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

Jalen Catalon, S

Unfortunately, Catalon was banged up again in the Iowa State game after he missed the four previous games due to a lower-body injury. Catalon only played six snaps against Iowa State before he reportedly (per CJ Vogel of TFB Texas) re-aggravated a shoulder injury he’s dealt with since preseason camp.

From what we tallied up during the Iowa State game last weekend, Catalon didn’t play any snaps in the second half.

Catalon has dealt with recurring injury issues throughout his career, dating back to his time with the Arkansas Razorbacks. He’s now missed roughly half of the Big 12 slate for the Longhorns this season due to the shoulder injury and a leg injury he suffered in the Red River Rivalry game on Oct. 7 against the Oklahoma Sooners in Dallas.

Redshirt sophomore safety Michael Taaffe has started every game in the secondary since Catalon suffered a leg injury against Oklahoma in Red River. Senior safeties Jerrin Thompson and Kitan Crawford have started the rest of the games at safety for the Longhorns in Catalon’s absence.

It’s noteworthy that Crawford also had limited snaps at safety late in the second half against Iowa State. While that might not be due to an injury issue (we don’t officially know why Crawford was on the sideline for the fourth quarter), Crawford didn’t take any defensive snaps at safety in the fourth quarter.

We’ll continue to monitor Catalon’s injury status heading into the regular season finale against Texas Tech. During his Monday press conference, Sark didn’t mention anything about his injury status.