This football season, The Texas Longhorns have had one of the best secondaries in the country, leading it to the SEC championship game and College Football Playoff. While there are several stars in the defensive backfield, All-Americans Michael Taaffe and Jahdae Barron make sure that everyone is on the same page.

While giving up the most yards of the season in the First Round Playoff game against Clemson, Texas got the win but still isn’t satisfied.

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik threw for 336 yards and the Tigers’ offense put up 412 total yards. Even though the Longhorns won 38-24, Taaffe and Barron wasted no time getting back to work.

“It’s the whole thing that Coach Saban always says,” Taaffe said. When you play a game not up to your standard but you still win, some immature players look at that like it’s a win. We can’t learn from it because we won, so let’s just keep moving on.”

Texas has been able to turn losses into lessons twice this season, and while they didn’t lose to Clemson, they still have a lot of work to do to be fully prepared for Arizona State. Back to practice after taking a break for Christmas, Barron was itching to get back out onto the field the second the clock hit 0:00 after beating Clemson.

“But this group that we have is so mature that Jahdae’s on the phone with me at 10 pm after the game,” Taaffe said. “He’s like ‘dude. I just watched it. We need to get better. We need to start tomorrow as early as 8 am and start getting better.’”

Taaffe, Barron and fellow Austin native Andrew Mukuba have led the Texas secondary, working tirelessly with defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski in the offseason to improve all aspects of their game.

Many doubted Texas’ ability to stop the run with the departure of T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II. But Kwiatkowski was prepared, ready to make the changes needed to keep the Texas defense elite.

“So schematically we went to more of a post-style defense going into the season. We lost T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy and we had (Alfred Collins) and (Vernon Broughton) coming back. We weren’t sure how we were going to be able to play the run with two high safeties with lighter boxes, so that was the main catalyst to that switch. And then from the secondary standpoint playing with a middle closed we were able to play tighter coverage, play with more outside leverage on a lot of the route combinations that we’re seeing,” Kwiatkowski said.

“And then credit to those guys. They took their growth and learning to a new level. As much as we like to tell them to stay off social media and not listen to outside noise, they hear it, and so they knew they had to get better. And starting in January all the way to camp to now, they’ve attacked that challenge.”

Now, the Longhorn defense will have at least one more challenge ahead of them as they will head back to Atlanta to face Arizona State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal on New Year’s Day at 12:00 PM.

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CHICAGO, Dec. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — PEAK6 Investments LLC (“PEAK6”) today announced that, effective January 1, 2025, it will move its global headquarters from its current location in Chicago, Illinois to the company’s existing office in Austin, Texas, which it established in 2021. PEAK6 affiliates PEAK6 Group LLC, PEAK6 Strategic Capital LLC, PEAK6 APX Holdings LLC and PEAK6 LLC will also relocate their global headquarters to Austin. PEAK6 will maintain its office in Chicago.

“Texas has been a cornerstone of PEAK6’s growth for over a decade,” said PEAK6 Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Matt Hulsizer, who continued, “With the majority of our talented workforce now based in Texas and Austin emerging as our largest office, moving our headquarters was an important decision to be closer to our team. We’re excited for the next chapter of PEAK6 that will be written from our new headquarters.”

Austin’s unique blend of creativity, technology and culture provides the ideal environment for PEAK6. The city’s highly educated workforce, business climate, and strong entrepreneurial spirit have enabled us to attract top talent and drive innovation.

About PEAK6

PEAK6 uses technology to find a better way of doing things. The company’s first tech-based solution was developed in 1997 to optimize options trading, and over the past two decades, the same formula has been used across a range of industries, asset classes, and business stages to consistently deliver superior results. Today, PEAK6 seeks transformational opportunities to provide capital and strategic support to entrepreneurs and forward-thinking businesses.

PEAK6’s core brands include PEAK6 Capital Management, PEAK6 Strategic Capital, Apex Fintech Solutions, We Insure, FOCUS, Zogo, Evil Geniuses and Poker Power.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/peak6-to-relocate-global-headquarters-to-austin-texas-302339437.html

SOURCE PEAK6 Investments

AUSTIN, Texas – On Wednesday, the Texas Longhorns and the Arizona State Sun Devils will square off in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

The New Year’s Day match-up will be the first football game of 2025. 

The last time the Horns and Sun Devils played on the field was in 2007 when Texas beat Arizona 52-to-34 in the Holiday Bowl. 

“This is the first time that we’ll host Texas true blue blood in college football into the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, and if they win, Texas would be the first team in the history of college football to win all six New Year’s Six Bowl games,” said Gary Stokan, President and CEO of Peach Bowl, Inc.

Texas has never played in the Peach Bowl, and Arizona has never played in the CFP. It will be a game of firsts for both teams. The Sun Devils have only played in the Peach Bowl once before, in 1970, when they beat North Carolina. 

“They created the Fiesta Bowl out of that experience of the 1970 Peach Bowl,” said Stokan. “So interesting history there, and interesting history can be made with both teams moving along to the semifinal, the first CFP playoff.” 

It will be the 57th Peach Bowl, and tickets to the annual game have sold out yearly since sometime in the 1990s. 

“We were founded back in 1968, and it is the ninth-oldest bowl game in college football history, but only the first bowl game founded for charity,” said Stokan.

Stokan said the Peach Bowl and Chick-fil-A teamed up this year to give out scholarships to both universities, each receiving $100,000. The endowed scholarship will help fund tuition for students attending UT or ASU from Atlanta. 

“We’ve given $64 million to charity since 2002, which makes us the most charitable organization in the country,” said Stokan.

The Longhorns will return to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the second time this season, and fans are upset that the beloved mascot has been banned from the sidelines.

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“Unfortunately, we hate it, but, you know, we’re not able to house Bevo similar to what the SEC championship did, so we apologize to all the Texas fans,” said Stokan.

The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl President said he had answered more interview questions about Bevo than football. 

“I’m not sure whether Texas fans are more interested in Bevo or the game,” said Stokan.

The stadium staff said they cannot accommodate the nearly one-ton steer. 

While the Peach Bowl is already sold out, some people feel this same restriction could affect Bevo’s game attendance for a possible national title game. 

If Texas wins the Peach Bowl and their semifinal game, the Longhorns would return to Atlanta on January 20 for the national championship.