In the second quarter of Texas football\u2019s matchup against Tennessee, junior defensive lineman Maraad Watson broke free from the line of scrimmage to hunt down Volunteers freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon.<\/p>\n
Watson lunged forward, snagged Brandon\u2019s legs and held on with a tight grip as the quarterback in his grasp buckled to the ground.<\/p>\n
The play looked simple. But Watson\u2019s sack exemplified what is emerging as a critical strength for the Longhorns\u2019 defense this season: its biggest bodies aren\u2019t afraid to get mobile to make important plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are the plays as a coach that you really appreciate,\u201d head coach Steve Sarkisian said of Watson\u2019s sack in a media availability on Monday.<\/p>\n
Sarkisian commended his defense\u2019s ability to disrupt the quarterback in Knoxville on Saturday, acknowledging the large role played by junior edge rusher Colin Simmons\u2019 dominant performance. But Sarkisian also wanted people to know how critical his front four were in the Longhorns\u2019 defensive effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the highlight is Colin \u2026 but I thought sophomore defensive lineman Lance Jackson had his best game since he\u2019s been a Longhorn,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cI thought (Watson) had a heck of a game for us, and just the effort he showed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifth-year defensive lineman Hero Kanu also commended Watson for his work against Tennessee, calling him an \u201call-around type of guy.\u201d Watson, Kanu said, is capable of both stopping the run and pressuring the pass.<\/p>\n
Kanu and Watson were two of six players to tally a solo or assisted sack on Saturday, demonstrating both the strength and depth of Texas\u2019 defensive front. The depth aspect is one that Sarkisian emphasized a few weeks ago when talking about Ian Geffrard, Arkansas transfer and senior defensive lineman.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Geffard) was playing 65-75 snaps a game (at Arkansas), and that\u2019s a lot for a really big human being like him,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to play 65 snaps as an interior defensive lineman for us. Man, if you give us a really good 20-25, and that\u2019s maximum effort, great technique, then your quality of film that you\u2019re putting out there is a better product.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having more players to rotate in and out within a defensive line group is what allows for explosive plays like the one Watson made on Saturday. When a team\u2019s trench players aren\u2019t overworked to the point of exhaustion, they can move around more, rather than just plugging up the middle of the field with their size.<\/p>\n
Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp\u2019s brand of defense is an aggressive one, so this element of explosivity up front is critical to his satisfaction. It\u2019s also crucial to winning on the road, as Kanu pointed out in his postgame media availability.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll respect to our skill guys, but games like this are (about) winning the trenches,\u201d Kanu said. \u201cThat\u2019s just kind of the mentality we have. Once we go on the road, we got to impact the physicality and the running game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the second quarter of Texas football\u2019s matchup against Tennessee, junior defensive lineman Maraad Watson broke free from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-450859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}