On Texas Football: Which defenses will be the most difficult for Texas to handle in 2023?
In the latest video episode of On Texas Football, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton and Ian Boyd give us a look at the toughest defenses the Longhorns will play in the 2023 season, take a deep dive into the strengths and weaknesses of those defenses and give us their ideas about what Texas has to do on offense to be successful against those opponents.
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Boyd and Burton discussed how the Longhorns will matchup against Kansas State, Baylor, Iowa State, Texas Tech, TCU and Alabama.
Defending Big 12 champion Kansas State always is tough to handle defensively, with a solid group of players that Boyd called “Bill Snyder 2.0,” in reference to the Wildcats’ former coach.
“K-State is maybe the smartest coached team in the Big 12 on defense,” Boyd said. “Chris Klieman and his staff are just really good at game planning matchups and they have been ever since they arrived up there.
“They have some good pass rushers, they have good Blitzers and they have some good defensive backs. They have good pressure packages to get extra pass rushers on the field. They’re just a very versatile and well-coached team. So they’re just always going to be a challenge for really any offense but certainly if your offense has any limitations, they will know how to make them show up.”
Baylor, led by coach Dave Aranda and his defensive scheme, poses problems for opponents because the Bears always find a way to generate pressure. “Aranda likes to create pressure from every which way and really gave Texas some problems last season,” Burton explained.
Baylor will be a fantastic early test for the Longhorns because it will be a litmus test on the improvement of the Texas offensive line’s ability to pass block.
“(The Baylor defensive players) really know their system well,” Boyd added. “They’re going to be good at generating pressure. It’s just how it’s going to be with them. I don’t know if their defense will be good overall, because they lack athleticism in a lot of places.”
Burton opined that Alabama will have the best and easily the most talented defense Texas will see this year. Boyd expects the Crimson Tide to go back to more of a base defense under new coordinator Kevin Steele.
“Schematically, Alabama may bring some exotic blitzes or some different coverages, but I think they may move a little bit away from that they did and move a little more towards just kind of base defense execution with Steele,” Boyd said. “And so no one will do that with more talent against Texas than Alabama.”
Iowa State is difficult because its defense is sound in really every position.
“I think (Texas coach) Steve Sarkisian had to work pretty hard, basically, to scheme up ways to attack that defense last year,” Boyd said. “Iowa State is just very difficult. They’re very sound everywhere. They play big, physical players that can run and tackle. They will drop back in coverage and make you beat them on the ground and then when you try to do that, they have big physical players beating blocks. I think the way to beat them is to actually spread them out.”
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There’s plenty of additional info on the video so go check it out in its entirety.
