Texas Football: 5 players who should get more playing time after bye week

Since sophomore running back Daniel Young seemed to fade off the face of the Forty Acres a few weeks ago, the ground game fell between three players. Sam Ehlinger leads the Horns in rushing touchdowns this season by a good margin. That’s followed by the two other leading running backs for Texas football in true freshman Keaontay Ingram and senior Tre Watson.

The last rushing attempts that Young had this season came in the 19-14 win over the Kansas State Wildcats in Week 5. Young took two rushing attempts for -3 yards in that game. Since then, Young did not get the ball once in the wins over Oklahoma and Baylor. Herman turned his focus solely to that of Watson and Ingram.

Now, the argument here isn’t being made to try and make Young the set starter for the Horns in the backfield. However, Texas does need a buffer if anything were to happen to Ingram or Watson at some point for the rest of the season. And, Texas is going to need another running back step up next season once Waton’s eligibility runs out.

Young is likely the best candidate to be a key figure in this running back stable moving forward of all the options on the roster now outside of Ingram. If he can find the groove he had closer to the end of the 2017 campaign, he will provide a lot of value to the depth at this position. Since Texas is so thin here next year, someone needs to emerge.