Texas has built something outrageous off the edge, and Colin Simmons knows it
Colin Simmons has already shot to the top of college football’s edge-rushing conversation, and now the Texas standout is looking around the room and seeing even more heat coming behind him.
As he heads into what should be his third and likely final season with the Longhorns, Simmons has already locked himself in as one of the country’s premier defensive players. But he is not acting like the lone star in that room. Texas has loaded up at edge, and Simmons is more than willing to spread the praise.
Behind him sits a deep group that includes Lance Jackson, Zina Umeozulu, Smith Orogbo, Colton Vasek, Richard Wesley, and others. Among that crowd, Wesley has been one of the loudest fall camp standouts. The true freshman arrived in Austin as a five-star prospect, and he has already forced the kind of conversation most freshmen never get near.
“Richie, he a dog. Richie a dog.
Richie a dog,” Simmons said after a fall camp workout. “Shoot, I always tell Richie he [might] mess around and be better than me.
Honestly, truthfully.”
That is not the kind of line you toss around casually, especially from a player like Simmons. It says plenty about what Texas thinks it has in Wesley before the season has even started. The Longhorns are still more than a week away from officially kicking off, and the early buzz around the defense is already centered on how much talent Steve Sarkisian has packed into the front.
Jackson has been just as direct in his praise of the young freshman. When asked about Wesley stepping into the mix, he pointed to a defense that doesn’t seem built around one voice.
“I don't feel like we have one leader; I feel like our defense has a whole bunch of leaders,” Jackson said about Wesley stepping up to the task as a true freshman.
And Wesley isn’t the only young defender drawing attention. Jackson also singled out sophomore lineman Justus Terry, another five-star talent, for the way he has attacked camp.
“Justus has been creating havoc a lot. He's just getting in the playbook, moving fast.
When Justus is out there, he doesn't really care what's going on. He's just going to go hard,” Jackson said.
That kind of talent accumulation is the story here. Texas has stacked blue-chip bodies across the defensive line and linebacker spots, from edge rushers to defensive ends to linebackers to defensive tackles. The result is a room that feels packed with future impact players before the games have even begun.
And there’s another layer to all of it. Sarkisian also brought Will Muschamp back into the program as defensive coordinator, adding one of the most respected defensive minds in the sport to help push the unit even further.
So while Simmons remains the headliner right now, Texas keeps making the same kind of statement in every direction: the edge group is loaded, the young talent is real, and the Longhorns may be staring at something bigger than one star.
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