Throughout much of spring practice, reports surfaced of how well Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense was performing in comparison to the offense. Even with Juwan Mitchell entering the transfer portal and DeMarvion Overshown dealing with surgery, Texas’ defense seemingly didn’t skip a beat.
Caden Sterns and Joseph Ossai add to the major losses from last season. Ray Thornton out of LSU has stepped up to replace the pass rusher, while Jerrin Thompson and Brenden Schooler are battling it out to replace Sterns. Everywhere else across the defense, especially the secondary, will return players who made significant contributions last season.
Saturday’s spring game was a successful one for both the first-team and second-team defenses. Kyle Flood’s offensive line played so poorly because of how dominant Texas’ defensive line was. Some current backups may have opened some eyes heading into the fall.
Here are five defensive players who stood out from the spring game: