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Colin Simmons is playing like an All-American

by: Justin Nash16 hours ago
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Colin Simmons (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

There are few scarier things to a quarterback than a dominant edge rusher, and right now Colin Simmons is straight up nightmare material. After a quiet start in the box scores, Simmons has seen his play heat up in recent weeks. Playing like a top-five NFL draft pick, the Longhorns will need his play the rest of the way.

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Simmons entered the year as one of the most feared players in college football, and for good reason. While he only recorded 1.5 sacks the first 5 games of the season, he was still recording a high amount of pressures on the QB. He was close, but he wasn’t getting home.

At this point last year, Simmons had 4.0 sacks on the season, 7.5 tackles for loss, and one forced fumble. So far he has improved on every one of those numbers, as well as doubling both the sack and forced fumble totals. With 9.5 TFLs, he is only five away from meeting his 16-game mark from 2024.

Since the start of the Red River Shootout, he has erupted with a high level of play. Leading the country in sacks with 6.5, he has asserted himself as one of the top defenders in the nation. Simmons is the type of guy that can succeed despite a gameplan being heavily centered around not letting him do so.

Only once in the last four games has he been held without a sack or a TFL, that was against Mississippi State. However, that was the game where he recorded his highest tackle total on the year.

Simmons has been extremely dominant as of late and as a leader of this team, he has been leading by example. With two mobile quarterbacks sitting ahead on Texas’ schedule, the Longhorns need Simmons to continue terrorizing opposing QBs.

Colin Simmons was named the SEC co-defensive lineman of the week on Monday

  • Simmons produced a strip-sack and also made the recovery on the first Vanderbilt possession of the game to go along with five tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and two pressures in Texas’ 34-31 win over the No. 9 Commodores.
  • The recovery set up the UT offense at the Vanderbilt 29-yard line, which it converted for field goal and a 10-0 lead on the way to the win. On the Commodore’s next possession, Simmons pressured the quarterback into an incomplete pass on third-and-11 at midfield to force a punt.
  • The Texas offense then drove 83 yards on that possession for a 17-0 lead. On the following Vanderbilt possession, Simmons registered a tackle for no gain and a half tackle for a four-yard loss, helping limit the Commodores to a field goal on the possession.
  • Overall, Simmons efforts helped the Texas defense post six sacks, twice as many as quarterback Diego Pavia has ever suffered in a game in his career.
  • This season, Simmons leads Texas with eight sacks, 9.5 tackles for loss and eight pressures. His 0.89 sacks per game rank second in the SEC and 9th in the FBS. In his last four games, Simmons has accounted for 6.5 sacks and 7 tackles for loss.

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