To say that the Texas Longhorns defense will look very different in 2024 would be an understatement of the year.
Any defensive team would suffer a great deal if they lost the conference’s Defensive Lineman of the Year or Defensive Player of the Year. Pete Kwiatkowski and new defensive line coach Kenny Baker will be under pressure after losing both players in the same season, who together led one of the greatest run defenses in the nation.
Even though Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat were excellent players in 2022, it was a plus when they developed into top defenders in 2023 to lead the defense. Being among the best rush defenses in the Big 12 in terms of line yards, stuff rate, and success rate gave the Longhorns a significant advantage over their opponents because it rendered most of them one-dimensionally dependent on the passing game. Alfred Collins and Vernon Broughton, who arrived on campus in 2020 with great anticipation, will need to perform at a comparable level in order to have any kind of comparable influence.
Two defensive ends ranked in the top 200 who committed to Oscar Giles have showed glimpses of the promise that coaches and evaluators recognized when they battled for their services four years ago, but neither has fully lived up to that potential. However, better growth on both sides of the ball has been one of the main changes to Texas during Steve Sarkisian’s leadership. Bo Davis, who left to coach his son for the LSU Tigers, was responsible for the interior lineman’s development. As a result, Baker, who has the capacity to advance in both college and the NFL, will be expected to demonstrate his worth right away.
Tiaoalii Savea, a transfer from the Arizona Wildcats, who joined the Longhorns this offseason with former Arizona defensive coach Johnny Nansen, will support the skill of those two players.
Savea is a more experienced run-stopper, so unless Kwiatkowski and Baker decide on a rotational corps to optimize his strengths alongside the rest of the unit, his development curve might be focused on learning his pass responsibilities for the defense.
Last month, Sarkisian stated, “I do think that room is going to be a strength of ours.” “Those two guys are projected first-round picks, and they were really good a year ago.” How many teams are equipped with that? Now that we have some extremely talented players in the room, it’s important to construct and expand the program such that a kid doesn’t have to start out as a true freshman and can instead grow as the other players play.
In addition, Texas will need to acquire important playing time from its underclassmen. Aaron Bryant and Sydir Mitchell will need to fill in for Collins and Broughton, who played second unit minutes the previous year. As a true freshman, Mitchell played little last season and is currently classified at 372 pounds, 37 pounds more than he was.
Perhaps the best athlete on the interior defensive line, rising redshirt sophomore Jaray Bledsoe is a player to watch for a breakout season. Bledsoe, who weighed 260 pounds when he arrived in Texas two years ago, is now up to 293 pounds.
The defense will require those youngsters to have a rapid route to competency in order to compete in the SEC trenches, as the loss of Kristopher Ross will shorten their development curve.
Sarkisian is aware that the college schedule is now more akin to the NFL and requires more depth as a result of the prolonged College Football Playoffs.
“If we’re lucky enough to make it to the second round of the playoffs, the last thing we want to happen is for a man to be hurt and you have to start a kid who hasn’t played all season. We will therefore need to adjust to that, as well as to playing a larger role and figuring out how to build those rotations properly.
Leave a Reply