Hollywood Smothers is no longer a branch in Texas’ running-back plan. He is out.
The Longhorns’ Friday availability report closed the question that had hovered over the week: Smothers, who leads Texas with 289 rushing yards, will not be available against Ole Miss on Saturday night. That is useful clarity, but it does not make the backfield deep.
It simply removes one name from a problem that was already asking for a larger solution than Texas’ rushing numbers can comfortably provide.
Derrek Cooper is listed as probable. That is a meaningful step toward having him in the rotation, not confirmation that he will start or carry a full workload. Texas has not announced a replacement plan, a carry quota or an unrestricted role for Cooper. Cooper can give the coaches an option while leaving them decisions about how to distribute the work.
The arithmetic is unkind enough without embellishment. Texas has produced 810 net rushing yards on 224 attempts through six games, averaging 135 yards and 3.6 per carry. Smothers owns 289 of those yards.
Remove him from the available group and the Longhorns are not merely losing a familiar name; they are losing the team’s leading slice of a ground game that has not established much surplus in the first place.
That 3.6 average does not condemn every run or explain every stalled possession. It does, however, make the allocation question urgent. A thin rushing return leaves less room for an ordinary afternoon from the running game. Texas can survive a backfield being shared. It is harder to disguise a backfield that must share work without a proven replacement for its top producer.
Cooper’s probable designation gives the staff one more legitimate option, but his listing cannot answer the central football question: how much can he handle, and how much of the plan must be distributed elsewhere? Those are separate decisions. A player can be medically close enough to be probable while still receiving a role shaped by his recent availability, conditioning or the way the game develops.
Texas has room to divide the carries as the available backs and the game allow; it has no reason to announce a whole season’s hierarchy in response to one absence.
The absence of Jaydon Chatman adds another constraint, even though it belongs to the offensive line rather than the backfield. Chatman moved to out on Friday, while Jackson Christian was added as questionable. Texas therefore enters the Ole Miss matchup with fewer settled pieces around the running game as well as fewer settled pieces within it.
A changing line also changes the conditions in which the backs will be judged. A new runner cannot be expected to fix every problem that preceded his opportunity simply by taking the handoff.
