Texas’ carries with Derrek Cooper and without Derrek Cooper
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Against what the season’s ratings expected, Texas was 1.1 carries over with Derrek Cooper and 0.7 carries under without Derrek Cooper in 2026, 6 games against 2. The plain averages are 37.2 and 35.0, a difference of 2.2.
Derrek Cooper, running back: 103 rushing yards, 29 carries and 2 receptions in 6 games this season, 13% of Texas’s carries in those games.
2 games without Derrek Cooper is still too small a sample for the statistics to say much, but maybe you can find something if you squint.
carries a game over expected
with Derrek Cooper
+1.1
without Derrek Cooper
−0.7
-50510
A +1.7 difference in carries over expected with Derrek Cooper vs without Derrek Cooper is about what you’d expect.
plain
37.2
35.0
30354045
A +2.2 difference in carries with Derrek Cooper vs without Derrek Cooper is about what you’d expect.
The games
with Derrek Cooperwithout Derrek Cooper
| Side | Date | Game | Result | carries | Expected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 5, 2026 | vs Texas State | W | 36 | 36.1 | |
| Sep 12, 2026 | vs Ohio State | W | 40 | 34.5 | |
| Sep 19, 2026 | vs UTSA | W | 48 | 36.0 | |
| Sep 26, 2026 | @ Tennessee | W | 35 | 34.7 | |
| Oct 10, 2026 | vs Oklahoma (neutral) | L | 32 | 35.3 | |
| Oct 17, 2026 | vs Florida | L | 30 | 36.9 | |
| Oct 24, 2026 | vs Ole Miss | W | 40 | 38.1 | |
| Oct 31, 2026 | vs Mississippi State | W | 32 | 36.5 |
Method
- Expected is an offense and a defense a team, fit over every 2026 game between two teams in the table with the game being read left out, plus 0.6 for the home team (the edge the fit finds once strength is in), nothing at a neutral site.
- Each expected number is then fit to the season’s games: a game bears out about 61% of the difference the model predicts.
- The shuffle keeps the season’s shape: the games are cut in two where one date leaves the least variance, each game is read against its stretch, and the sides are shuffled only inside each stretch.
- Who played is read from the schools’ box scores’ participation lists for 7 of these 8 games; in the other game a player is counted as in it when the box score has a stat for him.