Freshman running back Keaontay Ingram may not be available for action come Saturday when the Longhorns host USC for a rematch of last year's double overtime thriller against the Trojans. Ingram went down with an undisclosed knee injury against Tulsa last weekend, which second-year head coach Tom Herman said the initial MRI results did not show any type of ACL or MCL tear. However, Ingram is considered to be doubtful for Saturday's game when Texas plays host to USC.

In addition to Ingram's availability, Herman confirmed that junior center Zach Shackelford (ankle sprain), sophomore offensive lineman Patrick Hudson (hospitalized after dealing with heat related illness last week in practice), senior wide receiver John Burt (ankle) and true freshman defensive back DeMarvion Overshown are not expected to play or practice this week against USC.

With Ingram sidelined, the Longhorns' depth chart has either grad transfer running back Tre Watson or sophomore running back Daniel Young listed as the starters for the home game against the Trojans.

Ingram, a former four-star running back prospect in the 2018 signing class, has made his presence felt early in his first season playing college football. He posted his first touchdown of the playing career in Week 1 on a five yard touchdown run in the second quarter against Maryland. Ingram followed it up with his best career performance to date last weekend against Tulsa before his injury when he rushed for 64 yards on 10 carries, including a 29 yard touchdown run, which is the longest run thus far as a Longhorn. Though Ingram had a solid performance against Maryland in the first half of the game, he did not see much action down the stretch due to him being inexperienced and Texas trailing Maryland on the road.

"I think you'll continue to see his role progress and increase," Herman said about Ingram's carries. "There's no doubt in my mind. I think in a close game, on the road, after an hour-long rain delay, I made the call. I said, Stan, we have a fifth-year senior that's been in a loot of college football games and he's running the ball well. I thought Tre had had a pretty good day up until that point, any ways.

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"I said, you know, we need to -- we need to be -- we need the experience here in the fourth quarter of a tight ballgame on the road against Power Five opponent. And so that was why you didn't see him in the fourth quarter, because coming out of that rain delay, we had 14 minutes to go win the game. We wanted to make sure that the guy with the most experience in our backfield was out there the most."

Texas takes on USC Saturday with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. CT on FOX.