Texas has a respectable rushing baseline and an inconvenient personnel problem. The Longhorns are averaging 135 net rushing yards per game at 3.6 per carry, but Wednesday’s first SEC availability report for Saturday’s visit from Ole Miss left running back Hollywood Smothers and offensive lineman Jaydon Chatman questionable.
The same report listed edge rusher Colin Simmons doubtful and Richard Wesley out. That is four Texas players carrying different levels of uncertainty, not one tidy injury update. For a program with a 4-2 record and two recent 24-27 losses, the uncertainty matters because the margin for a loose series has already proved thin.
The question reaches beyond whether the backfield receives one player back. A runner’s availability and an offensive lineman’s availability affect different parts of the same attack. Texas needs a way to keep its routine rushing work useful without treating either unresolved designation as a promise that the usual options will be present.
Smothers’ status affects the backfield rotation. Chatman’s status touches the structure in front of it. Those are different questions, and the report supplies no diagnosis or timetable to answer either one. Questionable does not mean absent, but it also does not provide enough certainty to build the entire plan around a player being ready.
The 135-yard figure needs its own footnote. It is Texas’ net team rushing total, not a report on the running backs alone. The number includes quarterback rushing and reflects the impact of sacks, so it cannot establish how much of the production came from Smothers or the rest of the backfield.
Across six games, Texas has 810 rushing yards on 224 attempts. That works out to the same 3.6-yard average, a figure that is functional but hardly forgiving.
At that efficiency, the offense does not need every carry to break loose. It needs to avoid turning manageable downs into difficult ones. A negative play, a protection problem or a penalty can make a 3.6-yard baseline feel much smaller over the course of a drive.
If Chatman is unavailable, the concern is not that one player automatically determines the result. It is whether the line can maintain enough continuity for routine gains to remain routine.
The recent losses give that concern sharper edges without proving that either current questionable player caused them. Texas lost 27-24 to Oklahoma on Oct. 10 and 27-24 to Florida on Oct. 17. Both games were decided by three points.
