Steve Sarkisian reveals young players who have stood out during Texas bye week

For first-year and second-year players, the bye week afforded an important opportunity to show improvement in practice.

AUSTIN, Texas — With the Texas Longhorns emerging from the season’s second bye week, head coach Steve Sarkisian had an opportunity to evaluate the team’s younger players, naming freshman running back Jerrick Gibson, redshirt freshman defensive tackle Sydir Mitchell, freshman cornerback Kobe Black, freshman safety Jordon Johnson-Rubell, and freshman safety Xavier Filsaime.

“Kobe Black continues to make strides. I think Jerrick Gibson showed us a lot last week. Both the young safeties — Jordon Johnson-Rubell and Xavier Filsaime are kind of on the come. And so the good part is it’s not always just about on offense and defense, it’s finding roles for them on special teams as well. A lot of those guys have shown me a lot,” Sarkisian said.

“I’ll say this — I think Sydir Mitchell the last two weeks has had his two best weeks of work here in quite some time. So that stuff’s encouraging to me that we’ve got a group of players that are continuing to push one another and push themselves to be the best they can be, because that’s how our team is going to become really good.”

The inclusion of Mitchell was particularly surprising — the massive New Jersey product not only angered the coaching staff by showing up overweight for winter conditioning, he was also removed from the sideline during the Louisiana-Monroe game, reportedly angered about a lack of playing time. Mitchell had appeared in 20 snaps over the first three games, but hasn’t appeared since.

Black’s inclusion is not surprising after playing cornerback in place of senior Gavin Holmes against Vanderbilt, likely a result of his sturdy 6’2, 200-pound frame that allowed him to hold up better against the power running game of the Commodores. In only nine snaps, Black impressed.

“He got in the game against Vanderbilt and he looked comfortable — it didn’t look like that was his first time being on the field. He looked comfortable. He made a nice third-down pass breakup. He gets an interception. Obviously, gets called back, but he’s playing more on special teams, and he’s one example of guys that played early in the year in what seemed to be meaningless snaps at an end of a game, but those snaps matter for a young player over time, and that accumulation of those snaps, I think, become a positive when your number is called to step into a game,” Sarkisian said.

So in addition to playing on three special teams unit — kick coverage, kick return, and punt return, Black is challenging to become the team’s No. 3 cornerback.

While Black’s role has increased, Gibson has seen his workload decrease in recent weeks. Following the preseason injuries sustained by running backs CJ Baxter and Christian Clark, Gibson had to step up when Jaydon Blue and Quintrevion Wisner suffered minor injuries early in the season. With transfer Velton Gardner not playing since the UTSA game, there was a stretch of the non-conference schedule during which Gibson was the only truly healthy scholarship running back. The Florida product took advantage against the Roadrunners, leading the team with 13 carries for 75 yards. For the year, Gibson has 48 carries for 227 yards and three touchdowns.

But as Blue and Wisner returned to the rotation, the coaching staff opted to reduce Gibson’s carries in an effort to keep him healthy, so he’s only received six carries in SEC play. Against Vanderbilt, Gibson received just one snap, but given the nature of the running back position, Texas may need the 5’10, 205-pounder again down the stretch.

Johnson-Rubell has played sparingly on special teams with seven snaps on kickoff coverage and four snaps on kickoff return, but injuries to sophomore Derek Williams and senior Andre Mukuba at safety have forced him into the fringe of the rotation, including playing 18 snaps against Oklahoma.

“He’s a very hard worker, super physical safety, loves contact. You’ve seen that in the plays that he’s already played in the game — he was in on that safety, redshirt junior safety Michael Taaffe said last month, referring to the safety against Louisiana-Monroe when Johnson-Rubell was one of the first players to arrived at the ball carrier.

With Williams out, the fifth safety is Filsaime, who flipped from Florida a year ago, finishing the 2024 cycle as the No. 62 player nationally and the No. 3 safety, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Filsaime has played in 20 total snaps on defense this season, but the most pressing immediate question for him is whether he can break onto a special teams unit with the ability to appear in two more games while still maintaining his redshirt.