Texas Football: 4 players whose production will skyrocket under Sarkisian

Ayodele Adeoye, LB

Way back during the 2018 recruiting cycle, former head coach Tom Herman and the Longhorns signed one of the most impressive classes in all of college football. And one of the more integral parts of that 2018 recruiting class for Herman and the Longhorns at the time was the four-star linebacker recruit Ayodele Adeoye.

The 6-foot-2 and 250-pound Adeoye actually put his name in the NCAA Transfer Portal earlier this offseason. His name remained in the transfer portal for a couple of months before he withdrew it and returned to the Forty Acres in June.

Getting Adeoye back will be a nice depth boost for the Longhorns at an otherwise pretty thin linebacker room. He is one of the few returning linebackers for the Longhorns this year.

What the rising junior linebacker brings to the table for the Longhorns this fall is 55 career combined tackles, three tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, one interception, and two pass breakups. His most productive season came as a redshirt freshman in 2019, where he was a key part of the Texas linebacking corps playing in 11 games.

Adeoye had underrated production for the Longhorns when you look between the lines from the past two years. He has nearly 20 career stops to his name, one of the lowest missed tackle percentages of any linebacker on this team, and has a dozen quarterback pressures under his belt for his career.

If Adeoye can play anywhere north of 300 snaps this fall, expect him to be one of the most productive players on this entire defensive side of the ball. New co-defensive coordinators/linebackers coaches Pete Kwiatkowski and Jeff Choate have to be thrilled about getting Adeoye back this fall.