Tag: longhorn football news

Bleacher Report’s latest NFL Mock Draft includes only one Texas Longhorn selection

Bleacher Report’s latest NFL Mock Draft predicts only one Texas Longhorn selection

In Bleacher Report’s most recent 2020 NFL mock draft, Matt Miller goes through the first three rounds and predicts only one Longhorn being taken in the top 96. Miller has the Buffalo Bills selecting safety Brandon Jones in the third round at 87 overall. The Bills secondary, currently led by Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, gets some much-needed depth and physicality by adding the Longhorn in Miller’s mock.

Dec 1, 2018; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns defensive back Brandon Jones (19) celebrates recovering a fumble in the fourth quarter against the Oklahoma Sooners in the Big 12 championship game at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

In his four years at Texas, Jones has played in 44 games and tallied 232 total tackles, 3 interceptions, 2 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries, 14 tackles for loss, and 7 passes defended. Jones is a hard hitter who plays with a physicality that leaves an impression on the offense. He would be a welcome addition to an already stout Bills defense that has recently undergone a reconstruction by head coach Sean McDermott.

Click here to check out the rest of Miller’s mock draft on Bleacher Report – which features an unsurprising top pick.

Watch: Hype video includes all of Longhorn Brandon Jones’ highlights

Texas Longhorns’ safety Brandon Jones released a hype video with highlights from his four years at Texas

It seems like everyone has their own videography team nowadays. Texas Longhorns’ safety Brandon Jones dropped a professional-looking hype video on his Twitter earlier.

Jones’ highlight reel includes interceptions, forced fumbles, sacks, and big hits. A lot of big hits. Check it out here:

The senior safety has totaled 232 total tackles, 3 interceptions, 7 passes defended, 2 forced fumbles, and 3 fumble recoveries over the course of his four-year career at Texas.

Jones is a physical defender who isn’t afraid to fly around the field and put a hit on someone. He isn’t a day-one prospect in the NFL Draft, but he will get his chance on an NFL roster.

Former Texas Longhorns Quandre Diggs and Earl Thomas share rare distinction

Former Texas Longhorn football players Quandre Diggs and Earl Thomas share rare distinction in the NFL

Earl Thomas and Quandre Diggs are two stud safeties who made their way through Texas. Thomas was the leader of the famed “Legion of Boom,” a moniker given to the Seattle Seahawks’ dominant secondary that consisted of Thomas, Richard Sherman, and Kam Chancellor.

Earl Thomas has since moved on and is currently the starting free safety for the Baltimore Ravens. Seattle replaced one Longhorn with another when they acquired safety Quandre Diggs from the Detroit Lions.

Since then, Diggs has become the first player with three interceptions in his first four games with the Seahawks since – you guessed it – Earl Thomas.

In his two years at Texas, Thomas made 97 total tackles and had 8 interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns. Diggs spent four years at Texas and totaled 220 tackles, 5.5 sacks, 11 interceptions, and 3 forced fumbles.

In the NFL, both Thomas and Diggs are impact players whose contributions don’t always show up in the stat sheet. Despite that, both are known playmakers and the statistics back it up.

Texas set to take on No. 11 Utah in the Alamo Bowl

The Texas Longhorns football team is scheduled to take on the Utah Utes in the Alamo Bowl

So, this could get ugly. The Texas Longhorns finally got their bowl destination, and they are scheduled to take on the Utah Utes in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas at 6:30 pm CT on New Year’s Eve.

The Longhorns had an overall disappointing season, finishing third in the Big 12 with a 7-5 record. They finished third only because they won a four-team tiebreaker over Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Iowa State.

Meanwhile, the Utah Utes had an impressive season, finishing 11-2 with a loss to Oregon in the PAC-12 Championship. Going into that game, Utah had a very real shot at making the College Football Playoffs.

Dec 6, 2019; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Utah Utes running back Zack Moss (2) rushes against Oregon Ducks cornerback Thomas Graham Jr. (4) during the second half of the Pac-12 Conference championship game at Levi’s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Texas has played in the Alamo bowl three times, most recently in 2012, and have a record of 2-1. The Longhorns have wins over Iowa (26-24 in 2006) and Oregon State (31-27 in 2012) and a lone loss to Oregon (30-7 in 2013).

This game should be a fun one at the very least. Utah has scored more than 30 points in every game this season, so the Texas defense has its’ work cut out for it. The Utes’ running back Zack Moss is perhaps the most underrated back in college football and has 1246 yards and 15 touchdowns on 200 carries.

3-star Texas target decommits from Oklahoma State

A 3-star Texas Longhorns football target de-committed from Oklahoma State football

A recent Texas target just de-committed from Oklahoma State to reopen his recruitment, potentially opening the door for the Longhorns to add another three-star talent on the defensive line. Sawyer Goram-Welch made the announcement himself when he tweeted it on Saturday evening.

Goram-Welch is a 3-star defensive tackle out of Longview High School in Longview, Texas. 247Sports has him ranked as the No. 127 player out of Texas and the No. 77 DT in the nation. At 6’4” 248 lbs, he started at DT for a Longview team that finished 2015 undefeated and won the Texas Class 6A D-II state championship. He received offers from Texas, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, SMU, and others.

Here’s his official announcement:

After a rough season defensively, Texas is in need of all the help it can get from a depth standpoint. Adding Goram-Welch to an already solid 2020 recruiting class would be something to get Longhorns fans excited – which would be nice after that disappointment of a season.

Forbes: Texas football one of 2019’s biggest disappointments

Forbes named the Texas Longhorns football team as one of 2019’s biggest disappointment

Forbes writer Tom Layberger has identified the Texas Longhorns as one of college football’s most disappointing teams of 2019 after a 7-5 season.

On Texas, Layberger wrote:

Texas had designs on winning a Big 12 title and at least being a part of the national title conversation in coach Tom Herman’s third year in Austin. The Longhorns not only are absent from the conference championship game, but they needed to defeat Texas Tech on Black Friday to clinch a winning season.

A few other notable teams included were TCU, Missouri, Washington and Michigan State.

Texas opened the year with high expectations and sat at No. 10 in the preseason polls. Much of the hype surrounding Texas had a lot to do with its blowout victory over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and the return of Sam Ehilnger and other key upperclassmen.

Texas opened the season with a win but then fell to LSU 45-38 in week 2. Despite the loss, the media still had high hopes for the Longhorns seeing as how it was a close game against an eventual No. 1 overall LSU.

Texas reeled off three wins in a row before then losing a close game to a highly ranked Oklahoma team.

That loss for Texas, which now had two strikes in the L column, kicked off a 3-4 ending to the regular season.

Injuries were a factor in the Longhorns disappointing season, however, there were plenty of issues that stemmed from poor play calling from Tom Herman’s coordinators.

Texas closed out the season with a 7-5 record and I would not expect to hear many inquiries as to whether or not “Texas is back” this offseason.