Texas Football: Jordan Whittington requires surgery for meniscus tear

Redshirt freshman Texas football speedy slot wide receiver Jordan Whittington is going to miss possibly just shy of a month with a knee injury.

Bad news on the injury front for the Texas football program out of Week 1, redshirt freshman wide receiver and former converted running back Jordan Whittington underwent a meniscus tear in the season opener and looks to need surgery. Whittington played an impactful role in the first half or so in Texas’ season opening win over the UTEP Miners at home on the night of Sep. 12.

Texas beat UTEP (out of Conference-USA) by the final score of 59-3 at home last weekend.

It was already known that Whittington was dealing with a knee injury following the first half of the season opening win over UTEP last weekend. He came up from a play limping at the end of the first half, and didn’t return after that point.

Whittington got the start in the win over UTEP for the Longhorns thanks to a hamstring injury that sophomore wide receiver Jake Smith experienced in one-on-one drills in a practice the week leading up to the game. It looks like Smith should be back by the Big 12 opener in roughly two weeks, though.

The report that Whittington is has a meniscus tear from the season opener came from Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman on the afternoon of Sep. 14. More specifically, he is dealing with a “small tear in his lateral meniscus”. He will apparently miss three or four weeks with this injury after getting surgery to repair the small tear.

The report from Davis on Monday afternoon also stated that redshirt junior cornerback Josh Thompson got “too many stitches to count” after getting a laceration in his ear in the season opener.

After the opener, the injury report started piling up decently fast. Whittington will at least miss the first game or two of the Big 12 slate for the Longhorns this fall, even though Smith should be back in the mix.

What Texas football will miss with Whittington out

The depth at slot receiver is already starting to thin out a bit. While Whittington had a good first half with three touches for 60 total yards from scrimmage and no touchdowns, he is about to miss even more time due to a nagging injury. Whittington missed almost all of his true freshman campaign last season due to a sports hernia injury.

There was also a lower-body injury that limited Whittington throughout a little bit of fall practice leading up to the season opener.

The former five-star recruit Whittington is someone that Longhorns fans, and likely the coaching staff, have to be chomping at the bit to see stay healthy and productive over an extended period of time. His explosiveness and raw speed were put on display in the first half when he was getting snaps against the Miners.

Texas will have to rely more heavily on Smith and redshirt sophomore wideout Joshua Moore again. The good news there is that Moore was really good in his return to the Longhorns last weekend. He registered 130 receiving yards and one touchdown in the win.

Former walk-on and 6-foot and 185 pound sophomore wideout Kai Money got more reps out of the slot when both Whittington and Smith were out with injury in the second half against UTEP. He was a big hit for this offense, as he registered four catches for 26 yards and his first career touchdown catch in the final 30 minutes.

Next up for the Longhorns is a bye week and then the Big 12 opener on the road against the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Sep. 26. This weekend, there are two non-conference games planned in the Big 12 that were pushed back from Sep. 12. The Oklahoma State Cowboys take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on Sep. 19, and the Baylor Bears scheduled the Houston Cougars on the same day to take the place of the originally-slated season opener against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.