The Clemson safety suffered a knee injury in Saturday’s loss to Georgia.
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Longhorns senior safety Andrew Mukuba is questionable for Saturday’s game against the No. 25 Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville, head coach Steve Sarkisian revealed during his Monday press conference.
Mukuba suffered a left knee injury during his involvement in a tackle in Saturday’s loss against Georgia.
“We’re gonna gonna have to monitor him. We do have the bye after this game before we come back and I believe we play Florida after that, so we’re just gonna monitor him closely this week,” Sarkisian said.
“But again, I’m not gonna put him back out there if he’s not ready to go, knowing that I can have a couple more weeks after this to get him healthy, a little similar to the Quinn [Ewers] situation. So we’ll look at it, we’ll see what it looks like, but it’s nothing that is season-ending, anything of that sort.”
Mukuba turned in a strong performance in the loss to the Bulldogs prior to his injury, recording five tackles, a quarterback hurry, and an interception to earn the top defensive grade for the Horns from Pro Football Focus playing a versatile role lining up in the box, in the slot, and as a free safety.
The interception by the Austin product and former Clemson safety was his second of the season and one of the most impressive plays by a Texas defender this season.
This is brilliant from Andrew Mukuba.
No work? Find workFrom his flats responsibility, Mukuba finds the dig route from the opposite side of the field via Beck’s eyes. Heck of a play.
Credit to Trey Moore on the pressure as well. pic.twitter.com/itv16d2uUK
— CJ Vogel (@CJVogel_OTF) October 21, 2024
While the timetable of Mukuba’s recovery does represent a positive development for the Longhorns, they are thin at the safety position because of the season-ending knee injury sustained by sophomore safety Derek Williams in the Cotton Bowl.
Sarkisian said that he expects redshirt junior safety Michael Taaffe and sophomore safety Jelani McDonald to start against Vanderbilt with freshman Jordon Johnson-Rubell factoring into the rotation along with the possibility of using super senior cornerback Jahdae Barron there. Barron has played all over the defensive backfield for Texas, including starting at nickel for two seasons and playing as the team’s dime linebacker this year, and has cross-trained at safety as well.
“He’s a bit of a Swiss Army knife for us,” Sarkisian said.
“We’ll be fine from a rotational standpoint, but definitely the sooner we can get Andrew back will be helpful for us.”