2008 Football Defense: Volume 2

Next season will be an interesting one in terms of personnel due to the fact that the Horns' defense will suffer from losing seven of its starters to graduation. Seven. That's like 1.4 basketball teams, on defense alone. Fortunately for Will Muschamp and the rest of the defensive coaches, in a few positional cases it's safe to say that graduation will work in the Horns' favor. The Horns ranked 35th nationally in tackles for loss with 88, 47th in sacks with 28, 47th in turnover margin with 0.08, and 63rd in opponent 3rd down conversions. I know we'd like to at least remain ranked next year, so these numbers must drastically improve.

The Good Guys' Defense: Front Seven

At the Horns' first Spring practice of the season, Will "Boom" Muschamp ran more Nickel defense than we ever saw at any number of games last season. The Nickel defense, or 4-2-5 defense, employs four linemen, two linebackers, and five defensive backs. It is usually employed when a defense is expecting a team to pass a little more than it runs (i.e. everyone against Texas). Getting very good at this defensive scheme is going to be huge for the 2008 Longhorn defense. Picking a winning scheme: Muschamp 1 Lackluster Defense 0

Defensive Tackles

Ben Alexander and Roy Miller, the only defensive tackles who saw action last year, played in 9 and 13 games last season, respectively. Roy Miller has been in steady rotation at defensive tackle since the '06 season and has registered 39 and 40 total tackles over the past two seasons. He will be a senior next season and should be considered a returning starter. Ben Alexander only registered seven tackles last season and remains essentially unproven. His biggest asset as a run stopper is his weight at 310 lbs, but to be effective in the pass central defense promised by Muschamp, he might find himself second string to a lighter and faster defensive end-turned-tackle. At 6'0 Alexander isn't the tallest tackle, which very well might hurt him as far as making the quarterback throw over him, another factor that might keep him on the bench in '08. Extra points awarded due to the fact that his dogs are named Bevo and Hook 'em. Another defensive tackle of note is Brian Ellis, who at 6'5 and 287 lbs fits the description of a good pass rush defensive tackle. He's very tall, and judging by his relative light weight (he has yet to play in a game) quick on his feet, allowing him to get to the quarterback quickly and set up a huge obstacle to throw over once he gets there. Moving ends to tackle: Muschamp 2 Lackluster Defense 0

Defensive Ends

Not much needs to be said about the ends returning in '08 for the Horns. They're big, fast, experienced, and plentiful. Not a single defensive end listed on last season's final depth chart graduated, and none left early for the NFL. Look for some changes though, as Muschamp has already professed that he very well might move a defensive end or two to tackle to increase the overall speed of the d-line. Even Texas's third listed defensive end, Henry Melton, would have no problem starting at any other university in the country. Melton's brief stint as a fullback proves that he is fast. Like scary,  holy crap he could chase me down and kill me by touching me fast (see: animal, hippopotamus: 30 mph are you freaking kidding me??).  Aaron Lewis lost nearly 10 lbs over the past year, indicating that he may want to remain at defensive end. If at the end of the summer Melton and Lewis are closer to 300 lbs than they are now, look for them to switch to defensive tackle. With Maddog's anti-Jenny Craig regimen, this is very possible.  Having awesome ends that have somehow managed to not register 97 sacks a game: Muschamp 2 Lackluster Defense 1

Linebackers

Most of last year's much maligned  linebackers graduated, injecting the center of the field with three of the best athletes Texas has seen at the position. Sergio Kindle, Roddrick Muckelroy, and Jared Norton will be huge improvements over the three featured in last season's defense. Sergio Kindle reminds me too much of Adrian Peterson because he seems to always be hurt, is unbelievable when he is healthy, and everyone knows he is awesome even if he isn't putting up the numbers. Kindle is currently out after knee surgery and will miss Spring practices. Let's hope he gets and stays healthy, or else, like Peterson, we'll only know get to know how awesome he is based on his performances on Sunday. Muckelroy and Norton are improvements over last season's linebackers at stopping the run (Norton had 67 tackles versus Robert Killebrew's 57, and needed less games to do it), but based on my observation of last season's performances, are much better in pass coverage situations as well. You might ask "but if our linebackers are going to be so good next season, why is Muschamp practicing to play with only two?" Because even though our new linebackers are better, they are still new, and they might not be healthy. Taking a good list of three and making it a great list of two: Muschamp 3 Lackluster Defense 1

NOTE: all the statistical information in this post came from cfbstats.com, an awesome site for anything to do with stats in college football.