Texas Football: 5 overreactions from Longhorns non-conference slate

5. Defense will be up and down the entire regular season

Once Texas football settles in with an inexperienced defense under third-year defensive coordinator Todd Orlando, this side of the ball might improve. The Longhorns didn’t have much to prove on defense in the season opener against Louisiana Tech, but needed to bounce back against Rice this weekend.

Texas looked impressive against Rice and Louisiana Tech, essentially not relenting in the first half against either team. It wasn’t until Texas started to throw in the backups in both games that they started to waiver on defense. Rice took until the fourth quarter to score all their points. Louisiana Tech had to wait until the second half also.

LSU did expose the Texas pass defense to a good degree. While an improved LSU offense with unlimited talent at the skill positions and a budding offensive line isn’t the best gauge for how good a defense truly is, that won’t be the first capable team the Longhorns will see. The Big 12 opener against Oklahoma State will bring yet another high-powered offense to Austin.

The Longhorns just don’t have that consistency and experience at every level of the defense like they had last season. But the pure amount of talent they bring to the table in the more inexperienced portions of the defense will start to makeup for that eventually. Nonetheless, ups and downs in this non-conference slate indicates more rocky times ahead against the Big 12.