Texas RB CJ Baxter and LB Mo Blackwell ruled out vs. Wyoming

Texas Longhorns freshman running back CJ Baxter (foot) and junior linebacker Mo Blackwell will miss Saturday’s game against the Wyoming Cowboys at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, the school announced two hours before kickoff.

On Thursday, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian called both players game-time decisions.

“I’m going to need to monitor him up in through kind of pre-game again,” Sarkisian said of Baxter. “I want to make sure that he’s healthy enough that he can perform ,but also that there’s nothing lingering where he’s trying to take care of himself and then he can get injured another way. So I’ll monitor that thing up until kickoff.”

Baxter had 11 carries for 31 yards against Alabama last week before leaving in the fourth quarter with a foot injury. It’s the second straight week the nation’s consensus No. 1 running back in the 2023 recruiting class had to leave the game — against Rice in the season opener, Baxter fell awkwardly on the ball at the end of a 32-yard run in the second quarter and departed with a rib issue. For the season, Baxter has 16 carries for 69 yards and four carries for 21 yards.

With Baxter banged up through the first two games, junior running back Jonathon Brook leads Texas with 26 carries for 109 yards and a touchdown.

“Morice Blackwell has made tremendous strides — he’s been practicing the last couple of days. And again, he’ll be another guy that will make a decision on game day if he’s gonna go Saturday or if we’ll wait until next week,” said Sarkisian.

Just before the season opener, Blackwell suffered a knee injury in practice that has kept him out for the first three games. Freshman linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. has filled in for Blackwell at the strong-side linebacker position with six tackles, two sacks, and a quarterback hurry against Alabama after recording one tackle and one quarterback hurry in the season opener.