3 former Texas football players that were poor fits with Kwiatkowski

A major looming question mark for this upcoming season for second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program lies on the defensive side of the ball. Whether Texas can improve markedly this fall under co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Pete Kwiatkowski, in his second year at the helm, will be a determining factor as to how successful this team is as a whole.

Kwiatkowski and the Longhorns got off to a tough start last season. Texas ranked third from the bottom in the Big 12 last season in both yards allowed per play (4.40) and in defensive SRS (Simple Rating System). And that was only in Big 12 play.

It got worse when you look at the numbers as a whole last season. Texas allowed 5.9 yards per play last season, good for the bottom 30 in the FBS. They also ranked in the bottom quarter of the FBS in points allowed per game (31.1) and red zone scoring percentage (87.76).

Which poor scheme fits under Pete Kwiatkowski last season can Texas football learn from in 2022?

A lot of these issues for Kwiatkowski and the Longhorns last season boiled down to just having the wrong personnel in the mix. Oftentimes getting caught in schemes that weren’t meant for most of the starters they had regularly last season, the entire defense looked bad in the end.

That should be something that starts to get corrected this fall, though. With another year in this scheme combined with an upgraded two-deep on the defensive side of the ball, Kwiatkowski should be in for a much better season in 2022 compared to last fall.

Moreover, a major reason why we’re looking into some of the past Longhorns defensive players that were poor fits with Kwiatkowski and this staff is to better understand what types of skill sets this staff should be looking for on the recruiting trail and how they can improve on the field this fall. Another factor is to see how newer additions to the roster compare to what Texas lost to graduation and the NCAA Transfer Portal since last fall.

With that in mind, here’s a look at three Longhorns players that were poor scheme fits for Kwiatkowski, and what those positions look like in 2022.