Colin Simmons Is Doubtful Against Ole Miss With a High Ankle Sprain: What It Means for Texas
Texas listed edge rusher Colin Simmons as doubtful for Saturday’s game against No. 7 Ole Miss on the SEC availability report released Wednesday night, four days after he was carted off against Florida with what ESPN reported is a high ankle sprain.
Simmons leads all of FBS with 10.5 sacks and 16 tackles for loss. He is also the only reason Texas has a pass rush.
One Player, Most of the Production
Texas has 19 sacks this season. Simmons has 10.5 of them, which is 55 percent of his team’s total by himself. Everyone else on the roster combines for 8.5, and the next closest Longhorn is defensive lineman Maraad Watson with three.
It got worse on the same report. True freshman edge Richard Wesley, the player most often named as the one who would absorb Simmons’ snaps, is listed out.
So the plan against a 5-1 Ole Miss team is Lance Jackson and Zina Umeozulu, who have one sack each, with linebacker Rasheem Biles blitzing behind them. Jackson’s framing of it was blunt. “If he can’t go, I mean, just like for me, I got to step up.”
What Texas Loses
Simmons is a junior, a five-star recruit out of Duncanville who won the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year award in 2024 and made second-team All-American in 2025. He has 31.5 sacks and 45.5 tackles for loss in 35 career games, nine sacks behind Kiki DeAyala’s Texas record.
On September 26 at Tennessee he had 5.5 sacks in a single game, tying the SEC record, and swept the national player of the week honors from the Bednarik, Nagurski and Walter Camp committees. Mel Kiper has him fifth overall on his 2027 draft board, the highest-ranked SEC player on it.
He had already recorded Texas’ only sack of the Florida game before leaving it in the fourth quarter, thrown to the ground on a block and helped off with almost no weight on his right leg. Steve Sarkisian said afterward it looked like a lower leg injury and that he did not know the extent. Horns247 reported a source put the timeline at three to four weeks, which would point to a return around November 21 against Arkansas.
The Timing Could Not Be Worse
Texas is 4-2 and ranked No. 19 in the AP poll after spending four straight weeks at No. 1. The Longhorns lost 27-24 to Oklahoma in Dallas, then 27-24 to Florida at home, and the second one dropped them 12 spots.
Arch Manning is still the starter, though Sarkisian said all options are on the table and ESPN reported Texas would give redshirt freshman KJ Lacey Jr. more first-team reps this week. Manning has 1,295 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions, and he turned the ball over late in both losses: two fourth-quarter interceptions against Oklahoma, a fumble inside the final two minutes against Florida.
Ole Miss arrives in Austin at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC behind quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, 11th nationally in QBR, and running back Kewan Lacy. First-year head coach Pete Golding, who was promoted when Lane Kiffin left for LSU, spent Monday arguing Texas has been unlucky rather than bad. “We got to be violent up front,” he said.
He will get the chance. Texas is still second nationally in yards allowed per play, which is the argument that this defense survives a week without its best player. The trouble with that argument is who built the number.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
