'Hollywood Ending'? Longhorns At Missouri Preview Features Injury Potholes

This is not the Hollywood ending Texas dreamed of.

To get to their ultimate destination, the University of Texas Longhorns will have to navigate two unexpected detours and two dangerous potholes.

The detours: Losses to unranked Oklahoma and Florida. The potholes: Injury losses of offensive starters Trevor Goosby and Hollywood Smothers.

Even more daunting on the horizon: Consecutive road games at No. 18 Missouri Saturday afternoon in Columbia and Nov. 14 at LSU.

After the inexplicable blown-lead losses to OU and the Gators, head coach Steve Sarkisian’s team has rebounded with two home wins over Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The sorta-surge has the Horns at 6-2 and awarded a surprisingly high No. 7 ranking in the first College Football Playoff rankings.

But on the heels of losing Goosby - their starting left tackle and top NFL prospect - to a torn patellar tendon, Texas must now hit November’s rocky road schedule without their No. 2 running back. Smothers, second on the team in rushing yards and touchdowns behind Raleek Brown, suffered a torn MCL in last weekend’s win over the Bulldogs and is out for the season.

In his lone season on the Forty Acres, Smothers has racked up 283 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 69 carries, adding 10 receptions for 79 yards and a touchdown. His two rushing scores both came in Texas’ Week 2 come-from-behind win against then-No. 1 Ohio State.

Edge rusher Colin Simmons, who has missed the Longhorns’ past two games with a sprained ankle, is listed as questionable against Mizzou, along with starting wide receivers Ryan Wingo and Cam Coleman.

Though still alive and kicking, this Texas season certainly hasn’t gone as planned. Now the Horns will have to play their most important games without two of their most important offensive players.

For the Longhorns, this is the first of three road games in their final four on this season's schedule. Traditional power LSU sits in wait for next week, and so the margin for error on the year disappears entirely after this Saturday matchup with Missouri.

Kickoff for this one is slated for 11 a.m. CT on ESPN.