The Texas Longhorns 2023 Defensive Nucleus

God laughs at Man’s returning projections in the world of early NFL draft entries, breezy portals and easy NIL, but let’s give it the old college try and pretend there are no surprises.

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Texas has a lot of work to do in the offseason developing the young talent already on campus and hitting the portal to fulfill some key needs, but the core returning nucleus is quite promising. The staff has the necessary scaffolding to build out the ’23 defense on all three levels. Look to the coming bowl practices and bowl game to serve as a preview for important spring auditions.

Defensive Line

Barryn Sorrell

T’Vondre Sweat

Byron Murphy

Alfred Collins

An important potential core four return up front.

Sorrell had a big bump up in play from freshman to sophomore and there’s little reason to think that trend line won’t keep pointing up as a junior. His 5.5 sacks led the team and he still has physical upside.

Sweat actually played more snaps than the emergent Keondre Coburn in ’22 and he’ll get an even bigger lion’s share in ’23. Ideally, Bo Davis will develop or find one more big body depth piece inside to keep him fresh. With a focused offseason, Sweat has the baseline talent to go from a late round draft pick to a second day draftee.

Byron Murphy played good ball all year but he lost snaps with the interior logjam of talent. Losing Coburn and Ojomo frees up a lot of snaps for him. 2023 should be his year.

Alfred Collins’ inclusion may get pushback, but he played well over the last half of the season and had a major impact last week against Baylor. He will be forced to accept the responsibility of a primary role and I expect that to grow him.

Needs: Texas has some good young players on campus that will be key to filling out the two deep and finding an emergent starter. As for portal browsing, Texas could really use an experienced starter edge and perhaps an additional body inside. The former is a priority, the latter is a luxury. Collins/Sweat/Murphy have the potential to be a good interior pass rushing trio and Collins offers the additional flexibility of playing outside. The 2nd line potential of Finkley, Bledsoe, Tapp, Ross etc is considerable.

Linebacker

Jaylan Ford is the only name but the 2022 Texas Defensive MVP is a good one. He led the team in tackles, interceptions, forced fumbles and he became a powerful stabilizing force over the course of the season. He can get even better.

Needs: The need for a starting off-the-ball linebacker from the portal to complement Ford is screaming. The only thing better would be two starting level linebackers to create instant depth and to allow Pete to play more 3-3 looks.

Defensive Back

Jerrin Thompson

Ryan Watts

Jahdae Barron

The best three players in the ’22 secondary should return. That’s great news.

Thompson’s body caught up to his will this year and he still has developmental meat on the bone in terms of recognition and physical development. Getting back the guy who lines everyone up is always a positive.

Barron finished the season on fire and led the team with tackles for loss, in no small part because he’s an absolute savage against the wide receiver screen game and misdirection. Whether Barron is best used at nickel or cornerback will depend on organic development elsewhere and the portal bounty. Potential star.

Ryan Watts revealed himself as a plus coverage corner with elite ability in run support and as the overhang against certain spread formations. Mature, stable, physical, plays through injury. A player that Texas wants to build its identity around.

Needs: Guilbeau and Brooks aren’t proven enough to warrant nucleus status at this stage, but their offseason growth would make this unit a team strength. Portal? Texas badly needs a high level starter addition at safety and possibly another corner. The good news is that grad transfer safeties with plenty of scalps on their belt are typically in good supply. Quality safeties with 25-40 FBS starts are surprisingly common every year.

Final Thoughts

That’s 8 core players I feel very good about it or am fairly confident in projecting their upside as opportunity becomes available. Now the defense needs to fill out 15 more spots (and 3-4 starters) with organic growth from young talent and a big offseason in the portal. If Texas can plug the right holes with Ryan Watts level transfers at each level of the defense and get the expected growth from the youngsters, the ’23 defense will have a higher upside than ’22.