Senior defensive lineman Vernon Broughton was a mysterious no-show during the Texas Longhorns’ spring game. Sometimes, you must miss tackles on purpose.
“I got married in Dallas, Texas, to my beautiful wife Camille Broughton,” Vernon said after Tuesday’s practice. The plan was to have the wedding after the spring game, but no such luck.
“She was going to kick my butt if I went to that spring game.”
Broughton and the Longhorns want to kick you-know-what on Saturdays this fall. If the Texas defense is to have any success in the SEC, the Horns must stop the run. That means making sure-handled tackles against teams with downhill running attacks meant to wear down both you and the clock.
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The Horns had two mammoth defensive tackles last season in T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy, both now in the NFL. They were two huge reasons why Texas had the nation’s third-best run defense last season, allowing a paltry 82.4 yards per game. Only Penn State and UCLA were better.
Texas A&M had the best run defense in the SEC last season at 108.8 yards per game, a figure that ranked 14th nationally.
Tackling is something of a lost art these days. Coaches know it must be part of the daily practice plan, but teams can’t go overboard for risk of getting injured. Coach Steve Sarkisian has watched two of his running backs already go down to season-ending injuries. But that doesn’t mean the Horns have pulled back on the contact this August.
“We work on tackling a ton,” Sarkisian said. “I felt like there was a few opportunities in the scrimmage last Saturday where we got we gave up some leaky yardage on some tackles that I would have liked us to make a little bit cleaner.”
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Sarkisian said tackling in open space was an issue but that is correctable. “Again, that’s not uncommon at this juncture,” he said. “We’ve just got to continue to work that aspect of our tackling, but for the most part, I didn’t see just blatant, really poor tackling. I did see a high level of physicality, especially for some guys that haven't shown it in years, a year, years past, that are starting to grow into our style of play.”
Broughton is expected to be one of the defensive leaders, alongside senior Alfred Collins and edge rusher Barryn Sorrell. Coaches have sky-high expectations for transfers Bill Norton, Tiaoalii Savea and Jermayne Lole too.
New defensive line coach Kenny Baker has really helped Broughton improve his technique. Last season, Baker was an assistant defensive line coach with the Miami Dolphins.
“Honestly, Because Sweat and Murphy have set a standard here and year before, (Keondre) Coburn and all them, we just decided to keep that same mentality up and do what we’ve gotta do.”
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