In the last little bit of attrition in the days leading up to the Holiday Bowl against Cal, the university announced Friday afternoon that tight ends Ahmard Howard and Dominique Jones will be ineligible for the game and are not with the team in San Diego.
Though the cynically positive news here is that these final two losses are mostly insignificant in terms of affecting the odds of the Longhorns prevailing against the Golden Bears, the announcement for the senior Howard finalizes a mostly invisible Texas career that someone went on for five seasons despite never catching a pass, never cracking a rotation decimated by injuries, or notably contributing to any special teams other than getting beat on the end and giving up a blocked field goal against Colorado in 2010. His inability to to stay eligible for his final college game after so long in the program never contributing marks an ignominious, yet somehow fitting end to his career.
As for Jones, who came to Texas and briefly spent some time at defensive end, he was regarded as the best blocker of the tight ends coming into the season, but lost playing time and had only two catches for the entire season, none after the Iowa State game on October 1st. For a player already falling out of the rotation and possibly being passed for next season by redshirting freshman MJ McFarland, the Texas career of Dominique Jones could now be at a crossroads. In fact, it would be something of an upset at this point if he is still on the team when fall practice starts.
Oh well, at least no one expected to contribute is out.
But if Jones was actually in the gameplan in some power-rushing sets for Texas, it's possible the coaches could take a more serious look at Chris Whaley, who has been receiving a few looks in practice at tight end in Jumbo looks. Now that's actually something of interest.