{"id":441417,"date":"2026-09-19T22:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T22:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/441417\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T22:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T22:04:11","slug":"texas-longhorns-db-surprisingly-ruled-out-against-utsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/441417\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Longhorns DB Surprisingly Ruled Out Against UTSA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">The Texas Longhorns are being hit with some interesting roster news ahead of their non-conference finale against UTSA at home on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">Texas safety Kobe Black will miss tonight&#8217;s game against UTSA, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EricCHenry_\/status\/2101395183099068632?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">per reports from Eric Henry of Horns247.<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6s\">Henry reported that Black is dealing with a &#8220;minor injury&#8221; and he&#8217;s expected to return for the SEC opener against Tennessee in Knoxville next week.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">Fans will have to wait and see what Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has to say about Black&#8217;s injury after the game. <\/p>\n<p>Kobe Black&#8217;s Absence Comes as a Surprise<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01m2xmc7mbatfd4z8btb.jpg\" alt=\"Texas Longhorns defensive back Kobe Black \" title=\"Texas Longhorns defensive back Kobe Black \" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"7e\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Texas Longhorns defensive back Kobe Black (6) against the Clemson Tigers during the CFP National playoff first round at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.  | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">Black&#8217;s absence comes as a surprise, as he didn&#8217;t appear to suffer an injury against Ohio State. He was on the field during the final play of the comeback win when Longhorns cornerback Graceson Littleton came up with the game-sealing interception.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7p\">Perhaps a potential injury occurred during practice this week, but until we get all of the facts, it&#8217;s hard to assume anything. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7u\">Regardless, Black&#8217;s absence is notable for Texas, especially since safety Xavier Filsaime has already missed the first two games of the year due to injury.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7z\">Black played cornerback last season before moving to safety. During the first two games of this year, he&#8217;s posted four total tackles and one pass breakup. He had three tackles in the win over Ohio State.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"84\">In his Texas career, Black has tallied 32 total tackles (23 solo), two pass breakups and one interception.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"89\">This was highlighted by the game-sealing interception he had in the final moments of Texas&#8217; upset win over No. 3 Texas A&amp;M last season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8e\">Black was set to enter the transfer portal this past offseason, per multiple reports, but he elected to return to Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Where Texas Goes From Here<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01m2xpt8z2tms1sc8e08.jpg\" alt=\"Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian\" title=\"Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian\" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"8v\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian looks on before the game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.   | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"91\">Though Black&#8217;s absence is notable, it gives another members of the Texas secondary a chance to get increased playing time against UTSA before the Longhorns head into the SEC schedule against Tennessee next week.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"96\">This means Texas defensive backs like Jonah Williams, Derek Williams Jr., Jordon Johnson-Rubell and Toray Davis among others could play notable snaps on Saturday night. The SEC slate likely won&#8217;t allow many of Texas&#8217; depth pieces to see significant action, barring injury to the starters, so taking advantage of the opportunity in front of them is crucial. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9b\">It will be interesting to see what Texas&#8217; safety rotation looks like against UTSA with Black sidelined.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-18\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9g\">Sign up to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/texas\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0our free newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TexasLonghornsOnSI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LonghornsOnSI\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u00a0X<\/a>\u00a0and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/texaslonghornsonsi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0for the latest news.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:pointerenter=\"q-COP7zT6j.js#s_1NOcOpHWmT0\" on:touchstart=\"q-CR27V2Qt.js#s_R8AiGTDeM28\" on:focus=\"q-BkJ6v8Fp.js#s_gxiTM6qMMu8\" on:click=\"q-DBywg9xr.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"9m\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Longhorns are being hit with some interesting roster news ahead of their non-conference finale against UTSA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-441417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}