Texas Football: 4 top Longhorns commit to watch this weekend

Zina Umeozulu, EDGE

Sep. 22: Allen vs. Little Elm (TX) Braswell

After a tough start to the season, losing two straight games out of the gates, four-star edge rusher commit Zina Umeozulu and the Allen Eagles have seemingly found their strides in the last two weeks. Allen has defeated Arlington (TX) Martin and McKinney (TX) Boyd in its last two games by a combined margin of 76 points.

That included a 56-point whooping of Boyd in Allen’s first district game of the 2023 season.

We’ll see if Allen has turned a corner for good this fall after losses to DeSoto and Houston (TX) King when it faces 2-2 Little Elm (TX) Braswell at home on Sep. 22. Braswell has lost three straight games to Allen as district foes going back to the 2020 season. And none of those three meetings came within more than a few scores.

Moreover, Umeozulu started the season playing at linebacker for Allen to fill a need along the defensive front. And while he Eagles haven’t posted any stats for the defense through four games this season, Umeozulu’s Hudl film shows him playing more edge rusher/defensive end snaps than linebacker.

We can see Umeozulu playing a lot of four and five tech with his hand in the dirt in the last couple of games for Allen against Boyd and Martin, where he’s registered multiple sacks and quarterback pressures.