Texas Football vs. TCU: 5 Longhorns to watch this week

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AUSTIN, TX – SEPTEMBER 08: Breckyn Hager #44 of the Texas Longhorns hits Luke Skipper #13 of the Tulsa Golden Hurricane in the endzone during the second quarter at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) /

McCulloch and Davis didn’t have the greatest starts to this season because of both lack of opportunity and injury. Senior defensive end Breckyn Hager doesn’t have as many excuses as to why he’s pretty much been invisible through three weeks. Hager was supposed to be a defensive leader with both his experience and play on the field this year and only one has been there so far.

Even last year, Texas football fans expected more out of Hager than the four sacks he racked up. However, he has zero sacks in three full games to start this season. The rest of his stat line isn’t too great either with seven total tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss. Part of that was due to the lack of defensive performance against Maryland as a whole.

TCU did return four starters along the offensive line this year so it’s not like Hager is going up against weaker competition. He’ll just have to step up to a greater degree than he did in the previous three games this year. To keep pace with this TCU offense that put up more than 150 points on the Horns in the past five meetings, Hager needs to be huge.

A bigger pass rush push altogether for the Horns would help Hager get free and potentially finish off a few sacks. Yet, it’s going to be difficult against a quarterback that is as elusive as sophomore TCU starter Shawn Robinson. He can evade the pocket when under pressure, and Hager will have to chase him down if he wants to get his first sack of the season in Week 4.

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