Texas linebacker Anthony Hill, after being listed as questionable all week leading up to the game against Texas A&M, has officially been ruled out for the Lone Star Showdown. Hill, a former five-star that Texas flipped from A&M thanks to Jimbo Fisher's decline, is one of the top defenders on the Longhorn defense, so this is a big blow to a unit that already had its work cut out for it.
The thing that makes this worse for the Longhorns is that their backup, Ty'Anthony Smith (another Aggie flip, as it happens), is unable to play in the first half after a targeting ejection in the second half of last week's game against Arkansas. That means Texas will be scraping the bottom of the barrel for LB depth in the first half in particular, to say nothing of the issues they'll have with one of the top players on their defense unable to go.
Texas linebacker Anthony Hill officially downgraded to out against Texas A&M
Of course, the Aggies are out RB Le'Veon Moss, LB Scooby Williams, and S Bryce Anderson for this game— all three are senior starters. Injuries are part of the game, and the Aggies are actually more affected than are the Longhorns in this one.
With Hill out of the game, Texas A&M will be much more able to exploit the Texas front when running the ball in the modified veer packages that Klein has cooked up for Reed and this stable of backs. They'll also have more success passing short in the middle to the TE position, much like they did against the Missouri Tigers (who run a similar system to the Longhorns).
We'll see just how big of a loss this is for Texas before too long, as the game is set to kick off un under half an hour. There's no doubt that the Aggie coaching staff has a good handle on things and are ready with an elite gameplan to take home their 12th win of the year.