Texas Football: B.J. Foster quits the team during UTEP game

It appears that the Texas football program could now be without junior safety and former five-star recruit B.J. Foster this season.

Some of the most bizarre news that came out of the Texas football program in a good while leaked out from the team on the morning of Sep. 13. On the morning after the season opening win for Texas over the UTEP Miners at home on the night of Sep. 12, Anwar Richardson of Orange Bloods reported on his Twitter timeline that junior defensive back/safety B.J. Foster quit the team.

Foster apparently quit the team in the third quarter of the dominant 56-point dismantling of the Miners in the season opener. He sounds like he wasn’t happy with the lack of playing time that he received this weekend.

In this matchup against the Miners, head coach Tom Herman and the Longhorns did have Foster listed as one of the second string safeties behind redshirt senior Chris Brown, which could be a clue as to the bone he’s picking. Foster was only on the field for eight snaps in the win over UTEP, and didn’t register any actual stats.

In the post on Richardson’s Twitter timeline, he mentioned that ‘it remains unclear if Foster will have an opportunity to play for Texas again even if he has second thoughts”. That makes sense since quitting in the middle of a game is something very different than if he had the same thoughts during the offseason.

What Texas will be missing with B.J. Foster quitting the team

Foster was a key piece of the Longhorns secondary over the course of the last two seasons. He registered 81 career total tackles, 14.0 tackles for loss, five sacks, two interceptions, six pass deflections, and two forced fumbles, in his two years on the Forty Acres. He was anticipated to be one of the key contributors for this revitalized Texas defensive backfield this fall.

This will put more pressure on the likes of Brown, sophomore safety Tyler Owens, and redshirt junior Montrell Estell.

Not only was Foster one of the biggest contributors among Texas defensive backs over the last two seasons, he is one of the most highly touted defensive recruits in recent memory. Foster is a former five-star recruit that signed with the Longhorns 2018 class, along with fellow five-star safety prospect Caden Sterns.

There is no news as of yet if Foster is to put his name in the NCAA Transfer Portal this year, or what will happen from here on out. We’ll continue to monitor this ongoing storyline.

Texas now holds a record of 1-0 after beating UTEP in the season opener. Next up for the Longhorns is a Sep. 16 battle on the road in Lubbock in the Big 12 opener against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.