3 reasons why Texas football will crush LA-Monroe in Week 1
Improved cohesiveness of the defense
The Texas offense won’t be the only matchup nightmare for the Warhawks this weekend. This defense looks like it will be improved by a good margin in terms of production and consistency compared to where they were at this time last season.
Another offseason in this scheme under Co-DC/LB coach Pete Kwiatkowski combined with the addition of the former TCU Horned Frogs head coach Gary Patterson as the new special assistant to the head coach should make for noticeable progression on the defensive side of the ball this year. It will also help that Texas is much more experienced on defense than on the offensive side of the ball heading into the season.
From what we’ve heard coming out of fall camp and practice in the leading up to the season opener this week, this defense is communicating much better on the back end and covering assignments more effectively than they were in camp last offseason. Now, we won’t know for sure how much better Texas is on defense until they play somewhere other than themselves this fall.
But it is very believable that Texas is ready to make some necessary strides on this side of the ball after having some real lackluster performances in Big 12 play last season.
It will largely be up to some of the catalysts on this defense to spark this group out of the gates this season. I believe the duo of senior linebacker DeMarvion Overshown and sophomore nose tackle Byron Murphy have the ability to jump-start this entire defense with a hot start in non-conference play.
If Overshown and Murphy can spark this defense, it would give Texas two much-needed playmakers along the front seven that they didn’t have last season.
And improved play from the defensive front will make life much easier on what should be a better secondary this fall.
Furthermore, Texas’ defense will get an easy test for the first game of the season in a ULM offense that averaged just 20.9 points per game last season (110th in the FBS). And according to Football Outsiders, ULM ranked 111th in the country last season in offensive efficiency.
Next. Final game-by-game predictions for Texas in 2022. dark
The situation for the ULM doesn’t look much better this season with the overall lack of effectiveness that the returning players bring to the table. ULM didn’t have a single 500-yard rusher last season or a 600-yard receiver. That doesn’t bode well when facing a hungry Texas defense looking to prove a point out of the gates this fall.