The Texas Longhorns are home to the country’s No. 1 scoring defense and No. 1-ranked total defense. They also have a very young defense and among them is true freshman edge Colin Simmons.
Simmons, a former five-star edge from Dallas, TX, was on Georgia’s recruiting radar but he ultimately chose to play for his home state team and he’s been far from a disappointment for them.
Simmons currently ranks second among all Power Conference defenders, who are playing at minimum 50 pass rush snaps per game, in pass rush pressure rate (20.27%).
Through six games so far, Simmons has registered 23 tackles (15 solo), 7.5 tackles for loss, four sacks, and a forced fumble. His four sacks on the season put him behind only linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. (4.5) on the Longhorns defense.
While Simmons will be a nightmare for Georgia’s offensive line, he’s just a very small part of an overall dominant Texas defense that reminds Georiga head coach Kirby Smart of his past championship defenses.
“Size, speed, two best front guys,” Smart said. “I mean, let’s, let’s every defense starts with train wreckers, big guys, physical guys at the point of attack that are hard to move. They got them. They’ve got guys on the edge that are elite rushers. They got an elite player out of the portal. They went and got DB from Clemson (Andrew Mukuba), who’s playing really good. They patched up some holes they had, and they’re the complete package because they’re really consistent. They don’t give up explosives. They’re really good in the red area. They’re hard to run the ball on.
“The consistency you watch them play with, it reminds me of some of our better teams here, our best teams here.”
Georgia’s offensive line is still considered one of the best in college football, though they haven’t been as disciplined when it comes to blocking as they have in years past. They grade out 79.3 in pass blocking and 66.9 in run blocking, per PFF. Carson Beck has been sacked six times and thrown five interceptions.
Texas is going to bring the pressure and there’s no doubt that Beck and Georgia’s offensive line will be tested on Saturday, but if they play lights like they did against Alabama in the second half — except do exactly that for all four quarters — they will leave Austin with a win.
