Could this be Pete Kwiatkowski’s best secondary?

There’s a big theme emerging this offseason for the Texas Longhorns approaching year one in the SEC and it’s not exactly the one everyone has been talking up for the past few years. Since Arkansas obliterated Texas’ offense in Fayetteville back in 2021 with a 3-down dime package due to the wide gulf between the Hog D-line and the Texas O-line, the main question around Texas has been whether or not the “big humans” on the Longhorn roster will be ready for SEC play.

That’s not an insignificant question, but there’s another pressing issue for the 2024 season and likely beyond. The SEC has become a passing league, flush with veteran quarterbacks throwing not only to blue chip receiver recruits but also hired gun transfers eager to perform on college football’s biggest stages.

Texas is going to need a veteran defensive back room to be excellent in 2024 in order to give them a leg up in defending everyone else’s offense, even setting aside the likely event they will need to drop a guy down to help the run defense. Pete Kwiatkowski and “pass game coordinator” Terry Joseph have each coached some pretty strong units in the past. How does this 2024 Texas secondary compare to the better units Texas’ coaches have deployed in the past?

Kwiatkowski and Joseph’s best?

A central question for the Kwiatkowski era at Texas has been how he fares without longtime Washington partner Jimmy Lake, who coached the Huskies defensive backs, and how well he partners with Joseph.

But Kwiatkowski and Joseph each coached some very potent secondaries shortly before coming to Texas. Terry Joseph’s best unit was probably his 2019 crew at Notre Dame. The Irish gave up just 17.9 ppg that year, finished 7th in defensive FEI, and yielded only 5.9 ypa to opposing passers.

Here was the the lineup:

PositionPlayerAthleticismDraft?Field cornerShaun Crawford: 5-9, 182. RS senior.4.55 40, 35″ verticalUDFANickelJ. Owusu-Koramoah: 6-2, 215. Junior.4.15 shuttle, 36.5″ vertical2nd roundField safetyJalen Elliott: 6-1, 210. Senior.4.80 40, 34″ verticalUDFABoundary safetyAlohi Gilman: 5-11, 202. Senior.4.60 40, 32″ vertical6th roundBoundary cornerTroy Pride: 6-0, 193. Senior.4.4 40, 35.5″ vertical4th roundTop backupKyle Hamilton: 6-4, 210. Freshman.4.59 40, 38″ vertical1st round

Notre Dame really played a 4-3 defense with Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah as their field linebacker rather than a true nickel but, as you can see from his numbers if you haven’t seen him play, he was an athletic freak who could make it work. They also ended up playing fellow freak Kyle Hamilton behind him quite a bit as the season wore on and the freshman phenom had four interceptions.

This group was notable for having a single NFL cornerback in Troy Pride manning up receivers in the boundary while the Irish zoned up other areas of the field with veterans and future pros at linebacker and safety.

The year prior in 2018 was one of Washington’s best secondaries under Pete Kwiatkowski. They gave up just 16.4 ppg, finished 7th in defensive FEI, and gave up just 5.8 ypa from opposing passers.

The 2018 Husky lineup went:

PositionPlayerAthleticismDraft?Left cornerByron Murphy: 5-11, 190. Sophomore.4.55 40, 36.5″ vertical2nd roundNickelMyles Bryant: 5-9, 192. Junior.4.62 40, 31.5″ verticalUDFAField safetyTaylor Rapp: 6-0, 208. Junior.4.78 40, 35″ vertical2nd roundBoundary safetyJoJo McIntosh: 6-1, 204. Senior.4.67 40UDFARight cornerJordan Miller: 6-2, 190. Senior.4.49 40, 37″ vertical5th roundTop backupElijah Molden: 5-10, 192. Sophomore.4.58 40, 36.5″ vertical3rd round

The Huskies had a lot of cornerbacks in 2018. When Miller was injured they also started Keith Taylor a few games, a 6-foot-2 cornerback who ran a 4.53 40, had a 33.5″ vertical, and was drafted in the 5th round and recently won the Super Bowl as a Kansas City Chief with fellow Husky Byron Murphy. Myles Bryant went undrafted thanks to the lack of length and elite athleticism but has stuck in the NFL and started in eight games.

The philosophy here is plainly different. Rather than having a single man coverage cornerback and then a bunch of versatile, heady players zoning the middle of the field as the Irish did, they draped man coverage athletes on virtually everyone.

Thus far, the best secondary Texas has fielded would have to be the 2022 unit. They were healthier than in 2023, didn’t enjoy quite as much help in front of them from the D-line, and held opponents to 6.3 ypa rather than the 7.1 surrendered in 2023. Overall they gave up 21.6 ppg and were 11th nationally in defensive FEI.

Here’s how that group compared to the ones above:

PositionPlayerAthleticismDraft?Field cornerD’Shawn Jamison: 5-10, 187. RS senior.4.54 40, 33″ verticalUDFANickelJahdae Barron: 5-11, 190. Junior???NAField safetyAnthony Cook: 6-1, 188. Redshirt senior4.61 40, 34″ verticalUDFABoundary safetyJerrin Thompson: 6-0, 191. Junior???NABoundary cornerRyan Watts: 6-3, 208. Junior4.53 40, 40.5″ vertical6th roundTop backupMichael Taaffe: 6-0, 188. RS freshman???NA

Obviously the book isn’t finished yet here but the makeup is more similar to Washington unit in terms of having lots of cornerbacks on the field yet stylistically more akin to Notre Dame. This unit was not close to either the 2018 Huskies or 2019 Irish in terms of fielding NFL talent. Getting back to a DBU standard would be necessary to match those squads.

The 2024 secondary

The actual lineup in 2024 has been a hot topic this offseason. With the additions of Andrew Mukuba and Jay’Vion Cole through the transfer portal, Texas has three candidates for two cornerback spots, two for the Star (nickel) position, and three for two safety spots.

The two big questions are whether they have NFL players amongst the lineup and whether they more closely resemble a Joseph or Kwiatkowski secondary of yesteryear. The attempt to blend styles has been mixed thus far but could potentially get easier as the talent level increases. Texas 2022 secondary was ultimately a lot closer to the Notre Dame style with Watts playing a lot of man coverage in the boundary while Texas zoned up other areas of the field in Match Quarters but did also blend in more man coverage elsewhere on the field with Barron in the slot.

The 2024 secondary could arguably be even better positioned to play man coverage across the board than Washington due to the athleticism inside from Barron, Mukuba, and Derek Williams. To make either style work, the Longhorns need some of these numerous defensive backs on campus to declare themselves as future pros worth building around. Barron and Muhammad probably make two, whether or not a safety or corner emerges as a third could dictate the style of the Longhorn secondary next season and whether it’s good enough to take up the challenge of stopping SEC offenses.

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