Texas defensive line coming together with Keondre Coburn as the man in the middle

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — There are plenty of questions about the Texas defense this preseason, and that happens when a team has to replace eight starters from a 10-win squad that’s been listed as high as the fifth-best team in the nation, which is the Longhorns’ preseason spot in Sports Illustrated’s football rankings.

All three of the players on the defensive line will be new to the starting lineup when Louisiana Tech comes to Austin to open the season Aug. 31, and the progress and maturity of that unit over the next two-plus weeks will be important to the Longhorns’ success, both in Game 1 and moving forward.

Into the middle of that fray[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] at nosetackle steps Keondre Coburn, a 6-foot-2, 340-pound mountain of a man.

Even though he is just a redshirt sophomore, Coburn has usurped senior Gerald Wilbon at the position and has grown stronger as he’s shrugged off a lingering kidney issue that kept him out of part of spring drills.

Coburn said the move to the first team has come with a lot of work on technique, learning how to play the position and understanding what it takes to be a starter.

“I would have liked to play more (before now), but the way this has worked has been best for me,” he said. “It’s brought me to where I need to be to be able to be successful in this role. There are a lot of little things I know now that I didn’t before.”

Coburn is being compared by teammate to former nosetackle standout and line bedrock Poona Ford, who’s now making quite a mark for himself with Seattle in the NFL.

“To be compared to Poona, that was amazing. I felt pride, I felt praise,” Coburn said Wednesday. ”But to be honest, I want to be myself.”

Coburn is taller, heavier and a little bit quicker than Ford was while at Texas, and is on track to be the kind of disruptive force in the middle that the Longhorns’ defense needs to be successful.

Coburn will likely be flanked by senior defensive linemen Malcolm Roach and Ta’Quon Graham, respectively, at the ends. Those two players have combined to play in 60 games for Texas, so the unit as a whole is far from green and untested.

“I’m not even worried about the D-line,” sophomore defensive back B.J. Foster said Wednesday. “I know they’re going to do what they’re supposed to do and we’re going to do what we’re supposed to do in the back end. We can all come together as one unit and just play great defense.”
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