\/p>\n

That includes 1,000-yard rusher Quinrevion Wisner, the junior who had a breakout season in 2025 after taking advantage of the opportunities provided by injuries at the position like the knee injury sustained by Baxter.<\/p>\n

So when Baxter does make his return, it will be at 100-percent health.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make sure, when CJ Baxter plays for us, he\u2019s ready to play. It could be Week One against Ohio State<\/a> that if he\u2019s ready, he\u2019s going to play. Could it be, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four? Could it be our SEC opener at Florida? I don\u2019t know,\u201d Sarkisian admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know we\u2019re a better team when Cedric Baxter\u2019s healthy and ready to go, but I\u2019m don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m in a place where, man, I need C4 against Ohio State or we\u2019re in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a position that Texas has always been in during recent years, but it is a direct result of how Sarkisian has tried to build depth across his program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of a luxury because I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m gonna have to force him back to play maybe when he\u2019s not quite ready to go. But he\u2019ll tell us when he\u2019s ready and when that time comes, it\u2019s going to be go time for him.,\u201d Sarkisian said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an appearance on \u201cAlways College Football\u201d with Greg McElroy on Thursday, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1637,20814,18762,20813,1318,204,1245,1317,1315,1316,5824,16494,20811,6651,20810,62,20809,358,20815,20816,67,132,20812,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-22810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-an","9":"tag-baxter","10":"tag-burnt","11":"tag-cj","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-front-page","14":"tag-nation","15":"tag-ncaa","16":"tag-ncaa-football","17":"tag-ncaafootball","18":"tag-on","19":"tag-orange","20":"tag-provides","21":"tag-rb","22":"tag-sarkisian","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-steve","25":"tag-texas","26":"tag-texas-longhorns-football","27":"tag-texas-longhorns-football-injuries","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-update","31":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}