When Colin Simmons joined Texas football as a raw but explosive edge rusher in the spring of 2024, then defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski saw a pass-rushing chess piece that could exploit matchups all across the line of scrimmage.

Simmons, a sophomore from Duncanville High School just south of Dallas, has certainly racked up his share of checkmates over the past two seasons with 20 total sacks. And Simmons said part of that credit goes to the departed Kwiatkowski, who was fired earlier this month by Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian after a late-season slip by the Longhorns’ defense.

“That one hurt a little bit, with PK (Kwiatkowski) being my coach coming in from high school (and) putting me in the right positions to go make plays and stuff like that,” he said Sunday morning at a Citrus Bowl press conference in Orlando, Fla.

But Simmons also learned a valuable lesson about college athletics, especially at the Power Four level.  Coaches get fired, players leave, but the game goes on. Simmons said that’s the message delivered all week by Texas co-defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen, who will call the defensive plays in Wednesday’s Citrus Bowl against Michigan,   

“Like Coach Nansen said, it’s a business,” Simmons said. “Things happen, so all we’ve got to do is just keep on building.”

Texas will build its defense next season with Will Muschamp, the former South Carolina and Florida head coach who will return to Austin as the Longhorns’ defensive coordinator after serving in the same role under Mack Brown from 2008-10. The program plans on retaining Nansen and the rest of the defensive staff, except for passing defensive coordinator Duane Akina, who was fired along with Kwiatkowski.

According to Nansen, the Longhorns will retain the same schemes and play calls they’ve used all season in the Citrus Bowl. Muschamp watched the Longhorns’ practice in Orlando Sunday but will officially join the program in January, and any schematic and conceptual changes to the Texas defense will take place in the spring.  

 “We haven’t changed from planning and the way practices been structured,” Nansen said. “I think the guys are used to hearing my voice in meetings and things like that, so it’s really been normal to us. They’re used to change. We understand guys are opting out and now coaches and changes like this. We understand it’s part of the business, and the players have been great handling it.”

Kwiatkowski served as the Longhorns’ defensive coordinator since arriving at Texas in 2021 as part of Sarkisian’s original staff. He forged top-five defenses during the Longhorns’ run to the College Football Playoff in 2023 and 2024, but Texas slipped to 23rd in total defense this season. The Longhorns gave up at least 31 points in four of their last five games.

But Kwiatkowski leaves a lasting legacy at Texas that includes the development of young players like Simmons and fellow sophomore Ty’Anthony Smith, a linebacker who has stepped into a leadership role following the early NFL draft entry of Anthony Hill Jr. and the portal departure of Liona Lefau.

“Just being happy for Coach PK,” Smith said. “What he’s done at the University of Texas, the schemes he’s put in. Obviously, I wasn’t happy when he left, but (I’m) just excited understanding that the future for him, wherever it holds, he’ll go there and do great things.”