Texas defensive ranking snub made worse by the 2 SEC teams ranked ahead of the Horns

Over the last few seasons, Steve Sarkisian and former defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski turned the Texas Longhorns' defense into a monstrous unit.

Between returning stars like Colin Simmons, Hero Kanu, and Jelani McDonald, as well as elite transfer pickups like Rasheem Biles, Ian Geffrard, and Bo Mascoe, the Longhorns look scarier than ever.

Read more: Colin Simmons' mindset ahead of the 2026 season will be music to Longhorns fans' ears

With Kwiatkowski out the door and legendary DC Will Muschamp holding the reins of the Horns' defense once again, Texas is poised to take over college football.

However, when On3's J.D. PicKell ranked the best defenses in the nation, Texas wasn't No. 1 or No. 2 on the list. In fact, the Longhorns barely eked into the top five.

2026 top 10 defenses in College Football via On3

Despite the overwhelming depth of talent on the defensive side of the ball in Austin, PicKell ranked Texas's defense fifth. Making matters worse, the Horns trailed two of their biggest SEC rivals in the ranking.

1. Oregon Ducks (B1G)
2. Oklahoma Sooners (SEC)
3. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Ind.)
4. Georgia Bulldogs (SEC)
5. Texas Longhorns (SEC)
6. Miami Hurricanes (ACC)
7. Texas Tech Red Raiders (Big 12)
8. Ohio State Buckeyes (B1G)
9. Iowa Hawkeyes (B1G)
10. Indiana Hoosiers (B1G)

Both the Oklahoma Sooners and Georgia Bulldogs were ranked ahead of Texas. Now, this isn't to say that those two defenses aren't good; the Dawgs have dominated the Horns since Texas joined the SEC.

However, discounting the dominance that the Longhorns have shown over the last two years, especially with veteran stars set to return for the upcoming season, and the fact that Texas has blown OU out of the water in their last two matchups, rubs salt in the wound of the Horns missing out on the top three.

The last two meetings of the Red River Rivalry included zero (and yes, I mean 0) touchdowns for the Sooners, Texas holding Oklahoma to just nine combined points in the two games.

Also read: Longhorns' recruiting ranking ascent made even sweeter by leapfrog over rival Sooners

Along the same vein, Texas held powerhouse teams like the Ohio State Buckeyes and Texas A&M Aggies to minimal points on offense. Even in the Horns' loss to Ohio State, the Buckeyes were only able to scrape together 14 points. In Texas's win over rival Texas A&M, the Aggies only scored 17 points.

On average in 2025, Texas's opponents were held to fewer than 20.5 points as the Longhorns competed in the SEC, the most dominant conference in college football (no matter what the National Championship trophy count says for the Big 10).

Last year, teams earned just 4.9 yards per play against Texas, the exact same yardage per play that Georgia gave up. The Horns amassed 41 sacks for 258 yards, just four fewer sacks than the Sooners and 21 more sacks than the Bulldogs.

Texas forced 17 fumbles and recovered the ball seven times. Oklahoma forced just 15 fumbles and only had four fumble recoveries. Georgia only managed to force 11 fumbles and also only came up with the ball on four occasions.

Beyond all of the stats from last year, the Longhorns' defense is supposed to be even better this season.

Sure, maybe Texas hasn't proven itself as the No. 1 defense in the country quite yet, but ranking the Horns below the Sooners and the Bulldogs just added insult to injury for Sarkisian's squad. It's time to use this season to prove that this unit deserves to be ranked atop the rest.

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