Even though an injury kept him off the field, CJ Baxter still improved in 2024
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Running backs don't typically say they'd rather be tackled than score a touchdown, but then again, Texas' CJ Baxter isn't a typical running back.
Coming off a knee injury that kept him out all of last season, Baxter said he's "100%" and ready to go this season after a year of intense physical therapy and rehabilitation workouts. He said he was excited to get hit in the team's first scrimmage of fall camp Aug. 9.
"The first two months were brutal, mentally, watching the games," he said. "I had surgery a week before the first game, so I had to stay home and watch from the couch. It was hard to watch football. But the whole part of rehab was to put the work in so I wouldn't have to worry about my knee."
A silver lining with the injury, Baxter said, was that it provided somewhat of an awakening for him. A moment of clarity, if you will. It made him really think about the game, himself and the people around him. It's his first major injury, and he said he "never felt alone."
"When I look back on it, I'm not glad that I got injured, but I'm grateful to what it did for me," he said. "Mentally, physically, spiritually, things like that."
One of the people by his side through the whole thing was his girlfriend, national champion third baseman for the Texas Longhorns softball team, Mia Scott. She's famously known for playing basically the entire 2025 season on one good knee, the other had a torn ACL, and Baxter said that while she ribbed him about not being able to play on his torn ACL, he leaned on her for strength when he didn't want to do anything.
"She would always mess with me about it," he said, laughing. "She pushed me, if anything. When there were days I didn't want to get up and be lazy, she made me get up."
She's provided more motivation than just being an alarm clock, though. Baxter said her national championship trophy sits on his bedside table, and it's the first thing he sees every morning.
He could have easily isolated himself from the team throughout his rehab process, just working with trainers and the coaching staff, but he felt like he needed to be there for his teammates because, quite simply, they were there for him. He likes seeing others around him succeed, and it was imperative to him to be around to witness his teammates be great.
It also made him a smarter player.
"I became a real student of the game," he said. "Being around the team was big because I'd have a script in practice, I'd be behind the line of scrimmage, looking at the whole field. During games, the coaches would give me the iPad and ask me what I saw, and stuff like that. I'm ready to go."