Steve Sarkisian identifies the main catalysts in turnaround of Texas' secondary

The Texas Longhorns have continued to show improvement this season, as a program, under head coach Steve Sarkisian. One of the key reasons for that improvement and relatively smooth transition into the SEC has been the improvement that the Longhorns have shown in the secondary particularly.

In 2023, the Texas secondary was not quite to the standard that Sarkisian would like to see his team. This year, that unit has widely shown improvement and it comes down to several different factors, according to Sarkisian.

“I think it’s probably a combination of things,” Steve Sarkisian said. “I think, one, when we assessed the whole thing, we said, Okay, we need to make a shift, an adjustment. What is our style of play? What do we want to do? I think the first layer of it was to get Jahdae Barron to come back to school for his senior year. That’s probably the thing that happened first. When he decided to come back, part of him coming back was to go play corner, not exclusively, but primarily play corner. That would allow us to play Jaylon Guilbeau at nickel, two of our better players back there.”

One person who Steve Sarkisian gave a lot of credit, besides the players themselves, was the hire of co-defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen.

The next part of it I think was the hiring of Johnny Nansen to offer some different perspective on kind of style of play, coverages, different things of that nature. I think the third layer to that was the addition of Andrew Mukuba transferring from Clemson, a veteran safety with a wealth of experience. The fourth piece to it all I think is the development of that group. That group now is a really veteran group. When you look at Michael Taaffe, Andrew Mukuba, Jahdae Barron, Jaylon Guilbeau, Malik Muhammad, those guys have played a lot of football.

Texas is first in the country in passing defense this season, only allowing 143.7 yards per game. The Longhorns have also intercepted 18 passes on the season, something only two schools have done more of in the country. This comes a year after the Longhorns were 116th in the country in passing defense, giving up 254.4 yards per game.

“Some of the new faces. What Derek Williams has been able to do. Gavin Holmes is starting to play a little bit more. Kobe Black, those guys. But that core group of guys is a veteran group of guys. I think the thing that they’re doing so well is they’re playing within the scheme, they’re doing their job, and they’re trusting one another. That trust is coming from great communication. I think there’s a lot of layers to it,” Sarkisian said.

“Lastly, through all of that, they’ve built up a great deal of confidence. I think that’s why turnovers occur, is because guys are playing with confidence. They’re trusting their keys. They’re making the breaks on the ball. They’re making plays on the ball when they get there.”

Next up for Texas and Steve Sarkisian is a rematch with Georgia. In that game earlier this season, the only game the Longhorns lost, the secondary gave up 175 passing yards and forced three interceptions. Still, Sarkisian wasn’t committal about if his secondary’s confidence has improved since then.

“I don’t know that,” Sarkisian said.