Texas aims to raise the standard on defense again

Despite coming in with a reputation as the top offensive coach in the nation, every year under Steve Sarkisian the Texas Longhorns have made meaningful improvements on defense. This seemed to culminate in last year’s unit producing a Thorpe Award winner, five NFL draft picks, yielding only 15.3 points per game, finished third in defensive FEI, and nearly gave the team a chance to win the National Championship.

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Despite that success, Sark brought two leaders from his 2025 defense to SEC Media Days and is expecting more big things on that side of the ball for next year.

“So this is probably the deepest and most talented defense that we’ve had, and we’ve made incremental growth on the defensive side of the ball now through four years, and we’re going to need to do that again,” Sark said. “I think championships are won on the defensive side of the ball, and we’ve got a defensive football team we’re very excited about.”

Making more progress on defense after the last two leaps is going to be difficult, but Texas is bringing back players who have made those improvements before. Sark noted of former walk-on and All-American safety Michael Taaffe,

“So now when you chronologically look at his path of walking on, being scout team player of the week, earning a little bit of playing time on special teams, earning a little bit of playing time on defense, to becoming a regular down player on defense, to becoming a front-line starter on defense, to becoming an All-American on defense, it’s like, how do you not respect the guy? All the while, the way he carries himself and the way he represents the University of Texas and our community, I think is something to be admired.”

For his own part, Taaffe had a particular area to improve upon from a year ago. His ability to maintain strength and health throughout the season while playing in a defense that often drops him down into the box against SEC opponents.

“I’m definitely adjusting because my body was pretty beat up by the end of it. I try to just lay my body out on the line every week for my team and obviously it’s a different environment going into the SEC. Week in, week out the physical challenge the SEC brings every single Saturday is tough, especially being a down safety. So I’ve adjusted a little bit in how I go about recovery, how I go about muscle strength, and so on.”

Dealing with the physicality and wear and tear of SEC play is almost a meme at this point but it’s a real thing and something the Longhorns will be better prepared for in year two.

Anthony Hill was another player who broke out in a major way in 2024.

“Yeah I didn’t know what was going on,” Hill said of his play in coverage in 2023 as a freshman before a seismic leap in his sophomore season. “It’s just understanding football better. Everything was fast my freshman year, just being able to slow it down to understand stuff my sophomore year. Hopefully I can take that next leap and get even better my junior year because the game has slowed down a little bit more.”

Beyond improvements by those two players, there’s the next generation of improving stars. Taaffe had a lot of praise for some of the developing young players on the team. Of sophomore Edge Colin Simmons, Taaffe related the following anecdote:

“One of the plays, he wears this long towel in practice, it’s like a shower towel. I’m like, what is this guy doing? All of a sudden he runs up with the 1s, one of the first weeks he’s out here, and “set…hut!” A second later, he’s getting back to the quarterback and he’s giving our left and right tackles a heck of a day. It’s definitely easier to play DB playing man coverage when you’ve got him going after the quarterback. It shocked my eye. It was like, is it that sweaty outside right now. Like, why is he wearing that towel? But then I watched him and he got after the quarterback. I was like, you can do whatever you want as long as you’re getting to the quarterback like that.”

Of early enrollee freshman and two-sport star Jonah Williams, Taaffe was also optimistic.

“He’s built like a freak. I mean he’s probably 6-4, 215, I don’t know off the top of my head but to have that stature, that frame, and also be able to run 22 mph is insane. And it’s not only all the physical abilities he has it’s the mental side. I was in there with him trying to help him and I was like ‘dude I’ll go down to the down side safety and you can just be in the top and show your range’ and he goes ‘nah, I want to learn both right now.”

You hear enough about the young athletes coming up the ranks at Texas and it becomes clear why Sark is so optimistic about maintaining a high level of play on the defensive side of the ball.

The Longhorns have a lot to replace, including star cornerback Jahdae Barron.

“You can’t replace Barron, you can’t replace a skill like that,” Taaffe said. “He’s one of a kind. He was a first rounder for a reason. He was the Thorpe Award winner for a reason. What you can do is you can keep trying to set the standard, keep raising the bar, and finding different pieces and different competitors to win the day.”

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Barron in particular wore a lot of hats for the defense, including sliding down to linebacker in the Dime package on 3rd downs. But Taaffe sees hope for replacing that versatility as well…

“Jelani McDonald is a stud,” he said.

Sark and the Longhorn leaders clearly believe the next wave of talented athletes on defense are ready to keep it going.