Why you should be excited about this 2025 defense

Pete Kwiatkowski has been one of the more respected defensive minds in college football. Each year the Texas defense under Kwiatkowski has improved to the point that it is now seemingly impossible to “get better.” Yet Texas’ fifth year defensive coordinator is likely expecting bigger and better things from this group even with the loss of several star defenders to the NFL.

[Sign up for Inside Texas TODAY and get the BEST Longhorns coverage!]

In year one under Kwiatkowski, the defensive numbers were dismal. Part of that is related to how often the defense needed to be on the field, but PK’s side of the ball still had its own major issues. Those were patched up in year two. The second year under Kwiatkowski saw a jump in the pass defense, but an even bigger jump in run defense thanks to Moro Ojomo, Keondre Coburn, T’Vondre Sweat, and Byron Murphy. That led to 2023, which featured one of the better run defenses that Texas has seen. The group that was anchored by Murphy and Sweat finished No. 3 in rush defense.

Texas was still a high quality unit in 2024. The Longhorns allowed 109.6 yards per game on the ground, good for No. 13 in the nation, at just 3.24 yards per attempt.

When you dive deeper into the numbers, the Texas defense looks even more elite and well rounded in 2024. Texas finished as the No. 13 rush defense, the No. 7 pass defense, the No. 8 third down defense, the No. 3 red zone defense, and the No. 8 defense at limiting explosive plays of 20 or more yards.

Yet that doesn’t really even describe how good this defense was. Playoff teams kept getting statistically “worse” defensively each winter week because of two factors: most teams were no longer recording stats, and the teams that were still playing were facing highly-talented offenses. When you look at the numbers from the end of the regular season, there is a real argument to be made that Texas was the best overall defense in 2024.

A common point that is brought up when pundits forecast a regression on defense for the 2025 Longhorns is that Texas is losing too many starters from last year. The 2024 team saw nine of the top fifteen players in total snaps from 2023 return.

That number is the same for the 2025 squad. Aside from Jermayne Lole, every defender in the top 15 of snaps that isn’t returning was drafted in the first four rounds of the NFL Draft.

Passing Defense

If we’re going by end of season numbers, Texas finishing at No. 7 in pass defense at 173.8 yards allowed per game is pretty hard to improve upon. Losing players of the caliber of Thorpe Award winning defensive back Jahdae Barron and all-around elite safety Andrew Mukuba will always be something that will cause concern. However in the case of replacing Mukuba, the safety room is overflowing with talent.

Derek Williams Jr. was actually one of the top fifteen Longhorns in snaps for 2023. He has been excellent in his time at Texas, last year he had a 29.2 passer rating when targeted in a small sample size. His health is getting better and better as camp progresses.

You also have Michael Taaffe, who seems to be hellbent on winning a national championship. There’s Jelani McDonald, who is an athletic freak. There are many other names that would turn this piece into an extended essay.

At cornerback, Malik Muhammad has been playing very well in camp. He also had a 48.4 passer rating when targeted in 2024. It is hard to expect to see a repeat of the level of play that Barron gave Texas, but if the Horns will boast back-to-back Thorpe winners it’ll probably be because of Muhammad. He allowed zero completions in three of his games, and he also held opposing wide receivers to under 30 yards in twelve of his sixteen games last year.

More info from his 2024 season in the graph featuring data from Sports Info Solutions below.

Jaylon Guilbeau is sliding over to the corner position and will offer a lot of experience. Behind those two are plenty of talented options such as Kobe Black and Warren Roberson.

Most articles about the pass defense would stop at the defensive backs. The linebackers for this Texas group certainly deserve recognition and should be one of the best pass defending linebacker groups in the nation. Anthony Hill Jr. is solid in coverage, allowing a 89.2 passer rating against and allowing no touchdowns in coverage. Liona Lefau was 40th out of the 200 linebackers with a minimum of 11 targets with an opposing passer rating of 48.5. Ty’Anthony Smith has pushed Lefau in camp and is a capable coverage defender at the linebacker position.

Pass Rush

Texas boasts a respectable pass rush on defense. Hill in year three at Texas and Colin Simmons with two offseasons of conditioning will look to lead the Horns in sacks for the 2025 season. Hill logged 8.0 sacks while Simmons posted 9.0 in 2024. Simmons had a strong pressure rate of 19.8% as well.

The sacks per game were up to a level not seen since 2016.

Rush Defense

It’s hard to call last year’s run defense regression, but statistically that’s what it was. It was still what would be considered an elite run defense. Losing Alfred Collins, Vernon Broughton, and Barryn Sorrell means a lot of experience is now playing in the NFL instead of for Texas.

However, Steve Sarkisian and Kenny Baker did a darn good job of acquiring experience and talent in the portal. Beyond the portal, Texas has Alex January, a player that saw defensive snaps in 13 of 16 games.

Bill Norton may have been the most underrated defender with 151 run defense snaps, he had a 0.0% broken and missed tackle rate. The good news for Texas is between Cole Brevard, Hero Kanu, Travis Shaw, Maraad Watson, and Lavon Johnson, there’s quality at defensive tackle.

One underrated stat: Johnson had 91 run defense snaps with a 0.0% BT+MT rate for Maryland last year. With all of the names added to that room, confidence should be high going into 2025.

[Want to be the most informed Texas Longhorns football fan? Order the 2025 edition of Thinking Texas Football today!]

Texas fans should really just soak in what this feels like because Texas has been the home of truly elite defensive play over the past few years. Kwiatkowski will look to field the best defense in the nation for the 2025 season, a defense that could be the difference-maker in Texas’ pursuit of a nation championship.