Breaking: Just In Longhorn Cut With A Major Setback As Three Top Talented Fans Favorite Key Players suffers Season Ending Injury.

This week is a bye week for Texas football and the Oklahoma Sooners so they may relax and recuperate before their Oct. 12 Red River Rivalry matchup in Dallas. With a crucial stretch of games coming up in mid-to late-October, this is a nice chance for Texas to heal up at several important position groups that have been hurt on both sides of the ball after the first month of the season.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns also get the bye week to make some necessary adjustments and fix issues on both sides of the ball after the SEC opener last weekend. Texas was sluggish coming out of the gates in the first half of the SEC opener at home last weekend against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

The Longhorns were fortunate to have a bye week because it allowed them to address certain issues that surfaced early in their game against Mississippi State on September 28 and to get important players healthy. It’s even more significant that Sarkisian and the Longhorns will have one extra week to prepare for Red River against OU thanks to the bye week. Here are three major injury updates for the Longhorns before their game against Oklahoma at Red River this coming weekend and during their bye week.

Derek Williams Jr., a sophomore safety, has been out of the previous two Longhorn games with a hamstring injury, according to 247Sports. Early in the 2024 season, Texas’ safety room has been severely hampered by injuries to key players like Williams, sophomore Jelani McDonald, and freshman Xavier Filsaime, who have all missed numerous games.

Williams started one game and appeared in three at safety for the Longhorns this season. His one start came against the No. 10 Michigan Wolverines in the big double-digit win on the road in Week 2 in Ann Arbor, where he took a season-high 40 defensive snaps and registered his first career interception.

There hasn’t been a definitive status update regarding Williams’ possible return to the lineup for the defensive secondary coming out of the bye week, entering mid-October. If Williams does return to the lineup for Red River against OU on Oct. 12 in Dallas, it would be his first live-game action for the Longhorns’ secondary since the Week 3 win over the UTSA Roadrunners.