Through five games, Texas has looked every bit like a defense built to squeeze opponents into mistakes. The Longhorns sit second in defensive SP+, are tied for second nationally in red-zone touchdown rate at 33.3 percent, and rank 21st in scoring defense at 16 points per game.
That’s the good news. The problem is that the takeaways haven’t kept pace with the rest of the production.
Texas has forced just five turnovers, which leaves the Longhorns tied for 97th in the country. Three of those came in the season opener against Texas State, a team that entered the year with high expectations but is now 2-3. The other came on the final play of the comeback win over Ohio State, when sophomore nickel back Graceson Littleton intercepted a pass - still the only interception by the Texas secondary this season.
In the two conference games, Texas has not forced a turnover at all, even though it has caused three fumbles.
“We’ve been playing really good defense. Do not get me wrong, like fantastic defense,” Steve Sarkisian said Monday.
The Texas head coach believes the breakthrough is coming, but the message is clear: the Longhorns have to keep hammering at it.
“How do we go to another level? We’ve got to get the ball off of people and we we are more than capable of doing that.
We’ve got to continue to emphasize it. I talk about the dam on offense getting ready to break.
I think the dam and creating turnovers defensively is getting ready to break,” Sarkisian said.
His point has long been simple: what you stress is what shows up on Saturdays. Right now, the turnover emphasis still hasn’t translated.
“We’ve got to keep preaching it. Got to keep practicing it.
We’ve got to keep going after it, and I really believe that when we get one, we’re going to get two. When we get two, we’re going to get three,” Sarkisian said.
Some bounce-back luck would help too. Opponents have put the ball on the ground eight times this season, but Texas has recovered only two, a 25 percent rate that ties for 117th nationally.
The front has carried much of the playmaking load. Junior edge Colin Simmons leads the country with 9.5 sacks, and Texas is tied for eighth nationally with 18 sacks overall. Senior linebacker Rasheem Biles has two of the team’s three interceptions and added a forced fumble that Littleton returned for a touchdown against Texas State.
Still, the secondary hasn’t produced the kind of consistent disruption Texas expected. Senior safety Jelani McDonald entered the year as the most obvious candidate to pop in that area.
He’s second on the team with 33 tackles and has mostly held up well in coverage, aside from allowing a touchdown to Ohio State star Jeremiah Smith. But he has not been around the ball enough, with his lone pass breakup coming on Tennessee’s Hail Mary.
For a player who had three interceptions and a fumble return last season, the standard is higher.
“We’re not doing enough. We need to do some move. It starts with me, though,” McDonald said after the Oklahoma loss.
Littleton has been steadier. The sophomore has mostly played clean football, with the only reception he has allowed of more than 11 yards since the season opener coming on Isaiah Sategna’s 20-yard catch against good coverage that set up Oklahoma’s game-winning field goal. Even so, Littleton has been active, with two pass breakups, the game-ending interception against Ohio State, and six defensive stops while allowing 117 receiving yards on 18 targets.
The rest of the back end - senior cornerback Bo Mascoe, sophomore cornerback Kade Phillips, senior safety Kobe Black and senior safety Derek Williams - has yet to deliver a signature takeaway. Black did land the biggest hit Texas has produced so far, but that came against Texas State, and that detail matters.
The same theme shows up when you look at who has been taking chances against Texas. Texas State and UTSA largely stayed away from throwing deep.
Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer settled into short throws until the final drive after a run of turnover-prone performances. Tennessee’s Faizon Brandon ran 10 times and took 10 sacks rather than forcing the issue, though he also escaped three turnover-worthy throws, according to Pro Football Focus.
Texas could use more help from the other two phases, too. In favorable spots against Tennessee and Oklahoma, special teams gave up touchdowns that kept those offenses balanced instead of pushing them into the kind of one-dimensional approach that often leads to turnovers. The offense has also been too inconsistent to build comfortable leads in conference play.
Against Ohio State, the offense was the group forced into catch-up mode after the defense had its roughest half of the season trying to handle Smith. Even then, Muschamp’s unit came through with a few critical stops, including one after the fumble on Texas’ first snap from scrimmage.
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