Texas Football: Roschon Johnson should start over Keaontay Ingram

Texas football is set to take on the Baylor Bears this weekend on Oct. 24, and there’s not many changes to the depth chart heading out of the bye.

The latest depth chart for Texas football and fourth-year head coach Tom Herman was released this week after of their Oct. 24 matchup at home against head coach Dave Aranda and the Baylor Bears. Texas heads into this game with a record of 2-2 (1-2 Big 12) coming off their devastating loss in the annual Red River Rivalry game at the hands of head coach Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners, by the final score of 53-45 in four overtimes.

With Herman and the Longhorns heading into this game on a two-game skid, they need a win more so than ever. And it’s not coming easy to them of late. None of their three games in Big 12 play so far had a clear decided victor until very late in the fourth quarter, or in overtime. A lot of that is due to the fact that Herman’s squad just has trouble staying disciplined and can’t put teams away when given the opportunity in the second and third quarters.

It would be nice to see more changes coming out of this week’s depth chart, but that was not the case. Outside of the injured redshirt freshman slot wide receiver Jordan Whittington missing from the depth chart since he’s out anyway, there weren’t really any changes coming out of the bye week for the Baylor game.

Now, it is good that the Longhorns are healthier coming out of the bye week. That type of consistency on the depth chart is always good, and somewhat rare for Herman’s Longhorns in the midst of a Big 12 schedule. But where it would be nice to see change is with the running backs.

Texas just isn’t getting the usual reliable production from junior running back Keaontay Ingram so far this season. Instead, Ingram has two of his three career fumbles in each of his last two games. And he’s down to below 5.5 yards per carry this season after the Red River loss to Oklahoma.

Moreover, two of the lowest rushing grades of Ingram’s career so far in any individual game came in the losses to Oklahoma and the TCU Horned Frogs. Instead of giving Ingram so much work, the offense should be handing it off to sophomore Roschon Johnson and true freshman Bijan Robinson more often.

In this weekend’s matchup with Baylor, Roschon is set to backup Keaontay, and Bijan is listed as the third stringer. But it would be really nice to see the underclassmen getting the bulk of the carries in this outing against Baylor, especially on the earlier drives of the game.

Through bits and pieces of four games played this season, Johnson registered just shy of 150 total yards from scrimmage and three total touchdowns (two rushing and one receiving). He’s also got the best run and pass blocking grade of any running back on the roster right now.

Texas and Baylor are set to kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT at home at DKR on Oct. 24. The Longhorns are the 8.5-point favorites on the betting line as of the afternoon of Oct. 21, and the over/under is set at 61 points.