Texas Football: 4 overreactions from presiding Alamo Bowl win over CU

Overreactions from Texas football’s win over Colorado

Bijan Robinson deserves a much bigger workload than Roschon Johnson in 2021

One of the biggest question marks for Herman and his coaching staff following the Alamo Bowl win over the Buffs on Dec. 29 was why he didn’t give a larger workload down the stretch to the star freshman running back Bijan Robinson. Both Robinson and sophomore running back Roschon Johnson got the same amount of rushing attempts in this game, with 10 each way.

Johnson still had a decently productive day for the Longhorns both in the ground game, and especially as a blocker. He registered 32 rushing yards on 10 carries (just 3.2 yards per carry), with one rushing touchdown. Johnson also didn’t have any fumbles or drops on the day, which is big given past trends this season for Texas running backs.

The production of Johnson in this game will see him round out the season with just over 400 rushing yards (around five yards per carry), six rushing touchdowns, and just over 50 receiving yards, with one touchdown catch. He was still a solid and reliable running back for this Texas offense in 2020.

But the production and overall efficiency of Johnson didn’t even come close to touching what Robinson did down the stretch this season. In the last two games of the season, Robinson registered a whopping 355 rushing yards (nearly 19 yards per carry), six total touchdowns, and 88 receiving yards.

In this game alone, Robinson registered 183 rushing yards on 10 carries (18.3 yards per carry), one rushing touchdown, two catches for 37 receiving yards, and two touchdown catches.

Heading into next season, Robinson looks like he should be the set in stone starter over the likes of Johnson and maybe even to-be senior Keaontay Ingram.