Last year's Texas Longhorns defense tabbed as one of the best in the country since 2019. Can this year's unit follow up with an encore?
Pro Football Network calls last year’s Texas defense a Top 10 unit after CFP semifinal run.
Pro Football Network recently ranked the best college football defenses since the 2019 season. And the Texas Longhorns received high marks. Oliver Hodgkinson lists the 2024 unit as the 8th-best among the list of elite groups. Texas finished the year with a 13-3 record, a 7-1 finish in the SEC and the runner-up in the SEC Championship game in a narrow overtime loss to Georgia.
The defense was a large part of the success, though. The Longhorns defeated Clemson in the first round of the CFP and Arizona State in the quarterfinals. In each of those victories, Pete Kwiatkowski's unit was instrumental in Texas moving on before ultimately falling to the eventual national champion Ohio State Buckeyes.
Three starters from the defense were named to the All-SEC Team as well as Colin Simmons making the SEC All-Freshman Team. Furthermore, Alfred Collins, Anthony Hill Jr., Jahdae Barron, and Michael Taafe were all named All-American while Simmons was named the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year and Barron nabbed the Jim Thorpe Award as the top defensive back in the country.
Oliver Hodgkinson tells you why last year's Longhorn defense made the Top 10.
"Texas boasted the second-highest graded defense in the 2024 season, beaten only by the eventual national champions. Linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. led the SEC in forced fumbles, with four, and tackles for loss, with 16.0.
Jahdae Barron and Andrew Mukuba shared the conference lead with five interceptions each, and Colin Simmons had a freshman campaign for the ages, with 14.0 tackles for loss and 9.0 sacks.
The Longhorns had a top 20 season among college football defenses since 2019 for yards per play, 4.4, points per drive allowed, 1.14, and defensive pass EPA, 0.2. Meanwhile, they’re one of the most efficient red-zone defenses, 46.2%, the SEC has ever seen, since 2019, ranking eighth among teams from the conference." – Oliver Hodgkinson, Pro Football Network
Hill returns to headline an elite defensive unit for 2025. Last season, he made 113 tackles and was one of the top linebackers in the country—finishing with 16.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks as well. Trey Moore (46 TFL last three seasons) and Liona Lefau (63 tackles) form quite the one, two punch which could free up Simmons (48 tackles, 14 TFL, nine sacks) even more this year.
Arkansas' Brad Spence opted to transfer to Texas and will bring 56 tackles and 4.5 sacks with him.
I recently wrote about the new additions in the trenches and, you guessed it, it's another loaded group. North Carolina's Travis Shaw, Purdue's Cole Brevard, Ohio State's Hero Kanu and Syracuse's Maraad Watson are all in the burnt orange for 2025.
The secondary loses both Barron and Andrew Mukuba to the NFL, but the cupboard is not bare, whatsoever. Taafe returns to play centerfield at the safety position, Malik Muhammad has NFL potential, Kobe Black is a potential rising star, plus Jaylon Guilbeau and Jelani McDonald give Texas plenty of options.
