1st & 10: Byron Murphy and T'Vondre Sweat are easily the nation's top defensive tackles
After Texas’ win over Kansas State on Saturday, I asked Byron Murphy if he believes he and T’Vondre Sweat are the best defensive tackles in the country.
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“Yes sir, I do,” Murphy said without skipping a beat.
Is the game-clinching play the type of moment that proves that?
“If you ask me, yeah,” Murphy continued. “It also starts with preparation, how we prepare for games, and how we prepare for teams. All that starts at the beginning of the week and leads up to Saturday.”
It’s hard to disagree.
Murphy and Sweat, Texas’ standout defensive linemen, were just as crucial on Texas’ goal-line stand versus K-State on Saturday as Ryan Watts, David Gbenda, and Jerrin Thompson. Murphy, as he has often, pushed his assignment deep into the offensive backfield, pressuring Will Howard after he saw his first two reads were covered. Sweat then broke up the pass he maybe would have liked to have intercepted.
Those two plays are indicative of the season both Texas defensive linemen are having, and are examples of their body of work that places them in the uppermost echelon of college defensive tackles.
“They’re very special,” said Texas center Jake Majors, who has to go against the Longhorns’ interior duo in practice on a regular basis. “I think they complement each other’s game. High IQs, and just a good feel for the game of football.”
This season, Sweat has 31 tackles with 6.5 for loss and one sack along with two passes defended. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian compared Sweat to USC’s Leonard Williams, and marveled at the volume of tackles Texas’ No. 93 gets on a regular basis.
“The amount of tackles that Sweat makes in a game is really, really impressive,” Sarkisian said. “A lot of times you just don’t see that number from defensive tackles. That part’s been really, really impressive.”
The comparison Sark offered for Murphy was Washington’s Danny Shelton. Murphy, who has 19 tackles, 5.0 for loss, and 2.5 sacks this season, helped make the critical play Saturday thanks to interior pressure, something a former college quarterback in Sarkisian said is a major nuisance to QBs.
“When you can push the pocket internally and then collapse it from the sides, nobody likes to throw from a phone booth,” Sarkisian said. “Everybody likes to have space and things of that nature. When you collapse the pocket internally, no quarterback likes that.”
Their efforts this year have drawn praise from a number of outlets, offering more evidence that the best DTs in the country reside in Austin, Texas. According to Pro Football Focus, Sweat has the best season-long defensive grade among interior defenders with a 91.3. Right behind him? Murphy, who’s in second place with an 89.5.
Despite their dominance, there was peculiar stat Sarkisian touched on that perturbed him greatly while endorsing Murphy and Sweat as the No. 1 tackles in the land.
“In my opinion, we have the two most dominant defensive interior linemen in the country, and if not the country in our conference,” Sarkisian said. “I’m not sure if they’ve gotten a holding penalty called on either of them this year.”
There is plenty of picture evidence to support Sarkisian, as our Will Gallagher can attest.
Even without drawing penalties, what Murphy and Sweat do on a regular basis is key for the entire Longhorn defense. Just ask Watts…
“Those are our best friends,” he said. “When they create havoc, they make the job so much easier for us. That’s complementary defense.”
Or Gbenda…
“They make my job so much easier with the level of intensity they bring on the field, then off the field too with their leadership with the younger guys, helping them understand this is the standard for defense and this is the standard for the D-line room,” Gbenda added.
Every teammate of Murphy and Sweat could not help but chuckle on Monday when they mentioned how the dynamic duo are not only team leaders, but also leading jokesters. They keep it light in the D-line room, but they’re heavy duty when they’re on the field.
“From game one, I think every offense in general has schemed trying to stay away from our D-line,” Jaylan Ford said. “It’s been incredible to watch those guys work on the field.”
I see it no differently. Nor will the NFL, who had several scouts and even Houston Texans general manager Nick Caserio in attendance on Saturday.
But for now, Texas should enjoy having the best defensive tackle tandem in the nation because opposing offenses surely are not.
1: One of the features in the UT game notes since the Wyoming game has detailed how Murphy became the fourth Longhorn lineman to score an offensive touchdown thanks to his one-yard reception versus the Cowboys.
Credit is due to Murphy for the play, but there’s an unselfishness required for a defensive lineman to want to play offense. Both Murphy and Sweat appear on the Longhorns’ goal-line personnel, and even though that unit has had its struggles this year, the Texas D-tackles deserve more praise because of their willingness to help on both sides of the football.
2: Speaking of Pro Football Focus, the outlet has seven Longhorns in the top 100 of its current NFL Draft Big Board.
- 31. Adonai Mitchell
- 36. Xavier Worthy
- 38. Ja’Tavion Sanders
- 57. Quinn Ewers
- 58. Jonathon Brooks
- 84. Byron Murphy
- 89. Jahdae Barron
- 93. T’Vondre Sweat
Jaylan Ford was No. 158, Jordan Whittington was No. 177, and Jalen Catalon was No. 191 on the 200-person list.
3: Last night, the Longhorns were ranked No. 7 in the second set of College Football Playoff rankings. I believed the selection committee was justified in ranking Oregon over Texas last week. With the Longhorns now boasting a 3-1 record against teams ranked in the top 25, there’s no longer reason for me to believe Texas is the No. 2 one-loss team.
Of course, this is all an exercise in entertainment, but the value in the rankings is in trying to determine what the selection committee is watching for.
And based off the following two word salads from CFP selection committee chair Boo Corrigan, that remains unclear.
Q. I wanted to ask you about transitive properties. I know you guys do a lot with metrics and last week you explained that the coaches are also weighing heavily with the eye test. I guess I’d specifically refer to the Texas-Alabama game. Is that the sort of thing that carries throughout the season, or do you also take into consideration quarterback changes and the length of time that that game was early in the season?
BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, we’re going to look at everything. Every game matters. You talk to any coach, they’re going to talk about every game mattering and winning matters, et cetera.
The beauty of this committee to me is it’s not driven by watching games. It’s not driven specifically by the resume or by the metrics. We work really hard and take everything in. We work really hard to get everyone in the room to talk and make sure that they’re voicing their opinions.
Again, the coaches do carry maybe a little bit of extra weight when they’re talking about it and examples that they’ve had in their career, but Maalik Murphy had a good game this week for Texas. Jalen Milroe has continued to come on, and all credit to Coach Saban and what they’ve done down there at Alabama.
And when put on the spot…
Q. Wanted to ask about the 6 through 8 conversation. Why is Oregon ranked ahead of Texas and Alabama?
BOO CORRIGAN: Again, looking at the win over Utah, understanding that Texas has a win over Alabama, Alabama comes back with wins over Mississippi, Tennessee, LSU, but it’s a compilation of everything that I was talking about in answering Joe. It’s not one single metric, but we spent a lot of time on it, and we want to make sure we get it right.
It’s not we do it one time and then move on. We’ll do it one time and then come back to it again and come back to it again and make sure that everyone is comfortable with where we are.
I am not the Joe mentioned here, but that’s the only thing I can clarify from Corrigan’s statements.
4: I don’t have a problem with how the top five looks. Washington is undefeated and though they aren’t vulnerable in my opinion, they haven’t looked as juggernaut-ish as they did to start the year. Florida State is getting dinged for its schedule, though that LSU win is still a nice feather in the cap.
Ohio State has a strong resume with wins over Notre Dame on the road and Penn State at home. But that strong resume is what had Greg McElroy all worked up last night.
Speaking of McElroy, here’s what he had to say about the No. 6 spot (via On3’s Andrew Graham)
“It should be Texas, they have the best resume. They have five wins against teams that are above .500, including a win on the road in Tuscaloosa. To me, that stands above all else,” McElroy said, pausing for a follow-up question that prompted him to continue. “I would put Alabama behind them because they challenged themselves on the road and have wins against LSU, which is not great, they got a win against No. 9 Ole Miss. They also some other pretty good wins along the way, as well. So I would put Alabama at No. 7 and I’d put Oregon at No. 8 until proven otherwise. And they’ll have their chance when we get to the Pac-12 championship.”
5: I’m not the first to say that the Longhorns need Quinn Ewers back if they want to reach their lofty aspirations. The path to the Playoff, if not the Big 12 championship, can only be traversed with an offense led by Ewers and not Maalik Murphy. Whether that journey with Ewers at the front begins on Saturday remains to be seen.
I will take some solace in the fact that Murphy got a chance to go against the K-State version of the 3-3-5 Flyover defense in his difficult day on Saturday. And guess what the Longhorns’ next two opponents run?
TCU is not the same defense it was last year, missing stars and 2022 draft picks like Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson, Dylan Horton, and Dee Winters. It’s still formidable and the scheme has given Sarkisian fits in the past, but now one of his potential options at quarterback has seen the scheme first-hand in live action.
6: Could you imagine hearing 10 years ago that four of the top 20 rushers in the country play in the Big 12? The conference that served as a proving ground for the Air Raid now has some of the most prolific ground attacks in the nation.
Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon leads the nation with 1225 yards rushing, 158 yards clear of the next closest Power 5 back. Texas’ Jonathon Brooks is fifth in the country with 1035 yards, and Texas Tech’s Tahj Brooks trails him by two yards with 1033 in sixth place.
TCU’s Emani Bailey, who the Longhorns will see this week, is No. 15 with 908 rushing yards.
By comparison, only one quarterback in the league is in the top 20 in passing yards: Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel.
7: Since Chris Del Conte’s heroic effort in DeLoss Dodds’ office earned TCU a place in the Big 12, the Longhorns are 2-3 in Amon G. Carter Stadium. Texas defeated TCU 30-7 in 2013 in a rain-soaked affair that saw Tyrone Swoopes make his debut, then rode Bijan Robinson to the tune of 35 carries for 216 yards and two touchdowns in a 32-27 win in 2021.
TCU won the most recent contest 17-10, limiting Texas to three offensive points and 199 yards in a primetime 2022 battle. As Big 12 opponents, TCU leads the series 8-3.
8: The game of the week is Michigan at Penn State. While controversy and Wolverine football have walked hand-in-hand this week, they are going to play a football game at Beaver Stadium on Saturday.
Signals or no signals, Michigan has been enough of a machine on both sides of the ball to where I think it earns its best win of the season. Manny Diaz‘s defense will play well, but I don’t see Mike Yurcich or Drew Allar holding up their end of the bargain.
9: Longhorn transfers performed well for Rodney Terry‘s team on Monday night, with Ithiel Horton leading all Longhorn scorers with 17 points in Texas season-opening win over Incarnate Word. Plus, Kadin Shedrick scored 12 points in 11 minutes on 3-of-3 shooting and added a 6-of-7 effort from the line.
Texas won’t be tested on Friday when Delaware State comes to town, but one thing to watch is the status of Chris Johnson. He’ll be relied on for secondary guard minutes this year. He probably could have gone Monday, as he looked full-speed during pregame warmups, but Texas held him out because they didn’t need him. He’ll have to get his feet wet at some point, especially with UConn or Indiana on the horizon in New York City in under two weeks.
10: After last week’s thrilling end, I think it’s worth noting that the No. 1 crews for ESPN (Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit) and Fox (Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt) are the best in the industry. What they bring in terms of expertise and noticeable excitement for what’s happening before them resonates with me, even on re-watch.
