Texas football: Top 3 concerns going into the 2024 season

Secondary/linebacker tackling defending the pass

Pete Kwiatkowski's unit on defense was pretty solid and consistent last season by most available metrics and team-level stats. Whether you're talking about strengths run defense (led Big 12), generating turnovers (top three in Big 12), and bowing up in the red zone last season, Texas was the class of the Big 12 last fall in most of those areas on defense.

Texas had a big reliance on studs along the defensive line last season like junior Byron Murphy and senior T'Vondre Sweat to be really disruptive and help out other levels of the defense. Murphy and Sweat easily made up the most disruptive and impactful defensive tackle duo in all of college football last fall.

One of the areas where the Longhorns struggled on defense last season was covering some of the underneath and crossing routes and getting guys to the ground when the DBs and linebackers had them in their sights.

"We gave up some yards but we had the ball thrown on us the 3rd most in the country. When teams throw the ball a lot, they’re going to get yards, so we’d like to have those numbers down but that’s not the end all, be all. Our pass efficiency defense was 33rd in the nation which is respectable."

- Pete Kwiatkowski

PK pointed out in an early-fall camp press conference that Texas's pass defense was spread out in the second halves of games when the team was up big in conference play in the Big 12. Opponents were able to exploit some young linebackers and safeties who were still learning their roles on the defensive side of the ball last season, resulting in those opportunities opening up in the passing game to attack them in the middle of the field and on the short underneath routes for opponents.

Texas ranked in the bottom five in the Big 12 last season in yards after the catch and missed tackle rate in pass coverage in conference play. This downward trend was problematic with the hand offs in coverage and man-to-man assignments against some of the better and faster opposing widoeut corps in the Big 12.

"And then tackling, we did a little study, we did a lot better job with an 88% tackling success. If we could just bump that up 5%, a lot of those pass yards we gave up would go down."

- Pete Kwiatkowski

PK's plan to address the yards after catch allowed in the defensive secondary and the linebacker corps this fall in the SEC involves a rejuvenated pass rush with guys like Colin Simmons, Anthony Hill Jr., and Trey Moore.

Texas also boasts experienced and smart defensive backs, like safety Andrew Mukuba and Jahdae Barron to get the secondary positioned in the right place and get these guys to the ground from the opposing receiving corps to keep plays in front of them and communicate effectively pre-snap.

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