Texas RB CJ Baxter Jr. injury update

The big news of the day for Texas football after the first full pads practice of preseason camp on Aug. 6 was the knee injury sophomore running back CJ Baxter Jr. suffered during team drills.

Jaydon Blue and Tre Wisner expected to shoulder the load for Texas football after CJ Baxter Jr.'s knee injury in practice on Tuesday

Baxter got an MRI on his knee on Tuesday night after suffering the injury in practice yesterday. OTF's Bobby Burton reported on the morning of Aug. 7 that Baxter received his MRI results as of early Wednesday morning. But the results reportedly didn't confirm a "straight-forward" case of a torn ACL based on the MRI.

The latest that's been reported from OTF on the matter of Baxter's knee injury is that he's getting other opinions from doctors in the field. He's essentially getting more tests done to understand the full scope of the damage that the injury did to his knee.

In the meantime, multiple reports have suggested that Texas is preparing for Baxter to miss at least a portion of the 2024 season. Mike Craven of Dave Campbell's Texas Football reported on Aug. 7 that his "sources confirm" that Baxter could miss "an extended period of time" this upcoming season for the Longhorns.

Craven reported that Baxter suffered an unfortunate injury to his knee on a "freak play" in practice on Tuesday.

Texas now looks to junior Jaydon Blue and sophomore Tre Wisner to shoulder the load at running back entering the regular season in a few weeks. Blue entered preseason camp battling Baxter for the first-team practice reps at running back.

Last season, Blue and Baxter shouldered the load at running back for the Longhorns after junior starter Jonathon Brooks suffered a season-ending knee injury against TCU. Blue rushed for a career-high 398 yards, three touchdowns, and reeled in 135 receiving yards and one touchdown catch as a sophomore in 2023.

Wisner has also been praised by various sources and practice reports from the Texas media for his performance in individual and team drills in preseason camp over the last week.

Beside Blue and Wisner, Texas also has a pair of true freshman running backs in Christian Clark and Jerrick Gibson who will received elevated carries in practice and live-game action this fall. Gibson and Clark were both early enrollees who participated in spring ball for the Longhorns earlier this offseason.

We will continue to monitor Baxter's injury status for updates and reports that come out as he's evaluated further in the coming days this week.

*Update

Anwar Richardson of Orangebloods/Rivals reported on Wednesday afternoon that Baxter is "expected to miss the season after tearing his LCL/PCL" in practice on Aug. 6.

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