Bijan Robinson returning to Texas is a saving grace

Texas Football for some big news on Nov. 22 with the announcement that star sophomore running back Bijan Robinson will return for the 2022 season. Texas couldn’t get any single player back that is clearly as impactful as Bijan. Getting Bijan back for the 2022 campaign is clearly a building block for new head coach Steve Sarkisian to work with heading into next offseason.

Sark and the Longhorns definitely need all the help they can get coming back in 2022. Now, part of the Longhorns getting all the help they can get is finding the right players on each side of the ball so that Sark and his staff can instill the culture and schemes they want moving forward.

The NCAA Transfer Portal is still going to play a big role in the 2022 offseason for the Longhorns. That is going to be one of the biggest overarching storylines heading into next offseason. Yet, getting players like Bijan back can also play a critical role in the Longhorns’ success in 2022.

Texas football getting a true stud back in 2022 in superstar RB Bijan Robinson

Texas is going to have a loaded backfield once again coming into the 2022 campaign. If everyone else does stick around, there are going to be a whopping six former blue-chip recruits in this running back room next year.

Some of the other potential names to note here include junior running back Roschon Johnson, redshirt sophomore Keilan Robinson, freshman Jonathon Brooks, and incoming freshmen four-star commits Jamarion Miller and Jaydon Blue.

Moreover, it’s hard to imagine that Sark and the Longhorns would ever turn away a player like Bijan which means the team is getting back one of the best players in the entire country. Bijan is going to give the Longhorns an immediate Heisman contender, as he looked like a surefire finalist throughout much of the first half of this season.

Prior to a season-ending injury that he suffered in the embarrassing overtime loss to the Kansas Jayhawks back on Nov. 13, Bijan managed a 1,000-rushing yard season for Texas. In total this fall, he registered 1,127 rushing yards on 195 carries (nearly six yards per carry), 11 rushing touchdowns, and 295 receiving yards with four touchdown catches.

If the Texas offense has any sort of pace and balance to it next season, it’s hard to imagine how good Bijan could be. Once teams figured out that they could stack the box and force Texas to beat them through the air, life became more challenging for Bijan to match the production he had in the first five or six games of the season.

Nonetheless, Bijan still owns one of the five-best rushing grades in the FBS this season. He also ranks among the top 25 skill position players in the country in overall offensive grade.

More specifically, Bijan led the country in missed tackles forced among running backs. He also ranked in the top 10 in the FBS among running backs in yards after the catch (275), yards after initial contact (770), and first downs gained per game (6.5).

Bijan is someone that can run between the tackles effectively, make would-be tacklers miss in the open field, and create something out of nothing when he gets the ball in the receiving game. He does need to cut down on the drops and fumbles, which were a problem in the latter portion of the season. But we can’t forget that he dealt with an upper-body injury throughout much of the last three games he played in.

And Bijan was just a sophomore really playing in his first full season as the marquee running back for the Longhorns.

It looks like the 2022 season could be a really special one for Bijan, as long as he’s able to stay healthy. And if Texas can find more balance to the offense under Sark next fall, the sky is truly the limit for Bijan’s production and efficiency.