Reinforcements are on the way for Texas ahead of the Cotton Bowl.

On Thursday, ESPN reported that Longhorns offensive tackle Cameron Williams is expected to start against Ohio State in Friday’s College Football Playoff semifinal. He was forced to miss Texas’ last game – a 39-31 win over Arizona State – while recovering from a right knee sprain.

Though Williams was considered a game-time decision for the New Years Day clash, he wasn’t deemed healthy enough to suit up for the contest. One week prior, the 21-year-old suffered a knee injury against Clemson in the opening round of the CFP and was unable to put any weight on his leg. In his place, redshirt freshman tackle Trevor Goosby received the starting nod at right tackle.

It didn’t take long for Williams’ absence to be felt on the field. The Longhorns only managed to amass 53 total yards on the ground during last week’s Peach Bowl, routinely failing to find much of any success on outside zone runs to the right side – a staple of their offense.

Since coming to Texas in 2022, Williams has appeared in 37 games – 16 of which were starts – for the Longhorns. As a pillar on one of the best offensive lines in the nation, the 6-foot-5, 335 pound junior is expected to be a first-round pick in the NFL Draft.

Williams’ return is a welcome sight for Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and his squad, which enters Friday’s contest against Ohio State in uncharted territory as an underdog. The 50-year-old, for one, is hardly concerned about the label that the national media has given the Longhorns, telling reporters on Thursday: “We don’t talk that way. [Ohio State] coach [Ryan] Day touched on it. It’s a clean slate.

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Cameron Williams is expected to start against Ohio State on Friday

Cameron Williams is expected to start against Ohio State on Friday ( 

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“The reality of it is, you don’t get any points for being an underdog. You don’t get to go, ‘Hey, we lost by five, you win.’ It doesn’t work like that in our world.

“You either win or you lose the game. And so our job is to put forth maximum effort with great attention to detail to make sure we’re right in the mental frame of mind to compete, and then ultimately perform, and to perform in those critical moments. And so we don’t really talk that way.

“But again, human nature is human nature,” Sarkisian continued. “You can’t sit and think that our guys aren’t sitting around and looking at Twitter, because that’s what our guys do. When they get on the bus, they pull out their phones, like everybody else does. And so they hear that, but we don’t really speak that way. But I do think human nature is human nature.”