Photo courtesy: Sara Diggins\/American-Statesman \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBaxter, a former five-star recruit from Orlando, FL, is making his highly anticipated return after missing the 2024 season with a torn ACL and LCL in his right knee. With the 2025 season just under eleven weeks away, he\u2019s back on the practice field and fully cleared to play.<\/p>\n
As a freshman in 2023, he rushed for 659 yards and five touchdowns, earning second-team All-America honors from The Athletic and honorable mention All-Big 12 recognition. The rising redshirt sophomore will be relied upon as one of the top options out of the backfield for Texas this season. If he can become a bigger threat in the receiving game, Baxter\u2019s impact on the Texas offense could be game-changing.<\/p>\n
Jerrick Gibson<\/h3>\n
Gibson, a four-star recruit from IMG Academy, made an immediate impact as a true freshman in 2024\u2014rushing for 377 yards and four touchdowns. Moreover, he is a patient runner who plays the running back position with exceptional agility and vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cJG (Jerrick Gibson) has got some mature qualities about him, but for me freshmen can\u2019t do anything right,\u201d Texas running backs coach Tashard Choice said last season prior to the Peach Bowl. \u201cIt\u2019s a learning curve for them because of the way we practice, what I expect from the position. The expectations, it\u2019s a lot coming from a kid out of high school because they\u2019re not going to know everything that it entails to be able to start at running back or play a lot at the University of Texas. There\u2019s a learning curve, and just like Ced (CJ Baxter) last year, he ended up getting better at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas coaches anticipate that Gibson will play a more significant role in 2025, becoming a key component of the Longhorns’ running back rotation.<\/p>\n
Christian Clark<\/h3>\n
Clark, a former three-star recruit in the 2024 class, picked Texas over top programs like Georgia, Alabama, and Oregon. He tore his Achilles around the same time Baxter injured his knee during the 2024 preseason, and is looking forward to his 2025 campaign. Despite suffering an injury that often requires nine months of recovery, Clark had a phenomenal Spring camp and is on pace to make his debut in a Longhorns uniform this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201c(I\u2019m) super impressed,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cAnytime you have a significant injury like that, and you miss an entire season, you\u2019re always kind of monitoring, what are they going to look like when they really start to come back? And I could feel it in winter workouts\u2026 As practice has started, [Christian Clark] looks in tremendous shape. He\u2019s right back to having great balance and body control, which is something that we identified in the recruiting process.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the return of Baxter and Clark, Wisner’s versatility, and Gibson’s explosiveness, the Longhorns’ running back room is poised to be one of the most formidable in the nation. Their combined talents provide a balanced and dynamic rushing attack that will be crucial to the success of the Longhorns in the 2025 season. The Longhorns open the season on the road against the Ohio State Buckeyes on August 30, where Texas fans will get their first look at the 2025 running back room.<\/p>\n
Main Image: Ricardo B. Brazziell\/American-Statesman \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Texas Longhorns are entering the 2025 college football season with what could be one of the nation\u2019s best running back rooms. Despite the departure of standout running back Jaydon Blue to the NFL, the Longhorns will boast a formidable rotation that includes Quintrevion Wisner, CJ Baxter, Jerrick Gibson, and Christian Clark. Each brings a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5527,"featured_media":74535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,35576],"tags":[5095,204],"class_list":["post-74530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sec","category-texas-longhorns","tag-steve-sarkisian","tag-texas-longhorns"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74530"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74536,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74530\/revisions\/74536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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