Texas and the preseason All-Big 12 team

The preseason All-Big 12 list was released ahead of Media Days next week. Texas is receiving some credit with five players selected, putting them at the top over returning Big 12 Championship participants TCU and Kansas State as well as… Kansas.

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The Jayhawks had three guys selected on offense who all touch the ball nearly every snap, center Mike Novitsky, quarterback Jalon Daniels, and running back Devin Neal. On defense all-name candidate Cobee Bryant was also included, presumably for his stat profile last season. I don’t really get that one.

It’s hard for a single program to dominate a single first-team ballot in a league which now includes 14 teams in the manner that say, Oklahoma routinely did in the 2010s. Those days are over now for the Sooners though, they only had defensive end Ethan Downs included on this list. I had more than one on my list (although not Downs) but either way it’s indicative of their fallen stature.

Texas has three on offense and two more on defense, four of them obvious guys you’d expect and the fifth Byron Murphy, who made it over Barryn Sorrell, T’Vondre Sweat or any of the defensive backs.

Here’s the full list:

Here is the full pre-season All-Big 12 team pic.twitter.com/YOxS5ifXxV

— Joe Cook (@josephcook89) July 5, 2023

Ian’s ballot

Here’s how I filled out my own ballot:

I’m not married to most of these, preseason lists are simply for starting conversations, so I didn’t kill myself studying film to make the best selections. Here are a few I felt pretty strongly about that aren’t obvious, like Kelvin Banks or Devin Neal who probably had near unanimity around the league.

Jahdae Barron being in the starting secondary to me was a no-brainer. He’s the best nickel in the league by a mile, a position which asks him to play around the box at times like a strong safety and to man up slot receivers like a cornerback at others. I’m not sure he has a peer around the league and he might be the best all-around defensive back in the Big 12 and perhaps the best defensive player at Texas. It’s strange that no Longhorn defensive backs are on this list but Barron’s exclusion is an absolute crime.

Gavin Sawchuk is going to be pretty good and probably leads the backfield for the Sooners. He also plays in the Veer and Shoot opposite a defensive head coach who’s own defense had a miserable year one and may be leaning on his offensive coordinator to help him out by running the dang ball. Will Sawchuk be one of the best running backs in the league next year? I don’t know but I bet his stats say he is.

I think Collin Oliver is one of the twitchiest and most explosive defenders in the league. Everyone kinda forgot about him somehow between his sophomore slump (dipping from 10.5 sacks to five while splitting time) and the general drama around Oklahoma State. If he’d transferred to Texas to play Buck I’d have been tempted to break my rules on sports gambling (I don’t do it) and put a big wager on the Longhorns to make the playoffs. He’s that good. OSU is going to move him off the ball a bit in their new Flyover scheme which I think will suit him fine. He’s as athletic and natural dropping as any other linebacker in the league and has played Edge up till now because of his extraordinary pass-rushing skill. I think he’ll be the highest impact defender in the league this season.

Khalid Duke (Kansas State) and Steve Linton (Texas Tech) are likely to be the pass-rushing terrors that emerge this season to collect stats and glory at season’s end. Duke played an off-ball linebacker/Edge hybrid position last year for K-State because they wanted to keep him on the field with Felix Anudike-Uzomah in the base defense, this year he slides down to replace him at defensive end. Linton played 4i-technique for a 3-3-5 at Syracuse last year at 6-foot-5, 225 pounds. He’s an explosive athlete who should come alive playing as an Edge for Tech in their 2-4-5.

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Big 12 writers tend to favor defensive backs who pile up either interceptions or tackles but I like the guys who can handle the hardest coverage challenges which make a scheme come alive. Those guys may or may not show up in the box score. An apparently lesser known talent in this mold is TCU’s Bud Clark, who despite housing a pick from J.J. McCarthy in the playoffs and enabling TCU’s “nine in the box” strategy against Texas with his off-man coverage on the slot, didn’t garner enough votes. My man had five picks last year so I’m not sure what people missed here, but he’s like Barron in that he makes an entire defensive scheme work with his coverage ability and is likely to be drafted after the season.

What does it all mean?

There are a few things which standout from this list.

One is that recency bias still dominates Big 12 coverage. “Who won last year? Just pick those teams and their most well known players…” is an obvious strategy on these lists. This always leads to silly results because in reality, the non-Oklahoma slot at the top has been a revolving door. The loss of a combined 12 players to the NFL Draft (and a few other quality seniors aside) from TCU and Kansas State will likely take those teams down a notch and allow other squads among a league with tremendous parity to replace them. Oklahoma’s destabilization opens up another slot as well, but it’ll probably simply be filled by fellow blue blood Texas.

Based solely on this list (we’ll see what teams were selected soon) it would appear Texas and Kansas are the two teams most expect to emerge. I bet the preseason poll will actually feature Kansas closer to the middle with the Longhorns on top.

Here’s the standout feature to Texas, this list, and the upcoming Big 12 season… Longhorn skill talent. Aside from Xavier Worthy and Ja’Tavion Sanders, a pair of likely 2024 NFL Draft picks who have already produced in burnt orange and were chosen here, there’s also AD Mitchell, Isaiah Neyor, and Jordan Whittington any of whom could all end up on this list by season’s end.

If Texas can put it all together in the passing game they’ll have overwhelming firepower they can ride to a Big 12 Championship. There’s only so many Bud Clarks and Jahdae Barrons around to counter a receiving corps of that caliber and some of them are in Austin.