Halfway through regular season, Texas defense on pace to become best unit in modern era of Longhorns football

Halfway through the regular season, Texas has the nation’s No. 1 defense.

That’s not hyperbole, it’s statistically true. The Horns lead the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 6.3 points per game. And they lead the nation in total defense, yielding just 229.7 yards per game.

Take a minute to let that resonate. The units in the 2010s were some of the worst in school history. In coach Steve Sarkisian’s first year in 2021, the Horns allowed 31.1 points per game, the third-worst total ever.

Somewhere, defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski must be smiling. “PK” and his defensive assistants have personally overseen the entire turnaround the three-plus years they’ve been in Austin. No wonder No. 1 Texas is 6-0 for the first time since 2009.

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Now, the 2024 defense is on pace to become the best defense in the modern era of Texas football. The 2005 national title team allowed 16.4 points per game. This unit shaved double digits off that total.

Up next comes another major test against No. 5 Georgia (5-1, 3-1 SEC) and quarterback Carson Beck.

Saturday’s 34-3 win over Oklahoma was the third time this season Texas did not allow a touchdown. The Sooners sure tried. OU got to the Texas 6-yard line trying to score in garbage time. The Horns put the starters back in and turned them away as the clock expired.

If the best defense is played in the SEC, then the best defense is being played by the Longhorns.

“Yeah, I always say our best ball is yet to come,” safety Michael Taaffe said. “We only went three points up today, but we're going to go look at that film, and we're going to see some run fits that I missed, that some other people missed, and we're going to clean those up, and our best ball is yet to come.”

Sarkisian rattled off a list of contributors and then surmised, “We’re a veteran defense, when you really look at us.

“These guys have played a lot of football. They may not have all been the stars a year ago, but they've grown into playing really good football individually. But I think more importantly, they're playing really good football collectively.”

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Sarkisian praised the communication between Taaffe on the back end and linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. up front. Hill had a team-high 11 tackles, two sacks and one forced fumble on a busy day against the Sooners.

Freshman Colin Simmons had five tackles. Seven other players were credited with four tackles each. Overall, the Horns had five sacks, three quarterback hurries and two forced fumbles.

“Again, I don’t think defensively we rely on one guy to go get three sacks to play good,” Sarkisian said. “It’s everybody playing well together, getting the call. We’re tackling really well. We’re not missing tackles and giving up explosive plays, and we’re staying on top of the back end. We’re just not letting balls get thrown over our head.

“So we can make it hard on teams to have to drive at the length of the field.”

Sarkisian does not allow his assistants to speak to reporters during the regular season, something the coach modeled after Nick Saban. Don’t bother Kwiatkowski. Let him cook.

“The press and everybody around outside the locker room might say, ‘Wow, this is such a complete defense.’ But everybody in the locker room knows that the offense gets after our butt a lot during the week of practice, and so we have so much to get better at,” Taaffe said. “And that’s what I’m so excited for. Because we get to go against an offense like that every single day.

“Coach talks about us having swagger and confidence,” Taaffe added. “You wonder why? I mean, we get to go against Quinn Ewers, Isaiah Bond, Matthew Golden, Gunner Helm, Kelvin Banks, Cam Williams, Jake Majors, I could go on and on and on about those guys. And so that gives us the confidence. It’s the preparation, and we just know that the best is yet to come.”