On Monday, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian provided injury updates on a few key players on the offensive side of the ball.

Sarkisian seemed optimistic that left tackle Kelvin Banks will be able to play in Saturday’s College Football Playoff first-round game against Clemson.

Banks — the winner of the 2024 Outland Trophy as the nation’s best college interior lineman — has been tending to an ankle injury that kept him out of the SEC Championship.

The junior is considered a potential top-five pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

“Kelvin was good last week. I was really actually very pleased,” Sarkisian said. “I was probably the one that held him back more than he actually wanted to do, but I wanted him to come back (Monday) feeling really good about where he was at. So, I’m comfortable with him.”

As for Quinn Ewers, Sarkisian said he’s encouraged by the progress of the Longhorns’ starting quarterback entering Saturday’s game.

Ewers has been nursing an ankle injury that he suffered against Kentucky on Nov. 23. The junior was able to play through the injury in both Texas’ regular season finale against Texas A&M and the SEC Championship Game against Georgia.

Sarkisian said Ewers practiced last week without the brace he had on against A&M and Georgia.

“I think he’s continually getting better,” Sarkisian said. “He came out of that Georgia game, the SEC Championship Game, feeling better than he did going in, and that was a positive. That was a physical game. So, him without the brace on last week running around, was really encouraging.”

Longhorns junior wide receiver Isaiah Bond, meanwhile, has been dealing with an ankle injury that he sustained against Oklahoma on Oct. 12.

Bond played in Texas’ regular season game against Georgia on Oct. 19 before sitting out of the Vanderbilt game on Oct. 26.

He returned for his team’s next five games, including the SEC Championship, but re–aggravated the ankle injury in the conference title game when it got rolled up on.

Sarkisian said Bond is “kind of in the same boat as” Banks and Ewers.

“Any time you have an ankle injury, it just takes time,” Sarkisian said of Bond. “We really took last week to shut him down completely to try to get him as healthy as we could.”

Bond is third on his team in receiving yards (532) and tied for third in touchdown catches (five), while he ranks fourth among Longhorns in receptions (33).

“Isaiah and I had a great meeting last week,” Sarkisian said, “and he’s going to do everything in his power to play this week, but we’re going to have to monitor that daily as it goes.

“I’ll get a little better gauge coming out of practice today and tomorrow as to kind of where he’s at and what his availability will look like for Saturday.”

Saturday’s CFP First Round Game between No. 12 seed Clemson (10-3) and fifth-seeded Texas (11-2) at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium is set to kick off at 4 p.m. ET and will be televised on TNT/Max.

–Photo courtesy Joshua l. Jones Athens Banner-Herald USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images