The Texas Longhorns (6-3, 3-2 SEC) rank at #7 in the first College Football Playoff top 25 rankings.
Well, this ranking has a definite chance to come in peril on Saturday – and moving forward. This especially reigns true with On Texas Football reporting on Thursday that star RB Hollywood Smothers is out for the season due to a torn MCL.
This news broke prior to ON3’s Pete Nakos confirming the loss. Not only does Texas lose a key piece of the offense for the rest of the year, but this could adversely affect the program moving into the future.
Texas Facing Major In-Season Implications From Smothers Loss
The most direct implication from losing Smothers is that Raleek Brown is now – for all intents and purposes – a lead back.
Brown is able to handle a large volume of carries. He built this track record at Arizona State during the 2025 season. However, Texas is putting a great amount of resources into the backfield. This loss highlights the difficulties of the NIL era and forces head coach Steve Sarkisian to adapt on-the-fly.
Implications for the rest of the season exist at quarterback as well. These are potentially going to haunt the program long-term.
Longhorns’ Future Not Secure Either
Sarkisian is facing a great deal of outside pressure from the fanbase at the moment. The 52-year-old brought the Longhorns back to relevancy, but has seldom won the “big” game.
This directly ties into the future of Arch Manning as well. Longtime NFL Draft expert Tony Pauline is hearing from an inside source in Austin that Manning’s future with Texas ties directly into what happens to Sarkisian.
There’s certainly a chance that the injury to Smothers leads to adverse results to close the season. This may ultimately lead to university administration having to make a call between quarterback and coach.
Texas Gets Crushing Update on Star RB Hollywood Smothers