‘Undermanned’ Texas will lean on its depth at Missouri

AUSTIN — When the No. 10 Texas Longhorns put a 3-1 SEC road record against top 25 opponents on the line Saturday in Columbia against the No. 19 Missouri Tigers, head coach Steve Sarkisian’s team will be “undermanned” after five key players were unable to finish the win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Because Sarkisian is loathe to address injuries during conference play, there weren’t any Monday updates on senior running back Hollywood Smothers, junior wide receiver Cam Coleman, junior wide receiver Ryan Wingo, sophomore nickel back Graceson Littleton, or sophomore cornerback Kade Phillips.

Initial reporting differs on the extent of those injuries. On Texas Football reported Sunday that Littleton’s current prognosis is unknown, but every other player, including junior edge Colin Simmons, is week to week. The reporting of Anwar Richardson of Orangebloods was more pessimistic, indicating that Smothers and Littleton could miss the rest of the season and Phillips could be out for multiple games. That report called Coleman questionable and indicated that Wingo needs more testing.

Sarkisian’s comment suggests that the Longhorns expect several of those five players to miss Saturday’s road tilt, putting pressure on the backups pressed into action against the Bulldogs.

Are those players ready for the challenge?

“I think first signs of it are good,” Sarkisian said while pointing towards the secondary.

When Littleton went down early in the game, senior cornerback Bo Mascoe moved to the Star position and senior Warren Roberson came into the game at cornerback. Long known for undisciplined play on special teams and defense, Roberson held up well against Mississippi State, playing a career-high 54 snaps, one more than the Citrus Bowl last year, recording three tackles, breaking up a pass, and allowing only one reception for nine yards on three targets.

“I was really proud of Warren Roberson,” Sarkisian said.

When Phillips was unable to play later in the game, freshman cornerback Smoke Matthews replaced him for 39 snaps, the most extensive playing time of his career by far — Matthews had only played 16 combined snaps defensively in non-conference wins over Texas State and UTSA. Matthews also responded well, notching two tackles and allowing one reception for eight yards on two targets.

“I was really proud of Samari Matthews,” Sarkisian said. “Those are just first snapshots of guys that were getting put into real action and having to step up.”

With Mascoe replacing Littleton, the Horns are getting thin at the cornerback position with a safety-heavy secondary.

Junior Xavier Filsaime, listed as Littleton’s backup on the team’s official depth chart, still hasn’t played this season due to injury, and junior Wardell Mack, who played over 100 snaps last year at nickel, is yet to see his first playing time, too.

At cornerback, the next man up is freshman John Meredith III, the former consensus five-star prospect in the 2027 recruiting class who reclassified in July. How close he is to contributing remains unclear.

“He’s getting better,” Sarkisian said. “Getting better.”

After Meredith, the only other two cornerbacks on the roster are Brown transfer Nick Hudson and freshman Hayward Howard Jr., whose most notable moments since arriving on the Forty Acres in January were getting chewed out by defensive coordinator Will Muschamp during a spring practice and his father popping off on Twitter before a preseason scrimmage.

Texas could also move junior safety Kobe Black back to cornerback.

At running back, the Longhorns have already seen some flashes from sophomore running back Michael Terry III, who ran for 41 yards and a touchdown against the Rebels before carrying the ball four times for 16 yards against the Bulldogs. At least for the moment, Terry’s moved past freshman Derrek Cooper, who has been limited for most of the season by injury and then illness.

Freshman Jermaine Bishop has played 139 snaps already this season and forced enough urgency from Sarkisian to get him onto the field that the Texas head coach eschewed longtime trends and created a 10 personnel package to highlight the speedy youngster.

Lost in the mix at wide receiver with Bishop’s ascension is sophomore Daylan McCutcheon, whose only target came against Texas State — several other freshmen have seemingly done more to earn the trust of the coaching staff as Kohen Brown and Chris Stewart have both earned playing time on special teams.

“Kohen has really done a nice job and integrated himself from a special teams standpoint. I’m excited about him, and Chris Stewart has been phenomenal. I mean, this guy is really fast. He’s finding a role on special teams. He’s earning our confidence from an offensive perspective,” Sarkisian said.

Another sophomore, Kaliq Lockett, is still working his way back from injury — the 6’2, 181-pounder missed the Oklahoma, Florida, and Ole Miss games, but was available again on Saturday. Like McCutcheon, Lockett only has one target this season, losing three yards on a catch in the season opener.

“Both those guys we’re definitely very excited about, and excited to get Kaliq back. Jermaine has obviously earned our trust — I mean, this guy’s playing a lot of football for us now,” Sarkisian said.

Sarkisian doesn’t know how it will look in Columbia, but he does take confidence from what he’s seen in games so far, as well what he’s seen in practice.

“All you can do is rely upon what guys that have been forced into action have done, and also what guys are doing in practice, and I’ve been very impressed with this team. They work really hard. They compete extremely well in practice. We do a lot of good-on-good work and we make it active, we make it tough, and guys are responding to that level of intensity,” Sarkisian said.

“More guys are going to have to step up this week. I don’t know what it’ll look like Saturday. I don’t know exactly who will be out there playing for us. We obviously won’t be at full strength, but have the utmost confidence that whoever’s out there will be ready to go.”