AUSTIN, Texas — After he was ruled out for the remainder of spring practice earlier in the week, Texas linebacker De’Gabriel Floyd faces the outlook of a cloudy football future. Head coach Tom Herman said following Saturday's second spring scrimmage for the Longhorns that Floyd has been diagnosed with spinal stenosis.

Herman didn't declare Floyd's football career over, but things are clearly on hold for the foreseeable future.

"We're going to continue to evaluate him," Herman said. "Probably not going to be cleared for this season, but we're going to reevaluate him in January and hope nine months of rehab, exercise, no hitting — I mean, the kid has been hitting that same [way] since he was 8 years old playing football.

"Until then he'll help (defensive coordinator Todd Orlando) coach and continue pretty aggressive rehab."

A four-star signee out of Westlake High School in Los Angeles, Calif., Floyd enrolled on the Forty Acres for the spring semester on the Forty Acres to go through spring practice. Unfortunately, Floyd wasn't cleared for contact prior before being forced to the sideline.

Herman said following the team’s first spring scrimmage last weekend that Floyd had already undergone a bone scan to check for problems involving the vertebrae and any structural neck issues. According to Herman, Floyd underwent an MRI last Friday and the Longhorns were expecting the results back in the days to follow.

Floyd's situation has led to Texas going through spring practice without one of the top defensive prospects in the country from the 2019 cycle available to contribute. As a high school senior Floyd recorded 120 tackles and six sacks while scoring nine touchdowns (five rushing touchdowns, two punt returns, one fumble recovery, one interception) and was a finalist for the high school version of the Butkus Award (nation's top linebacker).

An All-American Bowl participant, the 6-foot-2-inch, 231-pound Floyd finished the 2019 cycle as the No. 67 overall prospect in the 247Sports Composite rankings. Floyd was also ranked as the nation’s No. 3 overall inside linebacker prospect as was the fifth highest-rated member of the Texas signing class behind fellow spring enrollees Bru McCoy, Jordan Whittington and Tyler Johnson and wide receiver signee Jake Smith.

When discussing Floyd following his signing during the December period, Herman told reporters about the “remarkable confluence of events that have brought our lives together.”

“He actually transferred into (Westlake) for his senior year, which happened to be a high school where one of my college teammates actually had just gotten the head coaching job, named Tim Kirksey,” Herman said. “Then, you take it a step further and his support system, the Miller family, Tony and Jean — Tony retired from law enforcement about four or five years ago in L.A., helped raise De'Gabriel. They retired early, still had young kids, and they were looking for a place in the country to retire. They chose Austin, Texas. Credit to the Chamber of Commerce of Austin for getting that family here.”

Texas has gone through spring practice ahead of next weekend's spring game with only four scholarship inside linebackers: redshirt freshman Ayodele Adeoye, senior Jeffrey McCulloch, junior college transfer Caleb Johnson and true freshman Marcus Tillman Jr. The Longhorns have also had walk-on linebackers Luke Brockermeyer and Cort Jaquess get some action with the No. 2 defense.

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Texas does have help on the way this summer when signee David Gbenda of Katy Cinco Ranch arrives on campus. An Under Armour All-America selection, Gbenda could play either Rover (weakside, off the ball) or Mac (middle) in Orlando's scheme.