Who needs the transfer portal when your next running back might already be on campus?
Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian got just what he was looking for without really looking on Monday, when Texas varsity baseball player Nik Sanders announced he will play for the Longhorns football team this fall. Sanders is a 6-foot-2, 215-pound running back who was a standout for Waco (Texas) University and La Vega High Schools before arriving in Austin.
Texas baseball player Nik Sanders has been added to the football team's roster as a 6-2, 215-pound running back. As a freshman catcher and designated hitter out of Waco, Sanders appeared in nine games this past baseball season. #HookEm https://t.co/Ys0EPOSIfh
— Danny Davis (@_dannydavis) July 29, 2024
When he landed at the 40 Acres, Sanders intended to focus on baseball. Instead, after a freshman season in which he saw action in just 18 plate appearances, Sanders decided to try his hand as part of Texas' loaded running back room.
There's always a need for more depth in the offensive backfield, as the Longhorns experienced last year, when they replaced the injured Jonathan Brooks' carries with efforts from freshman CJ Baxter and sophomore Jaydon Blue. Now Sanders is hoping to be part of that rotation in the coming season.
That goal might be an uphill battle, as he becomes the eighth running back on the team's roster, but Sanders definitely has talent to contribute.
He's also just the latest in a long line of football-baseball dual-sport contributors on Texas' campus. There have been more than 70 players across history who have earned a varsity letter in both sports during their time in Austin, though none more impressively than Bibb Falk, one of the namesake's of Texas' Disch-Falk Field, who starred as a right tackle for the football team and a first baseman and pitcher for the baseball team.
Most notably, he was the player who replaced Shoeless Joe Jackson for the 1920 Chicago White Sox after Jackson was banned for participating in the Black Sox scandal. Falk later spent 25 years as the coach of the Longhorns, which is what he has become most famous for.
Of course, Texas legends Bobby Layne and James Street also fit this criteria. If Sanders eventually ends up on any list with Layne, Street or Falk, Longhorns fans will be extremely pleased.
