Texas will be without top tailback Hollywood Smothers for Saturday's showdown against No. 7 Ole Miss as the No. 19 Longhorns try to avoid a third straight loss since ascending to the No. 1 ranking.
Smothers, who leads the Longhorns with 289 rushing yards on 65 carries with two TDs, was ruled out on the SEC availability report after he suffered a shoulder injury in the fourth quarter of last week's loss to Florida.
Raleek Brown and freshman Derrek Cooper should see increased carries for the Longhorns as a result.
The Longhorns (4-2, 1-2 SEC) already will be without edge rusher Colin Simmons (ankle), who leads the nation in sacks and tackles for loss, after he suffered an ankle injury vs. the Gators.
Simmons has 10.5 sacks and 16 tackles for loss this year. His 31.5 career sacks are third in Texas history and the fourth most by an FBS player through his first three seasons over the past 20 years.
With starter Arch Manning struggling and facing increased scrutiny, the Longhorns gave increased first-team snaps to redshirt freshman quarterback KJ Lacey in practice this week, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel.
"Arch can play better for us," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian told reporters this week. "He's our starter. But I need a better version of Arch Manning."
Manning had significantly less first-team snaps in practice this week, sources told ESPN, after his critical fourth-quarter turnovers in back-to-back losses to Oklahoma and Florida. He is No. 10 in the SEC in completion percentage (63.9%) and has five interceptions. His 11 touchdown passes rank him No. 9 in the league.
Sarkisian said this week that he would evaluate "everything" about the offense, including Manning.
"I would use the word edgy, and I like it," Sarkisian told reporters this week about Manning's demeanor. "He's edgy right now. And I think that somebody texted me today that we lost the 'Aw Shucks' kid, and we created something else. I don't know if we lost him, we created this, we did, all of us. Y'all included me, the whole thing, right?
"... And so we'll see what comes out of it, but he's edgy right now. And honestly, I appreciate that about him. At some point, he's gotta fight back. And the best way for him to fight back is going out and playing really good football with his teammates, and enjoy playing football with his teammates. And so I'm looking forward to watching him compete Saturday night."