*Knock on wood.*
Count Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian as someone superstitious enough to engage in apotropaic tradition when discussing his team’s health when assessing it during a media availability on Monday.
“I feel good, and for as physical as this camp has been, I think that’s encouraging,” Sarkisian said.
The Longhorns have suffered two minor setbacks nearly two weeks into preseason camp among the typical knocks and bruises players sustain.
The biggest setback impacted player availability during the first scrimmage on Saturday, when a flu outbreak within the team kept wide receiver Daylan McCutcheon, defensive lineman Justus Terry, edge/linebacker Brad Spence, linebacker Rasheem Biles, linebacker Ty’Anthony Smith, and cornerback John Meredith out.
By Monday, the team’s overall health had improved with Terry, Spence, Smith, and Meredith returning to practice, to Sarkisian’s recollection, with Biles still out.
One of the knocks sustained is minor but impactful as sixth-year left guard Laurence Seymore, who was receiving first-team reps, suffered what Sarkisian termed an “injury hiccup” 11 plays into the scrimmage, forcing sophomore Dylan Sikorski into extended action. The Texas head coach indicated that the injury is not “long term,” and Seymore has played more than 1,300 snaps in his college career across three previous schools, so he doesn’t need the reps to develop, but they are valuable from a chemistry standpoint.
And while such injuries tend to happen in the trenches — Seymore nearly got rolled up on last week in practice — Sarkisian did credit his team for reducing the potential for injuries by executing the tackling techniques the coaches are teaching.
“They’re really learning how to practice. Even when we’re going live — I see Coach [Will] Muschamp and Coach [Blake] Gideon — we’re not cut tackling right now. We’re really trying to fit people up and tackle that way in a physical nature. When you can do that, yes, we’re going to the ground, but you’re minimizing the amount of people on the ground and falling onto the ground, and so it’s a credit to the players and how we’re working and how we’re practicing,” Sarkisian said.
A tackle of freshman running back Derrek Cooper by senior cornerback Bo Mascoe shared on social media highlighted the technique that Muschamp and Gideon are emphasizing.
During the scrimmage, redshirt sophomore Wardell Mack showed off similar form tackling junior wide receiver Emmett Mosley.
Sarkisian metaphorically knocking on wood during Monday’s availability acknowledges the importance of injury luck.
Last year, the right tackle competition was resolved in early August by the season-ending knee injury sustained by Andre Cojoe. In 2024, Texas had to go out and sign Velton Gardner out of the NCAA transfer portal when CJ Baxter and Christian Clark both sustained season-ending injuries by the midway point of preseason camp. Four years ago, the team’s upside took a huge hit when starting offensive guard Junior Angilau and prized transfer wide receiver Isaiah Neyor went down with non-contact, season-ending injuries in the first scrimmage. In 2019, the Longhorns had another rash of injuries at running back, prompting Roschon Johnson to move from quarterback and David Gbenda to move from linebacker.
So, the continued knocking on wood should perhaps be a fanbase-wide endeavor until the season opener against Texas State.