3 Texas football players on transfer watch in November

David Gbenda, LB

I was hoping to see more out of the former blue-chip recruit and junior linebacker David Gbenda through the first half of the 2022 season. While Gbenda got a career-high 198 defensive snaps last season, he’s taken a step back in terms of his workload so far this year. Gbenda is on pace to roughly get his number of defensive snaps cut in half year-over-year.

The bulk of the snaps that Gbenda took so far this season either came against the Texas Tech Red Raiders on the road on Sep. 24 when senior linebacker DeMarvion Overshown was out for the first half due to a targeting call the previous game, or in garbage time during the non-conference schedule. The Texas Tech game was the only contest that Gbenda saw double-digit defensive snaps in Big 12 play thus far.

He also took double-digit defensive snaps in the wins over the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks and UTSA Roadrunners last month.

And as is the case with Parr, roster additions that are likely to come next offseason and the good work that this staff has done on the recruiting trail will probably prevent Gbenda from holding a bigger role next season compared to his workload this fall.

Moreover, I’m not saying that Gbenda hasn’t played well in his limited defensive snaps this season. He’s actually on pace to put up the best defensive grade of his career if he keeps on the same pace that he was for the first half of the 2022 campaign.

But the fact of the matter is that Texas will continue to look to upgrade at linebacker. And with a strong linebacker group coming in with the 2023 recruiting class between blue-chips Liona Lefau and S’Maje Burrell, the path to playing time doesn’t look too optimistic for Gbenda.