Texas Football: 3 players that would be best off without Tom Herman

3) Texas football players worst off under Herman: Roschon Johnson

Texas was supposed to get a major boost out of the ground game this fall given that they have about the most stacked talent in the backfield since Herman took over as head coach on the Forty Acres entering the 2017 season. Adding the likes of the nation’s top ranked 2020 running back prospect, Salpointe Catholic product Bijan Robinson, to a backfield that already included junior Keaontay Ingram, sophomore Roschon Johnson, and senior star quarterback Sam Ehlinger, looked to be really potent.

But the Longhorns haven’t given enough work to Robinson, Ingram ran into fumble problems and just hasn’t looked all that spry, and Johnson also ran into a few injury problems and poor play schemes. Johnson has dealt with an AC shoulder sprain that keeps getting re-aggravated for most of the regular season so far.

It looks like Johnson should be ready to go for the Longhorns Oct. 24 home contest, if it holds against the Baylor Bears. But he might be limited in practice up until that point.

There was a lot to be excited about for what Johnson brought to the table for this offense in 2020. It looked to be a potential breakout year for him. But so far he’s registered just shy of 150 total yards from scrimmage (142 of which are rushing) and three total touchdowns. If not for a nice bit of efficiency in the loss to TCU, Johnson would be facing a season where’s he’s averaging less than four yards per carry.

Johnson should be getting more work out of the backfield, as should Robinson. He’s the highest graded rusher this fall for the Longhorns at the running back position (second best overall outside of Ehlinger). But he ranks third in snaps among the Texas rushers. He needs to get a bigger workload if this injury recovery will allow him to do so.