93 days until Texas Football: T’Vondre Sweat takes over in the middle of the Longhorn defense
Inside Texas is putting a new twist on long-time photographer Will Gallagher’s countdown to Texas football kickoff. In addition to Will’s great pictures, the Inside Texas staff will go through every player on the roster by jersey number and offer a season outlook for each, from five-star to walk-on.
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We’ll also look back at other greats to wear that day’s number, with special reverence to some of Texas’ best.
Today is 93 days until kickoff. No. 93 will be worn in 2023 by T’Vondre Sweat, a senior defensive lineman
T’Vondre Sweat season outlook
Sweat played 425 defensive snaps last season, more than any other interior defender on the roster even with 2023 NFL draft picks Keondre Coburn and Moro Ojomo in his position group. Sweat was part of a four-man platoon that included Coburn, Ojomo, and Byron Murphy that kept the Texas interior defenders fresh and allowed them to play with increased effort on a snap-by-snap basis.
Sweat made the most of his opportunities, turning in a solid 79.1 PFF defensive grade. This year, he’ll be tasked with offering a similar level of production without the certainty of a rotation to keep him fresh.
Over the course of the offseason, Sweat became one of the leaders of the team along with his tackle teammate Murphy. Their ability to hold up against the run in Pete Kwiatkowski’s 2-4-5 system is critical to the success of the operation. Any pressure he can provide, like the pressure brought versus Bryce Young last year versus Alabama in a controversial play, will only bolster the resume of the future NFL draft pick.
Bo Davis is going to ask a lot of Sweat as a starter. He has the potential to live up to it, and if he does, it’ll have many positive ripple effects on the rest of the defense. If the rotation at defensive tackle doesn’t form in a way similar to last season’s, that may make living up to that potential a more difficult task.
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In addition to his snaps on defense, Sweat played a small role as the fullback in goal line settings. There’s no word on his hands if he were to leak out or his ability to lower his shoulder if given the ball, but he gave efforted, if not always effective, blocks in short-yardage.
A fifth-year player out of Huntsville, Sweat has played in 48 games in his five years at Texas, with starts in nine of those games (all last year). He has 83 career tackles, 29 of those solo, with 9.5 tackles for a loss, three sacks, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries.
Sweat set career-highs in 2022 with 20 tackles (10 solo) and four passes defended (knocked down). That production was enough to garner a 2022 honorable mention All-Big 12 selection by the league’s coaches. He was also named to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team in 2021.
T’Vondre Sweat as a recruit
Sweat was ranked as the No. 660 overall prospect, the No. 73 defensive lineman, and the No. 82 player in the state of Texas according to the 2019 On3 Industry Ranking, a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services.
Most recent wearer of No. 93: Paul Boyette
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Boyette played in 42 career games with eight starts and totaled 100 tackles, 17 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks in his career. As a senior he played in 12 games and started twice and in his junior year, Boyette finished second among DTs on the team in tackles (37) and third overall in tackles for loss (eight).
Joe Cook contributed to this story.
