Texas Football: 5 Longhorns to watch in the Sugar Bowl

After a scorching hot start to the 2018 campaign, true freshman safety Caden Sterns faded off a bit down the stretch. He still put together a very solid first year on the Forty Acres in terms of his entire body of work, but the way he ended the regular season left something to be desired. His complete body of work was enough to take home the Big 12 Defensive Newcomer of the Year honors, though.

In the first seven games of his collegiate career, Sterns hauled in four interceptions. In the final six games, he showed some progress in other parts of his game but didn’t have a single interception. Whether that was a product of opposing quarterbacks starting to throw away from him, or just a lapse in pass coverage is hard to say.

The one thing you could say about Sterns was that his open-field tackling ability did improve down the stretch. That was apparent in his tackling numbers in the final six games of the regular season. Sterns racked up 36 total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, and one sack, in that latter half of the regular season.

However, we would like to see Sterns step it up again in pass coverage and rattle Fromm early. Getting an early pick on the Dawgs could do wonders for both the Texas offense and the possession battle. Texas and Georgia both have young quarterbacks that haven’t been very mistake prone in 2018. Sterns can be the key to giving the Horns the edge in the turnover department.