3 overreactions from Texas football’s hardy win over Baylor

Jaylan Ford deserves All-American consideration

Two of the best players in the last few games for the Longhorns were definitely junior linebacker Jaylan Ford and Bijan. This duo is leading each side of the ball for Texas to a season that is vastly different compared to where this team was at the same time last year.

Ford is clearly the bigger revelation in this conversation, though. It’s insane the difference in Ford’s play this season compared to last year.

At the conclusion of the regular season, Ford has registered 109 combined tackles, 10.0 tackles for loss, two sacks, four interceptions, three pass breakups, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, a whopping 52 stops, and 17 quarterback pressures.

I don’t mean to just stuff this article with counting stats for Ford from the regular season. The point is that Ford is making a huge impact on each phase of the Texas defense this season.

Ford is the playmaker that this defense needed since Pete Kwiatkowski first took over as the defensive coordinator/defensive play caller in 2021.

And given the fact that Ford ranks among the top three in most major defensive stat categories in the Big 12, and sits among the national leaders in many of them as well, he definitely deserves All-American consideration when it’s all said and done for the campaign.

Just in the last two games alone, Ford is the second-highest-graded linebacker in the Power Five. He’s also tied for second among Power Five linebackers for the entire season in terms of defensive stops.

To sum this up, the way that Ford is making a difference for this defense clearly shows that he is one of the most valuable defensive players in the Big 12. In my eyes, that definitely deserves Ford getting into the discussion among the linebackers candidates for All-American honors this season.