Texas Football: 5 key injured Longhorns players heading into Texas Tech

In the last few weeks, Texas football maintained a pretty clean bill of health through a critical stretch of Big 12 play. After a stretch in the middle of Big 12 play that saw Texas lose nearly a dozen key players on the two-deep due to injuries, the injury report was much shorter in the last two weeks.

Texas got some key starters back in the last few weeks, namely redshirt sophomore quarterback Quinn Ewers. But senior safety Jalen Catalon, senior offensive tackle Christian Jones, and sophomore interior offensive lineman Cole Hutson all returned to the lineup in the last few weeks after missing at least one game each due to various injury issues.

Key injury updates for No. 7 Texas football in Week 13 vs. Texas Tech

But head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns also suffered some key injuries in last week’s win over the Iowa State Cyclones on the road in Ames that we’ve been monitoring early this week.

Here are five injury updates for key Longhorns players heading into the Week 13 matchup and regular season finale at home against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

DJ Campbell, IOL

One of the key starters on offense for the Longhorns, who suffered an injury in the win over Iowa State last weekend, was sophomore interior offensive lineman DJ Campbell. He suffered an apparent lower-body injury late in the first half against Iowa State that knocked him out for the rest of the game.

Hutson took the rest of the reps at right guard for Texas against Iowa State on Nov. 18. Sark commended Hutson, among the other Texas players who stepped up in the wake of injury issues surfacing last weekend.

"“Ja’Tavion goes out, DJ Campbell goes out, Xavier goes out in the fourth quarter, and other guys were able to step up.”"

It’s valuable for offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood and the Longhorns to have Hutson as the sixth guy along the offensive line to provide depth when injury issues surface, as they did against Iowa State. Hutson started over a dozen games for the Longhorns last season.

Hutson was stellar in run blocking and pass pro, given the situation he came into in the trenches in a raucous road environment. He didn’t allow a single quarterback pressure and was the second-highest-graded pass blocker for Texas in Week 12.

Regarding Campbell’s status heading into the Texas Tech game in Week 13, Sark said he “feels pretty good” in his Monday press conference and “doesn’t foresee” Campbell missing the finale on Black Friday.