Texas Football: 3 players set to breakout under new coaching staff
Alfred Collins, DT
Among the most potent defensive players for the Longhorns this fall is going to be the talented former four-star recruit and defensive tackle Alfred Collins. Just where this new coaching staff decides to play Collins in the front seven this fall is the main question that looms large throughout the rest of the offseason.
Texas has the option to either play Collins at a bigger defensive end spot, or as a smaller defensive tackle. It’s likely that redshirt junior lineman Keondre Coburn is the starter at nose tackle for the Longhorns. But Collins deserves a starting spot too, even if the plan for Kwiatkowski and Choate is to only play three-down linemen on a regular basis.
Most of the snaps that Collins took last season had him lined up between the gaps as a defensive tackle. He did have around 10 percent of his snaps last year, though, lined up as a defensive end. There is a good amount of multiplicity that the Longhorns could get out of Collins this fall, depending on how they use other personnel along the front seven.
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It should just come by nature for Collins to have a more productive sophomore campaign than he did as a freshman. He is bound to get more snaps and a bigger role on a regular basis. And given that he registered 23 combined tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one interception, and three pass breakups, in a limited role as a true freshman, it just makes sense for Collins to take his game to another level under this new coaching staff in 2021.