Texas Football: 3 pleasant surprises from first half of the season

Anthony Cook, DB

Although he has slowed down a bit in the past few weeks, you can’t mention any of the pleasant surprises among Longhorns players in the first half of the season without discussing senior defensive back Anthony Cook. After struggling to find his footing at any one position group with this program in his first three years on campus, Cook has established himself as a staple in this secondary in 2021.

Cook is already posting career-best numbers among his regular box score stats. He’s registered 28 combined tackles, three tackles for loss, one sack, two pass breakups, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery. All of those are good to either break or tie career highs for Cook. That’s a testament to all of the good work that Cook did from the outset of the regular season.

There are other numbers that prove how solid Cook was for the Longhorns in the first half too. He’s one of the best tacklers on this team this fall, missing only two tackles on 30 attempts. Cook has the second-best tackling grade of any of the starters on this Texas defense.

And he ranks among the top five for the Longhorns this season, with 11 stops so far.

But we can’t overlook the contributions for Cook in pass coverage so far this season. Cook has allowed just 75 yards on nearly two dozen targets in pass coverage assignments. That goes along with his two pass breakups, and no passing touchdowns allowed.

When Cook did rush the passer so far this season, he did so at a high level. He’s registered four quarterback pressures, and two QB hits, along with the one sack, so far this season.