AUSTIN, Texas — After struggling a knee damage in Tuesday’s observe, Texas sophomore working again CJ Baxter will miss the 2024 season.
A supply advised Horns247’s Chip Brown on Tuesday that the complete extent of Baxter’s damage throughout the first fall camp observe for the Longhorns in full pads wasn’t recognized within the hours after it occurred. Nonetheless, a supply advised Brown on Wednesday that Baxter tore the LCL and PCL in his proper knee, which would require season-ending surgical procedure.
As a real freshman, Baxter rushed for 659 yards (4.8 yards per try) and 5 touchdowns. A 247Sports five-star prospect ranked No. 30 within the Top247 for 2023, Baxter bounced again from an early-season foot damage in time to take advantage of his probability for extra touches after Jonathon Brooks tore his proper ACL in a Nov. 11 street win over TCU.
Baxter ran for a season-high 117 yards in a 26-16 street win over Iowa State on Nov. 18, the primary recreation Texas performed with out Brooks on the sphere. Averaging 5.3 yards per carry over the ultimate 4 video games of the season, Baxter had a dashing landing within the crew’s 49-21 rout of Oklahoma State within the Huge 12 championship recreation and towards Washington within the crew’s School Soccer Playoff semifinal on the Sugar Bowl.
After ending his 2023 season on a excessive word personally, Baxter advised reporters following a latest Longhorn observe that he’d spent his offseason engaged on working with higher pad stage and studying how one can diagnose the weak spots in defensive fronts. Baxter needed to take his recreation up a notch, however his primary aim was to assist Texas recover from the hump after arising in need of reaching the nationwide championship recreation final season.
“We bought far final 12 months, however we all know the way it feels to get that far and never exit on prime,” stated Baxter. “This 12 months, we do not need to go that far and never end the job.”
Baxter’s damage occurred on the identical day he and junior Jaydon Blue have been named to the watch record for the Doak Walker Award, which acknowledges school soccer’s prime working again. The Longhorns are tied with Wisconsin for essentially the most Doak Walker Award winners because the honor was established in 1990 with Ricky Williams (1997-98), Cedric Benson (2004), D’Onta Foreman (2016) and Bijan Robinson (2022) bringing the trophy again to the Forty Acres.
With Baxter finished for the season, Blue will get an opportunity to ascertain himself as the subsequent elite Texas working again. That being stated, Blue appeared as happy with Baxter as himself for being named a Doak Walker Award candidate when he met with reporters following Tuesday’s observe, which speaks the tradition Tashard Selection has fostered within the working again room.
“It simply reveals the flexibility and the tradition that we have now right here, not solely [in] the working again room, however on the crew,” Blue stated. “There’s [four] guys which have finished it earlier than, so me and Ced with the ability to be on that record is fairly good for us.”
For Blue and the Longhorn backs, it is a case of subsequent man up with Baxter on the shelf till 2025.
