Last week, Texas had Florida where it wanted them, when the Longhorns built a 17-3 lead at home, but then watched it vanish in a 27-24 loss. Early in the fourth quarter, edge Colin Simmons took on a Florida offensive lineman on a running play and went down. He stayed on the ground for more than a minute, holding his right knee and ankle, before staff helped him to the locker room. 

Reports later pointed to a high ankle sprain and a three-to-four week absence. That alone hurt, but on Thursday, a second name started making the rounds. Richard Wesley, the freshman edge rusher on whom Texas partly relied to replace Simmons, got listed out for Saturday’s game, October 24, against Ole Miss.

“I learned that Texas freshman edge rusher Richard Wesley, who has been ruled out for Saturday’s game against Ole Miss, sustained a high ankle sprain,” reporter Anwar Richardson of OrangeBloods posted on X. “There are concerns behind the scenes that he could miss the remainder of the regular season.”

Richardson added that the focus for now is treatment, in hopes of a speedy recovery. He also said Texas is expected to face Ole Miss without both Simmons and Wesley. 

To see why this stings, start with Simmons. He had 10.5 sacks through six games, and his 31.5 career sacks rank third in school history, behind only Tim Campbell and Kiki DeAyala. Before he got hurt, he led the nation in sacks, and CBS projected him as a first-round pick for 2027.

Replacing a player like that was not going to be easy anyway, and now even the hope of Wesley is out of the question. The plan was for him to help fill the pass-rushing role Simmons left. He is a highly regarded California recruit, and he has seven tackles through six games, including two against Florida. 

During Monday’s presser, Longhorns players talked about Wesley, as defensive tackle Hero Kanu praised him. 

“He’s totally dialed,” Kanu said. “I think physically he’s ahead of his time. He’s still young, but physically he’s so developed. I think he can go out there and make an impact as well.”

Offensive tackle Trevor Goosby said, “He has more moves in the bag than your normal edge rusher.”

Head coach Steve Sarkisian had said it would take several players to replace Simmons, and he named Wesley’s growth as one piece of that. Lance Jackson, Zina Umeozulu and Raheem Biles were the others. Now Wesley is gone too. Texas will lean on Colton Vasek and Smith Orogbo at JACK, with Jackson and Umeozulu moving around the front.

But the timing makes it worse. Texas is 4-2 and ranked No. 19, with two back-to-back for the first time in a season since 2021, and the Ole Miss game matters for its playoff hopes. The Longhorns can’t afford a thin pass rush this week.

Can Texas get to Trinidad Chambliss without blitzing?

That is the question for Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. Texas has built its defense on getting home with four rushers. According to the SEC StatCat numbers, its blitz rate is 16.3%, the second-lowest in the conference, and it averages 4.16 pass rushers, the fourth-lowest.

Even so, it ranks fifth in pressure rate at 34.9%, first in sack percentage at 15.1%, and is tied for the SEC lead with 13 sacks. That formula leaned heavily on Simmons.

Ole Miss comes in as the No. 7 team in the country at 5-1, fresh off a 31-3 win over Missouri. Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss is a Heisman candidate who averages 279.3 passing yards per game, second in the SEC. He has accounted for 20 touchdowns and has 127 rushing yards, so he can beat you from the pocket or by moving.

Sending extra rushers carries a cost against him because Pro Football Focus has Chambliss completing 62.7% of his passes against the blitz for 608 yards, six touchdowns, and one interception. Muschamp can blitz more to make up for the missing pass rushers and leave fewer defenders in coverage, or he can stay with four and hope his replacements get there.

The context of the rivalry for the game about to unfold on October 24: Texas leads the all-time series 6-2, but the last meeting went to Ole Miss, 44-23, on September 14, 2013. That was more than a decade ago, so it tells you little about these two teams today. 

Texas beat Ole Miss 12-7 in the 1962 Cotton Bowl, the game that capped the 1961 regular season, and it came away with interceptions in a low-scoring game. That is the kind of defensive game Texas will want on Saturday, and it will have to play it without Simmons and Wesley. Texas fans might not like the sound of that, though. Either way, the plan has changed. 

Texas went into the Florida game with a pass rush it trusted. It heads into Ole Miss without its best rusher and the freshman who was supposed to help replace him, and the Ole Miss quarterback is not one a defense wants to face while short-handed.