No team in college football is ever able to avoid injuries throughout the season, it is more so a matter of how many players can remain healthy enough.
For the Texas Longhorns, they ended up losing Quinn Ewers for a couple of games in which Maalik Murphy who is now at Duke was able to lead them to victory. The signal-caller returned to close out the season and lead the Longhorns to the College Football Playoff.
However, one player they did lose to injury and wasn't able to return was star running back Jonathon Brooks who tore his ACL against TCU back in October. Brooks was on track to have a historic season, having rushed for 1,139 yards and 10 touchdowns, and was also solidifying himself as the top running back in the upcoming draft.
Anytime he touched the ball, he was a big play waiting to happen, which was obviously a major loss for the Longhorns. Something starting tackle Christian Jones addressed on Friday.
"We had to come together as a team and really rally, and understand that our job up front has to become even more elevated," said Jones. "We have to be better, because we have to try to make it as visible as possible for every single runner. We had to give the quarterback Quinn [Ewers], or Maalik [Murphy] at times, as much time to make the right decisions. We’ve battled through some adversity and I love it how our team bounced back and continued to find ways to win this season. A lot of people don’t understand it, but it is what it is and we had to deal with it. Now we’re here, so it’s been good."
This Texas team peaked at the perfect time this season as after narrowly escaping TCU, they won their next three games by an average of 29 points. They do however have a tall task ahead of them on Monday, as they will have to keep up with Washington's elite passing attack led by Heisman finalist Michael Penix Jr.
Jones will also play his part in slowing down Washington's pass rush which is led by Bralen Trice, who has five sacks and is constantly getting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. As for the run game, the Longhorns have since turned to freshman CJ Baxter and sophomore Jayden Blue to carry the load.
Texas and Washington will face off in New Orleans on Monday with a trip to the championship game on the line.
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