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Texas Football: 3 problematic Cajuns players for the Horns

By Andrew Miller

Mekhi Garner, Texas Football (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
Mekhi Garner, Texas Football (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images) /
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UL’s Ferrod Gardner with head coach Billy Napier during halftime as the Ragin’ Cajuns football team plays their annual Spring football game against one another in the Leon Moncla trainig facility on April 13, 2019.Dsc08019
UL’s Ferrod Gardner with head coach Billy Napier during halftime as the Ragin’ Cajuns football team plays their annual Spring football game against one another in the Leon Moncla trainig facility on April 13, 2019.Dsc08019 /

Ferrod Gardner, LB

In his third season playing for Louisiana, the former transfer linebacker Ferrod Gardner just kept getting better. And that trend is likely to continue heading into this fall if the past three years are any indication.

Gardner is a former transfer linebacker from the Mizzou Tigers that played one year in Columbia, MO, and the past three with Louisiana. And last season was his best yet for the Cajuns. He registered 74 combined tackles, seven tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, and one fumble recovery. Gardner led Louisiana sacks and tackles for loss last season.

This is the type of player that could wreak havoc on a Texas offense that is breaking in a new starting quarterback that doesn’t have many game reps under his belt. Sophomore Hudson Card will surely be put to the test against someone like Gardner.

Gardner had one of the most impressive pressure rates of any player in the Group of Five last season. He pressured the quarterback 15 times on just 44 pass rushing plays last season. And with roughly five of those 15 pressures turning into sacks, he tends to get to the quarterback very often.

Not only is Gardner adept to getting to the passer and making plays. He was good defending the run last season too. He had a missed tackle rate of just 11.7 percent, which is good for an inside linebacker.

Card will have to be good against a stout back seven for the Cajuns. Gardner is one of the most productive players on this defense for the Longhorns to worry about this weekend.

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