Texas spent the offseason making one thing clear: the defense is going to run through Colin Simmons.
The Longhorns moved on from Pete Kwiatkowski after a 9-3 season that began with Texas ranked No. 1 and ended outside the College Football Playoff, then handed the unit to Will Muschamp. That change matters because Muschamp’s style is built to let the pass rush attack, with double-A-gap pressure and press-man coverage behind it. For Simmons, the nation’s No. 2 player and the edge rusher Texas expects to tilt games, the new setup should put him closer to the quarterback and strip away some of the old scheme’s drag.
Simmons already proved what he can do when the gears start clicking. He led the SEC with 12 sacks in 2025, finishing a half-sack ahead of Texas A&M’s Cashius Howell.
Through five games, though, the numbers were pretty ordinary: 1.5 sacks and four penalties. Steve Sarkisian said the issue was Simmons chasing production instead of taking the snap in front of him.
That changed at Florida on Oct. 4, even in a 29-21 Texas loss. From there, Simmons turned into the kind of player offenses feel snap after snap.
He had 2.5 sacks against Oklahoma, three sacks and a forced fumble at Kentucky, and a strip-sack against Vanderbilt. Over the final eight games, he piled up 10.5 sacks and recorded one in each of the last five, finishing with a sack of Michigan freshman Bryce Underwood in the Citrus Bowl to lock up the conference sack title.
"Maybe we didn't play our best game defensively in that game," Sarkisian said. "But I thought Colin played a big game, because he was defending the run and he was now becoming a multi-dimensional player.
It wasn't just about rushing the passer. He was stopping the run, and he was starting to affect the quarterback, and then the sacks and things started to happen for him."
Simmons explained the shift in simpler terms.
"I wasn't really chasing stats in this game, to be real with you, like I was at the beginning of the season, which was causing them penalties and stuff like that," Simmons said. "I was chasing plays, instead of letting the play come to me and letting the game come to me."
Now he enters his junior year with real weight on his shoulders. Texas rebuilt its 2026 defense around him after losing linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. and six defenders to the NFL, and the expectation is that Simmons can decide games on his own. He already has 21 sacks and 29.5 tackles for loss in 29 career games, and he won the Shaun Alexander National Freshman of the Year Award in 2024 as the first Longhorn to do it.
The accolades keep stacking up. Phil Steele named him a preseason first-team All-American, and Pro Football Focus placed him No. 3 in college football, behind only Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith and Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore. A program record is also in play, with Kiki DeAyala’s Texas career sack mark of 22.5 from 1982 within reach if Simmons starts fast.
Arch Manning sees that talent every day.
"The guy can disrupt practice whenever he wants, and he's probably going to be a top-three pick in the draft," Manning said.
Texas gets Ohio State at home on Sept. 12 in Austin, a rematch of the 2025 opener the Buckeyes won 14-7 in Columbus. Simmons made it clear that one is already sitting on him.
"Very excited. Second game of the season, all that nervousness, all that jittery is out the door," Simmons said.
"We're coming. There's business to be taken care of."
He widened that message at SEC Media Days in Tampa.
"Every game is a must-win," Simmons said. "It ain't no game that we looking down on.
It don't matter if you're Ohio State or Texas State. We're taking every game with the right preparation."
Texas has Manning back, a top-10 transfer class led by Cam Coleman, and a defense designed to put its best weapon in position to wreck games. If the Longhorns are going to end a title drought that goes back to 2005, Simmons will be at the center of it.
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