No. 11 Texas faces a monumental task next week in No. 4 Alabama. To the Longhorns’ benefit, the strongest position group on the team — the interior of the defensive line — will give the Crimson Tide’s stout offensive line all it can handle in Tuscaloosa.
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Texas defensive linemen, who if the EDGE position is included accounted for 19 of the Longhorns’ 56 total tackles, 1.5 sacks, 3.0 tackles for loss, one pass breakup, and five hurries, played one of the best games by an individual position group of the Steve Sarkisian era in a 37-10 win over Rice on Saturday.
“I thought our defensive front did exactly what they’ve been doing all training camp long, which is play dominant football,” Sarkisian said.
Sarkisian was asked after the performance if he sees his defensive line unit as being dominant up front going forward into the rest of the 2023 season.
“I have no reason not to,” Sarkisian said. “They’ve shown me that throughout training camp. They did it live today in person. I’m sure we’re going to watch the tape and find things for growth. I know this, our rush lanes probably need to improve where little more elusive quarterback might have had a few more yards in there when he pulled it down and ran it.”
They’ll likely face an elusive quarterback in Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, who had seven carries for 48 yards and two scores in the Crimson Tide’s season opening win versus Middle Tennessee State. The one-time Texas commit also was 13-of-18 for 194 yards and three touchdowns.
He’ll lead an offense that’ll use his legs, those of Jase McClellan, Roydell Williams, and Justice Haynes, and sheer size up front as a primary strategy of winning games. Texas interior defensive linemen know they will have to be ready for the challenge.
“We’re looking forward to our opponent,” said T’Vondre Sweat, who added five tackles and 0.5 TFL on Saturday. “We respect our opponent. We just got done with this game, we’re gonna watch film from this game and go to work Monday.”
Fellow lineman Byron Murphy was asked if the Longhorns would welcome Alabama attempting to utilize a run-centric gameplan. Ready for the challenge but also not wanting to speak out of turn ahead of a game versus a program in the most elite of company within the sport, Murphy provided an answer with an air of respect and confidence.
“They can,” Murphy said. “That’s cool. We’ll be ready. We’ll be prepared.”
He’d add on, “it’s going to be very exciting. A lot of fans, the atmosphere is going to be very crazy. It’s going to be a war out there. It’s going to be a dogfight. The best team wins.”
Those two players, who make up the front line of the Texas defense, will need to be at their best versus Bama for the Longhorns to have any hope of walking out of Tuscaloosa with a win. They were arguably at their best on Saturday, so the task becomes simple: make it happen in back-to-back weeks.
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Sweat had a team high Pro Football Focus grade of 93.9 on Saturday across 28 snaps. Murphy wasn’t far behind with his 90.4 grade in 21 snaps. Along with Sweat’s aforementioned stat line, Murphy added two tackles and a hurry along with a multitude of plays not recorded in the stat sheet.
Sarkisian noted postgame there were still areas where the Longhorn front needed to improve ahead of the trip to Alabama. That’s a task Murphy is ready for come Monday.
“On to next week,” Murphy said. “It’s time to focus on Bama and lock in on that.”
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