Greg McElroy reveals why he left CJ Baxter off Top 10 college football running back list

CJ Baxter just missed the mark on Greg McElroy’s top 10 running backs for the 2025 season. The Texas RB is a very talented runner but the injuries are a concern.

Coming off injuries to his ACL and LCL, Baxter might be a wait-and-see type of running back. But Texas will feature him this season as a key part to the offense.

Sure, there’s Tre Wisner in the backfield, but it’ll be the total package with Baxter. He’s just not top 10 as of now.

“Coming into the 24 season, the expectations were sky high, because if you look at what he did as a true freshman the year before, he was pretty effective,” McElroy said on Always College Football. “But he got more effective as the season went along. CJ Baxter maybe took a little time, had to take a bit of a back seat to Jonathan Brooks, who went on to have an amazing season for Texas two years ago. 

“So Baxter was kind of lost there in the shuffle …  But you felt like last year it was finally going to be his show. It was finally going to be an opportunity for Baxter to show ‘Hey, I’m the five star phenom that everyone expected me to be when I arrived at Texas a couple years back.’ However, pre season injury to his ACL and LCL required surgery shut him down the entire season, but he now is going to be back in the mix to compliment and already emerged Tre Wisner.”

Wisner was largely asked to step up to fill in for some of those injuries. He finished the year with 1,064 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. He also caught 44 receptions for 311 yards and another touchdown. Jaydon Blue, now a Dallas Cowboy, was the other key running back for Texas last season.

Much was expected of Baxter going into the 2024 season. He had rushed for 659 yards and five touchdowns as a freshman in 2023 while sharing carries with Jonathon Brooks. However, a knee injury required surgery on his ACL and LCL. One of the backs expected to step up once he went down, Christian Clark, tore his Achilles over the summer. Now, they’re both returning to the running back room.

“I think that the backfield will be better, in some degree,” head coachSteve Sarkisian said. “We got two guys coming off of injuries in CJ Baxter and Christian Clark, and we really think highly of both of them. We have a 1,000-yard rusher coming back, Tre Wisner, and we have a true freshman kid who’s going to be a sophomore in Jerrick Gibson, who played some really significant meaningful snaps in some big games. And so I feel really good about the running back room.”