5 reasons Texas A&M football will far outperform the Longhorns in 2024

Texas loses too much defensive talent at key positions

The Longhorns boasted some considerable star power along the defensive line this past year. T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy were PFF darlings, and the toast of the town on Texas broadcasts.

Sweat and Murphy are both moving on to the NFL, now. The Texas fanbase, while admitting that they won’t be quite as dominant as if those two were still around, are still confident in the talent that they do have along the defensive line.

The top-line talent is one thing, of course. However, when it comes to a conference like the SEC, it’s not just the starters that determine a team’s quality—it’s the depth. And it is there that the Horns will be found deficient.

The Big 12 offensive lines won’t test the first through third strings of a program with the talent that the Longhorns have. It just doesn’t happen that way: there are only a couple of “body-blow” teams in the entire conference, and even those are composed of much lesser talent than what the SEC averages.

This is not the time to be breaking in new starters in the middle of the defensive line, especially when your second game of the year is a trip to Ann Arbor. Granted, the Wolverines are experiencing massive turnover, so that’s not even a game I would necessarily predict the Horns to lose at this point (too many unknowns), but the point stands. Georgia will impose their will up front. The Aggies have the talent to do so as well.

The back end of the defense is an issue here as well. Similar to Texas A&M football this previous year, the Longhorns could be had through the air when facing dynamic passing attacks. It didn’t happen often, but it was enough to draw concern—and now, they’re losing a fair amount of guys from that back end. Transfer Andrew Mukuba helps, but can he plug all the holes that will be left? They’ll have to figure things out quickly.