So far this season, the Texas football team's ground game has remained grounded.
The play on words aside, that isn't a good thing. The No. 7 Longhorns are averaging 142.2 rushing yards per game, which ranks 88th nationally. The 237 and 218 yards compiled by North Carolina State and Arizona State transfers Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown are good enough to lead the team, but those totals don't even rank among the top 14 rushers in the SEC. According to cfbstats.com, UT has had just three runs of 20 yards this season.
MORE:
But could Derrek Cooper help improve the Longhorns' rushing attack?
A four-star member of UT's 2026 recruiting class, Cooper has played a secondary role behind Smothers and Brown. Cooper missed the Ohio State game with an injury, but scored his first career touchdown near the end of a 30-6 win Sept. 19 over UTSA and then got some playing time at Tennessee.
Derrek Cooper draws praise from Arch Manning, Steve Sarkisian
On Monday, Texas offensive lineman Trevor Goosby said Cooper has "done really well for us."
"Derrek's making the most out of opportunities," UT quarterback Arch Manning said. "The carries he gets, he makes the most out of them. So that's all you can ask for. When you're a young player and you're only getting so many opportunities, don't count your plays, make your plays count."
UP NEXT
NO. 7 TEXAS VS. FLORIDA
When/where:
TV/radio:
As halftime approached at the Cotton Bowl this past Saturday, the 6-foot-1, 212-pound Cooper helped set up a field goal when he ripped off 5-, 3-, 16-, 9- and 11-yard runs while also losing three yards on an attempt. But after getting the lion's share of the work as Texas seized a 17-7 lead at the end of that 10-play drive, Cooper saw just two carries in the second half of a 27-24 loss.
"It's hard when you've got three backs and you're trying to rotate them in there," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday. "It's a little bit of a different world for me that way, where historically we've had kind of one guy with a backup, and now we're trying to incorporate three guys, and they're all very talented players in their own right. Derrek is earning more opportunities."
As a team, Texas rushed 32 times for 122 yards against an Oklahoma team that had allowed 129 rushing yards to Georgia in its previous game. Cooper led the Longhorns with his 41 yards, but Sarkisian insisted he was generally pleased with the look of a run game that saw Smothers rush 12 times for 39 yards and Brown turn five carries into 22 yards.
"When I went back and watched the tape, I actually thought we ran it pretty good Saturday," Sarkisian said. "I think historically when we've ran the ball well against OU, we've popped a couple runs that have created a 40-, 50-, a 60-yarder, and all of a sudden your number goes from 125 yards rushing to 175 or 200. We just didn't pop that big one Saturday, but I actually thought, from an efficiency standpoint, we were pretty good against a defense that thrives on negative plays in the run game."
After offseason makeover, how are ex-Texas rushers doing in 2026?
Last season, Texas ranked 90th among 134 Football Bowl Subdivision-level teams in rushing offense at 137.8 yards per game. That was UT's worst ranking since 2018. The Longhorns averaged 4.2 yards per rush and scored just 17 touchdowns on the ground.
Quintrevion Wisner led Texas with his 597 rushing yards. Exempting a 2015 season in which he was fired after just five games at USC, that was just the first time in Sarkisian's head coaching career that he didn't have a 1,000-yard rusher.
MORE: 5 things for Texas football fans to know about the Florida Gators
So Texas set out to revamp its run game during the offseason, and the Longhorns emptied out their backfield in the process. Chad Scott was replaced by Jabbar Juluke as the running backs coach and Texas added two new starters to its offensive line in transfers Dylan Sikorski and Melvin Siani. Wisner, who rushed for 94 yards against Oklahoma last season, transferred to Florida State. A former five-star recruit, CJ Baxter left for Kentucky. Christian Clark ended up at South Carolina after a 105-yard performance in the Citrus Bowl.
Clark and Wisner have made minimal impacts at their new stops, but Baxter is thriving. While helping boost Kentucky into the No. 15 slot in this week's AP poll, he has rushed for 484 yards and eight touchdowns. He scored twice in Kentucky's overtime upset of LSU this past weekend.
And while Baxter may be the one who got away, there's also the case of the one who decided to stay (at another school).
Following Juluke's hire in December, rumors circulated that Florida's Jadan Baugh may follow his position coach to Austin. Baugh confirmed at SEC media days in July that he considered transferring to Texas but ultimately decided to remain with the Gators. This season he has rushed for nearly 700 yards and a nation-leading 12 touchdowns.
On Saturday, Texas will host Baugh and the Gators at Royal-Memorial Stadium. Texas ranks fourth among SEC teams in rushing defense, and no individual has run for 75 yards against the Longhorns in 2026.
Sign up for the Daily Briefing from the Austin American-Statesman. Start your day with the must-read headlines from Austin's most trusted news source.
This article originally published at Texas RB Derrek Cooper 'making the most out of opportunities.' But does he deserve more?.