Texas Football: 5 former Longhorns finding success elsewhere in 2021

Byron Vaughns, Utah State LB

Maybe one of the most forgotten former Longhorns to transfer in recent years to another FBS school is the junior linebacker/edge rusher and former three-star recruit Byron Vaughns. After spending two years with Texas, the 6-foot-4 and 235-pound Vaughns took his talent to join the Utah State Aggies out in Logan, UT, in Mountain West country.

It’s easy to be surprised by the production that Vaughns came up with in his first year playing for Utah State. While the competition level isn’t as high in the Mountain West Conference as it is even in the Big 12, Vaughns is still rising to the occasion in a big way with his new team.

So far this season, Vaughns has registered 27 combined tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, four pass breakups, and one forced fumble. Of his four pass breakups, three were batted balls.

It’s clear that Utah State is able to use Vaughns’ length and quickness off the line of scrimmage to wreak havoc in the opposing team’s backfield. On the season so far, Vaughns has nearly 20 quarterback pressures, 10 of which have turned into QB hits and/or sacks.

Vaughns is also doing well in defending the run for the Aggies this season. He’s got 10 run stuffs and 16 stops this season. Vaughns does have a rather large number of missed tackles this season, with half a dozen. But that is something that has largely waned as the season moved along.

Utah State got tremendous value out of adding Vaughns out of the transfer portal two offseasons ago. It didn’t look like Vaughns was going to be able to make much headway soon with the Longhorns’ defense, so this move was probably best for all parties involved.