Texas Football: 5 most imperative Longhorns players for 2023 season

2. Jaylan Ford, LB

The most important player to the Texas defense this year is going to be the deserved 2022 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and rising senior standout middle linebacker Jaylan Ford. He turned into a true playmaker and read and react mike linebacker that Texas needed to lead the way for this position group last season.

The 6-foot-3 and 235-pound Ford made big-time plays with multiple game-changing interceptions and fell on a couple of huge fumbles last season. All told I have a hard time seeing Texas winning two of three of the games that it did in Big 12 play in 2022 without Ford making some of the game-breaking plays that he did at key times.

Heading into the 2023 season, Ford will have the highest expectations of his career to date. He will be looked to as one of the vocal leaders and leaders by example on and off the field for the Longhorns, especially with some of the turnover this team is facing at the linebacker position.

Texas is losing key senior linebackers in DeMarvion Overshown and Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey this offseason, which means more than 130 combined tackles, 13 tackles for loss, and more than a half-dozen sacks must be replaced.

Ford will be looked to help replace some of what Texas is losing in the senior linebacker duo of Tucker-Dorsey and Overshown. Texas will also need Ford’s game-breaking ability to come to the forefront again this fall.