4 Texas true freshmen who burned redshirts in first half
No. 1 Texas football saw multiple key true freshmen make significant contributions on each side of the ball for the first couple of months of this campaign in 2024. Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian have essentially got all but a handful of their signees from the top-five nationally ranked 2024 class from high school recruiting live-game snaps in the first half of the regular season.
Who has played too many games to preserve the extra year of eligibility for Texas football at the midseason point of 2024?
With Texas being up by big margins in the first halves of multiple games in the first half of the regular season, Sarkisian and staff were able to get most of their younger guys valuable live-game reps. Texas led every game in the first half of the regular season (six for six) by the fourth quarter by at least two scores.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Longhorns got a half-dozen first-year players over 50 defensive snaps this season (per PFF). You can add two more to that figure on the offensive side of the ball among the true freshmen who took over 50 snaps on their side of the LOS early this fall.
The downside to some of these true freshmen who are still developing for the Longhorns getting so many live-game reps in the first half of the regular season is the fact that they can lose this year of eligibility in college. Here are four true freshmen for the Longhorns with redshirts that are already burned under the four-game NCAA redshirt rule.
Jerrick Gibson, RB
Texas split the workload at running back pretty equally between junior Jaydon Blue, sophomore Quintrevion Wisner, and freshman Jerrick Gibson all taking at least 45 rushing attempts this season. Blue, Wisner, and Gibson all also totaled at least 250 yards from scrimmage and multiple total touchdowns.
Gibson and Wisner have ben the surprise of the bunch among the Longhorns' running backs in the first half of the regular season. It's really impressive to see the way that Gibson, in particular, has handled the workload at running back so far this fall.
He was thrown into the fire early this season, getting double-digit carries in the season opener against Colorado State and the top-10 Week 2 win over Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Since Gibson has already had carries in all six games for the Longhorns, he is far past burning his redshirt. We figured it was a foregone conclusion that Gibson would burn his redshirt after the rash of running back injuries in fall camp back in August.