Can multiple of the talented defensive tackles Texas has in the fold entering this fall step up in practice?
Defensive line is a major position of focus for Texas football entering fall camp this week. With fall practice set to begin on July 31, it won’t be long until we see all the new defensive tackles Texas brought in via recruiting at the high school level and in the transfer portal at the Frank Denius Fields.
Texas football looking for a deep group of defensive tackles to emerge in the rotation in fall camp
Texas not only lost its two top defensive tackles to the NFL Draft this offseason in T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy, but it also lost its defensive line coach to an SEC foe the LSU Tigers. Head coach Steve Sarkisian hired former Miami Dolphins assistant defensive line coach Kenny Baker to replace Davis as Texas’s new DL coach.
The Longhorns replaced key departures along the defensive line with three proven and experienced defensive tackle grad transfers from the portal this offseason. The three new defensive tackle transfers will all have an immediate impact and play key roles in Texas’s interior defensive line rotation this fall.
Seeing how the rotation lines up and what the two-deep looks like along the defensive front will be a key storyline to follow for the Longhorns entering preseason camp this week.
Here are three of the “most talented” defensive tackles to watch for the Longhorns entering fall practice on July 31.
Jaray Bledsoe
For junior defensive lineman Jaray Bledsoe, it’s never been a question of his physical upside or raw talent during his time at Texas. What’s kept Bledsoe from making a big impact on the field for Texas’s interior defensive line during his first two years on campus was the lack of production and consistency finding one spot to entrench himself at defensive tackle.
Bledsoe did see more defensive snaps year-over-year in 2023. He took a career-high 85 defensive snaps, including double-digit snaps in four games in Big 12 play last season.
OTF’s Gerry Hamilton reports that Bledsoe is expected to take snaps in live-game action this season at multiple different spots along the defensive front. Bledsoe’s explosiveness and length allows him to be versatile enough to be disruptive as a three-tech, five-tech, or a stand-up edge rusher, depending on the situation on defense for Pete Kwiatkowski’s front.
The biggest question for Bledsoe entering preseason camp is whether he can finally breakthrough and show consistency at defensive line for the Longhorns in practice.
Jermayne Lole
The most recent of the three defensive tackle transfers the Longhorns brought in this offseason was the former Louisville Cardinals and Arizona State Sun Devils grad transfer senior Jermayne Lole.
There is a high likelihood that Lole joins fellow defensive tackle grad transfers Bill Norton and Tia Savea among the top five or six linemen in the interior rotation for the Longhorns this season. Lole, Norton, and Savea all bring proven experience and size up front that Texas needs to keep guys fresh and rotating in the trenches in the SEC week in and week out.
For Lole specifically, he was mentioned by Hamilton in his OTF report as one of the two “most talented” and experienced defensive tackles Texas has in the fold entering preseason camp. Lole has shown that he is an NFL-caliber defensive tackle when he remains healthy on a consistent basis, during past seasons at Arizona State and Louisville when he played double-digit games in a year.
Lole was one of the top-10 highest-graded defensive tackles in the Pac-12 in his first two years as a regular starter for Arizona State’s defensive line earlier in his career. But injuries unfortunately limited Lole’s fall production in his last couple of years at Arizona State and his first season at Louisville.
Keeping Lole healthy will be of great importance to the Texas defensive staff this fall. He will reportedly be on a “pitch count” early this fall while he gets up to speed in the Texas defensive scheme.
The good news for Lole regarding his injury progress is that he was pretty much fully healthy for Louisville last season. He played the most defensive snaps of any Louisville defensive tackle in ACC play in 2023.
Alfred Collins
Seniors Alfred Collins and Vernon Broughton return as the undisputed leaders of Texas’s interior defensive line group entering fall camp and the 2024 campaign. Collins and Broughton have over 2,000 defensive snaps combined over their long careers at Texas since the early 2020s.
Collins was Texas’s third-highest-graded defensive tackle last season, behind only Murphy and Sweat who were the two best (and highest graded) interior defensive linemen in the Power Five last year. He’s never been lacking talent, but Collins has shown a lot more of what Texas fans were looking for out of him early in his collegiate career in Austin since the end of the 2022 campaign.
In the last 18 games, Collins has registered nearly 30 quarterback pressures, a dozen defensive stops, three sacks, and five tackles for loss. This stretch has definitely been the most consistent version of Collins we’ve seen in his four years at Texas since the 2020 season.
It sounds like Collins has really taken it to heart to get in the best shape possible for his final season at Texas. He’s added 10 pounds of good weight to add to his muscle mass and widen his frame since the spring weigh-ins for the roster.
Now is the time for Collins to prove that he’s a worthy top-three-round pick for the 2025 NFL Draft. He’s got the first-team reps at defensive tackle for the taking and a newfound leadership role for a Texas defensive line that needs a tone-setter to make their voice heard early in fall camp to help this unit gel together for a tough SEC slate in 2024.