Texas Football: 3 key injured Longhorns players heading into K-State game

Compared to the length of the injury report in the last few weeks, No. 7 Texas football comes out of the win over the BYU Cougars at home last weekend with a relatively clean bill of health. Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian are definitely in a much better spot injury-wise than they were coming out of the narrow escape of a win on the road two weeks ago against the Houston Cougars.

Texas dealt with injuries to nearly a dozen key players on the two-deep in the week between the wins over Houston and BYU.

Many players who suffered injuries in the last few weeks were active for the Longhorns against BYU. Over half of the Longhorns players on the injury report last week for the BYU game were able to go on Oct. 28.

Key injured Texas football players heading into the Kansas State game in Week 10

Texas needs as many of these critical players healthy as possible when it hosts a top-25-ranked Big 12 foe at home at DKR in Austin this weekend. The Longhorns host the No. 25 Kansas State Wildcats for the final time as Big 12 foes as both teams look to claim first place in the conference standings in the final month of the regular season.

Here are three key injured Longhorns players heading into the Kansas State game on Nov. 4.

Ethan Burke, EDGE

Sophomore edge rusher Ethan Burke suffered a knee injury a while back this season that he had played through until he re-injured it on a play against Houston two weeks ago. Horns247 reported last week (paid content) that Burke originally suffered the knee injury in Texas’ Week 3 win at home over the Wyoming Cowboys.

In his Monday press conference on Oct. 30, Sark said that Burke is “week-to-week” with the knee injury that he suffered in the win over Houston on Oct. 21. This is the same status that Burke had with the injury in Sark’s Thursday press conference last week.

With Burke out in Week 9, Texas turned to senior outside linebacker/hybrid edge rusher Jett Bush to get the start in a stand-up role off the edge. Redshirt freshman edge rusher J’Mond Tapp and sophomore edge rusher Justice Finkley also got more reps in the win over BYU with Burke out.

Expect to see more hybrid edge rusher snaps for Bush and true freshman linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., along with heightened reps for Finkley and Tapp until Burke returns from injury later this season.