Texas has worked plenty this offseason to improve its 2022 defense

At one point during his Big 12 Media Days breakout session, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian mentioned to reporters that to play successful defense, “you’ve got to have the ability to stop the run.”

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Minutes later, in a different response, he said “I think the natural thing is you want to affect the quarterback more, but it’s hard to affect the quarterback when you’re giving up easy completions and the ball is coming out so quickly.”

If being ranked No. 100 in total defense and No. 99 in scoring defense wasn’t enough, Sarkisian’s words should get the point across: the Longhorn defense under Pete Kwiatkowski was a weakness on the 2021 team.

Kwiatkowski assuredly faced some headwinds entering his first year in Austin. As the third defensive coordinator in three years, he walked into a roster without perfect fits for his unique 2-4-5 defense that bullied the Pac-12 for the better part of the last decade. He also felt the effects of the season-long culture change that some players on his defense simply did not buy into.

That said, Kwiatkowski does bear responsibility for instances of misplaced personnel, tactical errors, and the plain inability to stop outside runs for a significant portion of the season.

Because of Sarkisian’s interview policies, Kwiatkowski has only faced the local media once in his Texas tenure. The offensive playcalling head coach prefers the questions about his defense go to him, and at Big 12 Media Days, they assuredly did.

How will the defense improve? Well, in addition to bolstering the run defense, ranked No. 114 in the country last year, Sarkisian knows his team has a need for improved coverage and pass rush.

“We tried to move people around in different spots and do some things schematically that would allow us to play tighter coverage that can help the pass rush, but also in turn continue to develop that pass rush to where we can get third-down stops and then create turnovers especially late in games,” Sarkisian said.

One such move is moving DeMarvion Overshown around the defense instead of slotting him only at the Will linebacker spot. Also included were shifting Anthony Cook and Kitan Crawford to safety from their respective Star and cornerback spots. Personnel additions were made in the offseason when Texas added Ohio State transfer cornerback Ryan Watts and James Madison transfer linebacker Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey to the defense, plus five-star defensive back Terrance Brooks from the 2022 class.

Plus, the current Longhorns say they have a better understanding of Kwiatkowski’s defense. And even though the pieces still may not be perfect fits, Kwiatkowski has the advantage this summer of additional instruction time with players during their workouts. In the extra time with the team, he emphasized an area where Texas struggled last season.

“I think this year, our point of emphasis is learning our playbook and also understanding why our job is so important to the defense as a whole,” Texas linebacker Ovie Oghoufo said at Big 12 Media Days. “As we’ve been learning that throughout the spring and heading into fall camp, all those counters and all types of runs, stretch, whatever you want to call it, will be shut down.”

Kwiatkowski also has some newfound help this season in the form of former TCU head coach and current special assistant to the head coach Gary Patterson. All reviews from Sarkisian regarding Patterson have been positive, and not all of those reviews have been concerning the defense. That said, defense is Patterson’s specialty and he’s taken chances to help current Longhorn defenders whenever the opportunity arises.

“Every little bit that you get from a coach like Coach Patterson, it means a lot,” Overshown said at Big 12 Media Days. “Knowing his resume, knowing the guys he’s put at the next level, if he says something you’re going to sit down and listen because you know he’s saying it for the good of you and for the team.”

In addition to working on the schematic and technical aspects of football, Longhorn defenders have worked to improve their mental conditioning during their physical workouts. Overshown mentioned there’s a pause in some workouts to note the end of the session is near, meaning it’s time to push past their perceived limits.

“We get to the last portion of it, and it’s the hardest part,” Overshown said. “We call everybody up to let them know that last year this is where we lost control of some of our games.”

Those are all positive sentiments coming from the side of the football that was a net negative against SEC and Big 12 opponents last year. With the influx of talent on the offensive side of the ball, competence from Kwiatkowski’s unit could be enough to create a winning product for Sarkisian in year two.

Have they reached that threshold? That’s to be determined in practices and games, but after fielding a historically bad unit in 2021, there’s nowhere to go but up in 2022.