Habe on the ‘Horns: Longhorns defense is in critical mode

By Steve Habel/Senior Editor

AUSTIN, Texas — The business of defense in football is all about the bottom line: either you stop the opposition’s offense from moving the ball and from scoring or you don’t.

Texas didn’t stop much of anybody from moving up and down the field last season while compiling a bowl-less 5-7 record. Along the way, the Longhorns gave up 5,431 total yards (an average of 452.6 yards per game) in 12 games, the most in school history. They gave up the second most points ever (364) and the 2,630 rushing yards allowed were the third-most surrendered on the 40 Acres.

The Longhorns play against some of the [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]nation’s top offensive attacks, but that’s no excuse for the lack of stopping power they displayed last season. Something has to change, beginning with the attitude of the defense.

“There’s no doubt that we have to be better,” Texas linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary said. “We knew we weren’t playing to the standards we needed to be last year when we were giving up all those yards and losing seven games. There is a whole different attitude on our defense this season.”

Texas has one of the nation’s top defenders in sophomore linebacker Malik Jefferson, who was named the conference’s preseason defensive player of the year and has been the face of the program and the defense’s heart since he stepped on campus as an early enrollee in January 2015. But Jefferson can’t do everything.

“Malik continues to get better each and every week and he’s gotten a lot stronger and a lot bigger,” Texas head coach Charlie Strong said. “So much is expected of him, and I try to tell him not to feel like it’s all on his shoulders. On defense, there are 11 guys out there; he’s only one of 11. The other guys have to get the job done, too.”

But outside of Jefferson and a proven, if volatile, secondary, there are plenty of questions to be answered between now and Sept. 4, when the Longhorns open the season at home against Notre Dame.

Texas has to build depth in the defensive line, and the linebacker corps is woefully thin — a condition that could affect the special teams, as well, because those units often are manned by bigger guys who can run.

“I tell guys they have an assignment — and that’s being where they’re supposed to be — but their job is to go get the ball back for our offense,” Bedford said. “We need to find ways to let playmakers be playmakers. The most important thing right now is us. We have to figure out who we are and how to get better.”

Strong said there will be pressure on the defense to perform.

“If you’re ever going to win a championship, you’re going to have to win it on defense,” he said. “If you look at us last season, we never made anyone one-dimensional, and you have to make people one-dimensional. We just didn’t get off the field on third down. We have to play a lot better, and we can. We have the talent. It’s more about us just playing better.”

Indeed, the Longhorns allowed opponents to convert 44 percent (84 of 190) of their third-down opportunities and 53 percent (9 of 17) of their chances on fourth down last year.

“The performance that we had last year was unacceptable,” Jean-Mary said. “Without us saying it, (the coaches) harped on it a little bit in the spring and the players carried that mantra into the locker room and into their summer workouts. They know that we have to get drastically better in every phase for us to get back to the standard that the University of Texas is used to.”

Texas defensive backs coach Clay Jennings claims it’s about getting better from the ground up.

“We have a lot of young guys that we’re excited about,” Jennings said. “It doesn’t matter who plays, but there’s going to be a lot of things out there to eat, so we have to make sure we get enough guys to the table.”

The main thing the Longhorns have to do is not get consumed themselves. Based on the lack of performance last season, the unproven cast of players this year and the offense-crazy teams on Texas schedule, that will be a tall order.

Just sayin’, ya know?

[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [article-offer] [/s2If]