On Thursday, a two-loss Texas football team with a dwindling margin for error in its hunt for a College Football Playoff berth was dealt two more losses.
On its second SEC-mandated availability report ahead of Saturday's home game against Ole Miss, Texas listed star edge rusher Colin Simmons as "out" with a leg injury. Freshman edge rusher Richard Wesley was ruled out by UT in its initial report.
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Simmons has arguably been college football's best defensive player this season, and his 10½ sacks lead all FBS-level defenders by two-and-a-half. Wesley, meanwhile, is an 18-year-old who Simmons said this summer was going to "mess around and be better than me," and who showed a glimpse of his potential on a jarring hit of Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer earlier this month.
So with Simmons and Wesley both out, the Texas pass rush and how the Longhorns get after Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss will be a large storyline for this weekend's showdown between the No. 7 and No. 19 teams in the Associated Press poll.
"If (Colin) can't go, I've got to step up. I've got to be that guy," sophomore Lance Jackson said Monday. "That's how I see myself in my role on the defense."
Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss has avoided sacks this season
While leading Ole Miss to a 5-1 record and a top-10 ranking, Chambliss has taken just five sacks. (By comparison, Texas' Arch Manning has been sacked 17 times.) LSU is the only team that has gotten to Chambliss twice, and Louisville and Missouri's ranked teams were both held without a sack against the Rebels. Chambliss has thrown for 1,676 yards, 14 touchdowns and four interceptions over 210 pass attempts, and he has also rushed 36 times for 127 yards and six scores.
Chambliss is playing behind an offensive line that returned three starters from a CFP semifinalist team, and new starters Terez Davis and Connor Howes have held their own at the tackle spots. On Thursday, though, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian credited the 6-foot, 210-pound Chambliss with keeping his number of sacks low.
"He's pretty hard to get on the ground," Sarkisian said. "He's a dynamic playmaker, and it's not always about him scrambling to run. It's him scrambling to buy time to create the second play in the passing game, the explosive plays down the field.
"The people that have defended him the best have tried to minimize him getting out of the pocket, but also not giving up those big home run plays on when the first play breaks down and it goes to the second play."
MORE: How Steve Sarkisian, Arch Manning, Texas Longhorns grade in midseason report card
So far this fall, only Tennessee (30), LSU (27) and both Georgia and Florida (22) have registered more sacks than Texas (19). But Simmons - who has more sacks by himself this season than both Arkansas (10) and Texas A&M (five) - has accounted for 55.3% of those sacks.
Even though Simmons and Wesley are now on the sidelines, Sarkisian insisted that "we've got four really good (edge rushers) still." Those four are Jackson, who had a breakout game at Tennessee last month; junior Zina Umeozulu; senior Colton Vasek and fifth-year player Brad Spence. Sarkisian also noted that Texas can lean on the versatility of its interior linemen as well as linebacker Rasheem Biles.
"There's a game scheduled on Saturday, and we're going to play it whether Colin's (out) or not," senior linebacker Justin Cryer said. "We can't let that define our energy going into the game."
Texas may need someone besides Colin Simmons to step up against Ole Miss
Simmons was hurt on the third snap of the fourth quarter in a 27-24 loss to Florida last Saturday. Florida scored twice after the Simmons injury, and the Gators used their run game to kill the final 1:58 of clock.
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Texas faced five pass attempts from quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. following Simmons' exit. Biles batted down a football on one of UT's fourth-quarter pass rushes, but the Longhorns were unable to take down the Florida quarterback. Jones completed one of his attempts after the Simmons injury, and he also scrambled past a Texas defender for a short gain on another pass play.
One week later, Texas will have just one player who has recorded more than one sack this season. Against Ole Miss, defensive lineman Maraad Watson will be the Longhorns' sack leader with three.
"It's next man up mentality," UT defensive lineman Hero Kanu said. "It's cruel in the sport, but one person goes down, the next person's got to step up. We all know that."
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This article originally published at Trinidad Chambliss is hard to sack. Texas football's injuries won't help matters Saturday.