Texas Football: Jaylon Guilbeau could miss spring camp due to injury

Texas football is a few weeks away from the start of spring ball, and we’re starting to get wind of which players could be absent due to injury issues. Head coach Steve Sarkisian isn’t set to have that many new injury issues on his team that wasn’t expected heading into spring ball, at least that we know of.

But one of the injury issues that is a bit surprising heading into spring ball is unfortunately with rising sophomore defensive back/nickel Jaylon Guilbeau. After missing the stretch run of his true freshman campaign due to injury, it looks like Guilbeau could be limited or out for spring ball for the Longhorns.

A report from On Texas Football/Inside Texas on the morning of Feb. 13 mentioned Guilbeau among the potential spring absences for Sark and the Longhorns due to injury. The specific nature of the injury isn’t well noted.

We cited a report from Eric Nahlin of Inside Texas (paid content) almost one week ago that talked about the possibility of Guilbeau being limited for, or missing spring ball entirely. This IT report did mention hearing about the possibility of a knee injury for Guilbeau. But I can’t say with much certainty that is the confirmed nature of Guilbeau’s injury at this point. We will continue to dig for the specifics of Guilbeau’s injury.

Some of the other Longhorns players included in the mix of those that could miss spring ball due to injury issues are rising sophomore center Connor Robertson, sophomore interior offensive lineman Cole Hutson, and redshirt junior wide receiver Isaiah Neyor.

Second-year Texas football DB/NB Jaylon Guilbeau’s status uncertain for spring ball

The biggest reason why this is pretty surprising to hear about Guilbeau still dealing with injury issues is how long this has gone on for. Guilbeau missed each game for the Longhorns after Week 8 against the Oklahoma State Cowboys last fall due to injury.

At the time, in early November, Sark had stated in a press conference that Guilbeau was likely to only “will probably be out a couple more weeks”. That would’ve pegged him for a mid-to-late November return.

"“He’s getting better, that’s for sure. Sooner rather than later. You know, as a true freshman, he was an impactful player for us. So, hopefully, sooner rather than later.”"

Guilbeau’s injury timeline clearly was longer than the “couple of weeks” that Sark talked about in that Nov. 7 press conference.

In terms of the specific timeline to watch for a potential return to full workouts for Guilbeau this offseason, we don’t have much at the moment. As I previously mentioned, we will be watching for any concrete updates regarding Guilbeau’s status as we head into spring drills.

Guilbeau was an early contributor to Texas’ secondary in the first half of his true freshman campaign last year. He took more than 200 defensive snaps in the first eight games of last season, where he registered 19 combined tackles, one tackle for loss, six quarterback pressures, no sacks, eight stops, and two pass breakups.

When healthy, Guilbeau had a solidified spot on the two-deep at star/nickel behind junior defensive back Jahdae Barron. There was even a point early last season when Guilbeau was getting more starting reps at nickel than Barron.

The NCAA advises that football programs get 15 practices, a dozen of which can involve full contact drills, for spring ball. That likely pegs the start of spring camp for Texas around the week of March 6 given that the annual Orange-White spring football game is set for April 15 at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.