Texas Football: 3 key injured Longhorns players heading into bye week

Ryan Watts, CB

A notable absence on the Texas defense was at boundary corner, with Watts being held out of Red River due to a reported (per Inside Texas) hamstring injury. Watts missed the second half of the Kansas game two weekends ago due to this lower-body injury.

And he was held out for the entire Red River Rivalry game against Oklahoma on Oct. 7.

IT reports that there’s a chance Watts returns to the Longhorns’ secondary by the Oct. 21 matchup on the road against Houston. But, it’s noteworthy that the staff reportedly “isn’t rushing” Watts back from this hamstring issue.

It is clutch that the Longhorns get the bye week to let Watts recover from the ailment he suffered in the win over Kansas on Sep. 30.

In Watts’ absence, Pete Kwiatkowski and the Longhorns split the starting reps at boundary corner between redshirt junior Gavin Holmes and true freshman Malik Muhammad. Holmes was targeted three times against Oklahoma, giving up three catches for 48 receiving yards.

Muhammad, meanwhile, was targeted twice against Oklahoma, resulting in two catches for 26 receiving yards.

If Watts does miss more time in late October for the Longhorns due to the reported hamstring injury, expect to see more of Muhammad and Holmes splitting reps at boundary corner in live-game action.

In his Monday press conference on Oct. 9, Sark said he and the staff will know more about Watts’ injury timeline by the end of this week.