AUSTIN, Texas — During Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian’s Early Signing Day press conference on Wednesday, the Texas head coach provided injury updates on junior wide receiver Xavier Worthy, senior cornerback Ryan Watts, and sophomore nickel back Austin Jordan from the team’s third practice in preparation for the College Football Playoffs.
“Health wise, the coolest part for me was all those guys were practicing today and all of them looked really good to me. You know, are they all quite 100 percent? I don’t know,” said Sarkisian.
“But I know that they look fast, they were running around and that’s a real positive knowing we still have two weeks to the ballgame. So I think I think everything’s trending the right way on that front. They were going and so that part’s good — I think everybody will be available for the ballgame.”
No. 3 Texas faces No. 2 Washington on Jan. 1 in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans for a chance to play in the national championship game. The team went through strength and conditioning workouts during finals before restarting practice last Friday.
Worthy suffered an ankle injury that forced him to leave the last championship game the Longhorns played in for the Big 12 title earlier this month when he was tackled awkwardly on the sideline in the second half. X-rays were initially negative following the win over the Cowboys.
“He’s been dealing with the ankle stuff here for the past month or so, so the beauty of it is we’ve got plenty of time now to really get him healthy,” said Sarkisian in Arlington.
Against Kansas, Watts suffered a hamstring injury that forced him to miss three games. In the regular-season finale, the Ohio State transfer injured his back on the first play from scrimmage that kept him out the following week against Oklahoma State.
Of the three players, Sarkisian expressed the least amount of confidence that Jordan would play in the College Football Playoffs after sitting out the Big 12 Championship game with an undisclosed injury. The co-backup at nickel back is a core special teams players who has spent 222 of his 243 snaps this season playing in that phase.
