One of the things that made Pete Kwiatkowski’s group elite was the defense’s ability to create havoc plays. When the curtain fell on a 16-game season, Texas ranked among the nation’s leaders with 22 interceptions (tied for first), 18 forced fumbles (No. 3) and 112 tackles for loss (No. 6).

Calculating havoc rate isn’t complicated. It’s the combined number of tackles for loss, forced fumbles and passes defensed (combining pass breakups and interceptions) divided by the number of plays faced, which determines the rate at which a defense creates a negative play for the offense.

Texas finished the 2024 season with an overall havoc rate of 21.1 percent, according to CollegeFootballData.com. The Longhorns’ overall havoc rate was the seventh-highest rate in FBS, trailing only national leader Ole Miss and Tennessee among SEC defenses. A front seven havoc rate of 13 percent tied for 12th nationally, while a defensive back havoc rate of 8.1 percent tied for eighth-best in the country.

Historically, those rates were the highest marks during Kwiatkowski’s five seasons. Last season, however, the Texas defense’s havoc rate dropped to 17.9 percent, with the front seven (11.3 percent) and defensive back (6.6 percent) rated down from 2024.

Beyond the overall production slipping, the Longhorns generated a staggeringly low number of havoc plays in their three losses.

Whereas Texas averaged 13.4 havoc plays per game in its 10 wins (71 tackles for loss, 10 forced fumbles, 39 pass breakups and 14 interceptions), the defense netted only 21 total havoc plays in losses to Ohio State, (one tackle for loss and two pass breakups), Florida (three tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, two pass breakups and an interception) and Georgia (eight tackles for loss, one pass breakup and one interception. The dropoff was sharp decline compared to 2024, when the Longhorns recorded 11 havoc plays in a regular-season loss to the Bulldogs (four tackles for loss, three interceptions and two pass breakups), 20 in the SEC championship game (10 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles, five pass breakups and one interception) and eight in a Cotton Bowl loss to the Buckeyes (four tackles for loss, two pass breakups, one forced fumbles and one interception).

The need to consistently cause havoc can’t be overlooked in the continued offseason examination of Steve Sarkisian's decision to part ways with Kwiatkowski in favor of Will Muschamp.

“We want to create havoc,” Sarkisian said after Tuesday’s practice. “We did a tremendous job defensively (last) Saturday, in the scrimmage, of creating havoc plays — sacks and negative plays, turnovers.”

Muschamp’s 2009 defense was one of the most opportunistic in program history, helping the Longhorns set a single-season school record for non-offensive touchdowns (11) while leading the nation with 25 interceptions.

One of the byproducts of Texas playing more man coverage under Muschamp and getting more aggressive on the perimeter should be more opportunities for Longhorn defenders to make plays on the football. Graceson Littleton and Kade Phillips tied for the team lead with six pass breakups as true freshmen in 2025 — Littleton led the defense in passes defensed (eight, including two interceptions), while Phillips and Jelani McDonald (three interceptions and three pass breakups) tied for the second-most passes defensed last season — which speaks to the playmaking potential of Muschamp has in the secondary.

McDonald, who chose to return for his senior season instead of entering the 2026 NFL Draft, said during Wednesday’s on-campus media availability that Muschamp’s scheme will let the safeties show off their versatility compared to what the position was asked to do under Kwiatkowski.

“We're able to do more,” McDonald said. “We're jumping digs, we're on top of digs, we're in man coverage — everything. We're able to blitz.

“It's going to give me more things to put on my résumé.”

Hopefully, McDonald and the Longhorn defenders' renewed focus on finding the football leads to the defense causing havoc more consistently in 2026.

What Muschamp doesn’t get enough credit for is his attention to detail. Playing for Muschamp requires a razor-sharp focus, which bred discipline that helped Muschamp field championship-caliber defenses and change the football culture on the Forty Acres during his three seasons under Mack Brown (2008-10).

Unlike his first tour of duty with the Longhorns, Muschamp’s return hasn’t tasked him with creating something from scratch. It’s more of a case of Muschamp helping Sarkisian clear a hurdle he’s reached along his climb to college football’s summit.

Regardless, Muschamp’s impact in his second Texas tenure is being felt in how the Longhorns practice. The expected Muschamp hallmarks are evident (the “No Thud = No Play” mantra chief among them). Muschamp’s detailing of Steve Sarkisian’s defensive practice plan for spring ball during his media availability last Tuesday, however, revealed how Sarkisian is giving Muschamp the tools he needs to help Texas regain the physical edge it lacked at times in 2025.

For starters, Muschamp is familiar with the way Texas practices because Sarkisian’s practice structure, he said, is similar to what he experienced while working under Nick Saban and Kirby Smart.

From the day he took the job, Sarkisian has implemented a lot of what he learned from Saban during his time as an Alabama assistant coach (2016, 2019-20). Still, Sarkisian using practice periods to run through half-line pass drills, for example, is a sign that Muschamp is getting everything he needs to make his mark on the 2026 squad.

“When you do half-line pass, that's really a great teaching tool for the defense,” Muschamp said. “I hear a lot of offensive coaches, like, 'I never want to do that.' We always did that with Coach Saban because it’s really to teach the principles of the coverage to the defensive players. We do that here. Coach Sarkisian loves it, but he knows that it helps us probably more than it really helps our offense. If (the play is) a full-field read for the quarterback, he's only reading half the field and sometimes there's some coverages that are going to kill any route over there.”

That might not sound like a big deal. But, Sarkisian, who points out time and again that “you get what you emphasize" in practice, tailoring practice periods to Muschamp’s liking speaks to a coach who wants to maximize a shift in defensive philosophy capable of elevating the program to the elusive next rung on the championship ladder.

Muschamp likes the physicality of Sarkisian’s practice. Beyond that, and perhaps more important to Texas getting back to the College Football Playoff, Sarkisian’s understanding that the defense needs live snaps to hone their craft has Muschamp excited about what the team has accomplished in spring practice.

“On offense, you can go out and do routes on air and really improve and get the timing and get all that,” Muschamp said. “On defense, you have to key and diagnose. You have to see something, you have to respond to it the right way, have your eyes in the right spot and in order for us to get better, we've got to go against people.”

A national top-100 recruit out of Harker Heights in the 2024 class, Punch joins the Longhorns after two seasons at TCU. As a sophomore, the 6-foot-7-inch, 245-pound Punch was an honorable mention All-Big 12 selection, averaging 14.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.3 steals per game.

Punch gives Texas a presence at the power forward spot it lacked during its run to the Sweet 16 in Sean Miller’s first season.

Along with his ability to keep the ball moving on offense, Punch should immediately help the Longhorns improve on the defensive end of the floor. Punch blocked 66 shots and recorded 45 steals in 34 games; Punch doubled Matas Vokietaitis’ team-leading 33 blocked shots this past season and only Dailyn Swain’s 59 steals topped Punch’s totals among Texas players.

The addition of Punch and the return of Vokietaitis give the Longhorns two tremendous frontcourt pieces for Miller’s second season. Currently, with Swain making himself eligible for the 2026 NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility, Texas has four starting spots penciled in for next season: Punch, Vokietaitis, Colorado transfer guard Isaiah Johnson and McDonald’s All-American guard Austin Goosby.

In their first series loss of the season, the Longhorns watched a 1-0 lead in the top of the first evaporate. Luke Harrison was tagged for two runs on three hits before the game entered a 98-minute rain delay, after which Harrison surrendered extra-base hits to three of the next four batters he faced.

Texas (27-7, 9-5 SEC) yanked Harrison after 0.2 innings, with Texas A&M (27-7, 9-5) roughing up the Longhorn lefty for eight earned runs on six hits. Even though Max Grubbs, Brody Walls, Michael Winter and Cal Higgins combined to allow just three hits and two earned runs in 7.1 innings of work, the damage was done.

Offensively, Texas benefitted from two solo home runs by Aiden Robbins and a solo shot from Josh Livingston. Unfortunately, the disastrous first inning doomed the Longhorns, who will look to avoid a series sweep at the hands of the Aggies on Sunday (1 p.m., SEC Network+).

Following the loss, On Texas Football will have live updates from Jim Schlossnagle’s postgame Zoom call with reporters.

Jonathan Giovny of Draft Express first reported Heide's intent to enter the portal on Thursday. On Texas Football expected Heide to be a part of Sean Miller's club for the 2026-27 season, which will be Heide's last in college basketball after playing two seasons at Purdue before joining the Longhorns for the 2025-26 campaign.

After playing in 75 career games for the Boilermakers, Heide saw action in 35 games for Texas. As a Longhorn, Heide set career-high marks for games started (29), scoring (5.9 points per game), assists (23), steals (15), 3-pointers made (49) and 3-point percentage (45.4).

Heide made one of the most memorable plays of the season, hitting a 3-pointer from the corner with 14.7 seconds left in regulation to help Texas secure a 74-68 NCAA Tournament win over Gonzaga. The Longhorns finished the season in the Sweet 16, dropping a 79-77 decision to Purdue, with Heide scoring three points and grabbing five rebounds in 24 minutes.

With Heide gone and Nic Codie both entering the transfer portal, Matas Vokietaitis is the only experienced frontcourt player returning to Texas for Miller's second season. John Clark and Lewis Obiorah are expected to return after both big men redshirted this past season.

Before Heide's departure was known, sources told OTF that the power forward position is one the Longhorns were looking to upgrade with a transfer portal acquisition.

Wilcher is the second known portal departure from Sean Miller’s program, joining forward Nic Codie.

A transfer from St. John’s, Wilcher has one season of eligibility remaining after spending one season with the Longhorns. Wilcher played in 36 games during the 2025-26 season, making one start and averaging 5.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game.

Wilcher’s departure means the Texas backcourt will be completely rebuilt from the group that helped the Longhorns advance to the Sweet 16. Tramon Mark, Jordan Pope and Chendall Weaver are out of eligibility, with Wilcher the only other guard in the rotation.

Through Sarkisian's five seasons, his third offense is the most prolific Longhorn attack in points per game (35.8), yards per play (6.67) and total offense (477.5 yards per game). Texas also tallied 244 explosive plays in 14 games (the fourth most in FBS), matching the 2024 offense’s 16-game total of plays from scrimmage that netted 10 or more yards.

That’s the standard the 2026 offense is chasing. The current group has the tools to break the mold and establish a new bar for Sarkisian’s offenses on the Forty Acres.

Nevertheless, two things must happen for the vision to come to fruition. If they do, the results the Arch Manning-led offense generates should surpass that of an offense that got the program to the cusp of playing for a national championship.

— The beauty of the 2023 running back room is that even when Jonathon Brooks was lost for the season with a knee injury in a November road win over TCU, CJ Baxter and Jaydon Blue picked up the slack. The Longhorns had a top-25 running game nationally in yards per game (25th with 188.4) and yards per carry (20th with 5.01), avoiding a statistical decline without Brooks, who appeared on his way to All-American honors as a legit candidate for the Doak Walker Award at the time of his injury.

Baxter (117 yards on 20 carries against Iowa State) and Blue (121 yards on 10 carries against Texas Tech) both recorded 100-yard rushing games after Brooks’ injury. Texas averaged 200.8 yards per game and 5.54 yards per attempt over the last four games of the season, including a 180-yard effort against Washington in the Sugar Bowl.

The conditions are ripe (a revamped offensive line that’s created a push at times this spring against a stout defensive front) for Raleek Brown and Hollywood Smothers to run the ball with the kind of consistency the Longhorns have been missing over the last two years. What the offense needs from the overhauled backfield beyond that is for the trio of Brown, Smothers and Derrek Cooper (who, by all indications, has had a tremendous spring) to be the three-headed monster Sarkisian almost had in 2024.

Tre Wisner emerged as an unlikely 1,000-yard rusher, but Baxter’s preseason knee injury resulted in Texas missing the between-the-tackles thumper to pair with Wisner and Blue.

Can Brown and Smothers surpass the 2,473 scrimmage yards and 20 touchdowns that Blue and Wisner combined for that season? If they’re anywhere close to that level of production and are consistently effective enough to let Cooper’s role grow as he gains more experience, the Longhorns will have the goods to be the top backfield in the SEC.

— Sarkisian detailed during his post-practice press conference on Tuesday how Cam Coleman and Ryan Wingo can mutually benefit by sharing the field.

“Both of those guys are so accustomed to always having the safety cheating towards them,” Sarkisian said. “If you're only going to play with one safety, you can only cheat so many ways. If you're going to play with split safeties, surely that helps the run game."

In December, I wrote about Wingo’s sophomore season production mirroring the numbers Xavier Worthy put up in 2022. While nobody should expect Wingo to get the same kind of target share as a junior that Worthy did (26.7 percent of the team’s targets went to Worthy in 2023), it’s possible that Wingo and Coleman taking advantage of the opportunities they get against favorable coverage could allow them to match or exceed the production of Worthy (75 receptions for 1,014 yards and five touchdowns) and Adonai Mitchell (55 catches for 845 yards and 11 touchdowns).

Coleman and Wingo can definitely force defenses to play more two-high safety looks than they want. Still, a potent Texas running game, especially one in which opponents have to respect the run threat Manning presents, means opposing defensive coordinators would, at some point, have to devote an extra defender to stop the run.

In 2023, defenses had to pick their poison when trying to slow down the Texas offense. The 2026 offense can present those same issues, but the personnel upgrades Sarkisian’s organization made during the transfer portal window could make the current offense even tougher to defend.

To continue the theme of highlighting a deep, talented group of incoming transfers, I wanted to rank the five previous transfer hauls from the most to the least impactful. If nothing else, it’ll help set the bar for what the 2026 group of Longhorn newcomers must accomplish to maximize what they collectively bring to the table.

1. 2024

11 Transfers: Kendrick Blackshire (LB), Silas Bolden (WR), Isaiah Bond (WR), Velton Gardner (RB), Matthew Golden (WR), Jermayne Lole (DL), Trey Moore (EDGE), Andrew Mukuba (S), Amari Niblack (TE), Bill Norton (DL), Tia Savea (DL)

Blackshire never played a snap for the Longhorns, while Gardner, Niblack and Savea didn’t make a dent in the program. Still, to get first-round (Golden) and second-round (Mukuba) draft picks, a game-changing return specialist (Bolden), an NFL wideout who contributed significantly when healthy (Bond), a formidable pass rusher who will be drafted (Moore) and two defensive linemen (Lole and Norton) who were key pieces of a national championship-caliber defense out of the rest of the group is an incredible hit rate for a transfer portal haul.

2. 2022

Seven Transfers: Jahleel Billingsley (TE), Quinn Ewers (QB), Agiye Hall (WR), Tarique Milton (WR), Isaiah Neyor (WR), Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey (LB), Ryan Watts (CB)

Despite getting little to nothing from the offensive skill players, Texas landed a franchise quarterback (Ewers) and a future NFL draft pick on defense (Watts) in Sarkisian’s second talent acquisition cycle. Considering when he got to the Forty Acres and what he did to solidify the most important position on the field, on top of making Texas an attractive option for skill position transfers, Ewers is the most important Longhorn acquired from the transfer portal since it launched in 2018.

3. 2023

Five Transfers: Trill Carter (DL), Jalen Catalon (S), Gavin Holmes (CB), Adonai Mitchell (WR), Ryan Sanborn (P)

The smallest portal haul of Sarkisian's tenure has a case to be ranked higher because of how important Mitchell and Sanborn were to a team that was good enough to win a national championship.

Catalon made plays until his body let him down and Holmes was a solid multi-year contributor in the secondary. Similar to when Texas took Milton in 2022, Carter was an insurance policy the Longhorns didn’t need to cash since it had arguably college football’s top defensive line rotation that season, with Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat as the tip of the spear.

4. 2025

11 Transfers: Jack Bouwmeester (P), Cole Brevard (DL), Matthew Caldwell (QB), Jack Endries (TE), Lavon Johnson (DL), Hero Kanu (DL), Emmett Mosley V (WR), Travis Shaw (DL), Mason Shipley (K), Brad Spence (LB), Maraad Watson (DL)

If for no other reason, this group isn’t ranked higher because there’s a lot of football to be played before a proper verdict can be rendered. That said, it's borderline disrespectful to rank the group this low because of how important the one-year transfers were in 2025.

Texas wouldn’t have been a 10-win team if not for Caldwell and Shipley. Endries will be drafted later this month and Bouwmeester was an upgrade for a punt team that struggled in 2024.

While Brevard and Shaw were solid stop-gap linemen for one season, Kanu and Watson could leave the program as top-100 draft picks. Mosley and Spence are positioned to play a high percentage of high-leverage snaps this season and both of them have the tools to play at the next level.

5. 2021

Six Transfers: Ben Davis (EDGE), Darrion Dunn (CB), Ovie Oghoufo (LB), Devin Richardson (LB), Keilan Robinson (RB), Ray Thornton (EDGE)

Sarkisian’s first portal class did produce an NFL draft pick (Robinson). Although the efforts the six transfers made as Longhorns are appreciated, this group exemplified a roster in which the most talented players lacked experience and the most experienced players didn’t significantly raise the team’s ceiling.

The Longhorns averaged 137.8 yards per game on the ground. That’s the lowest single-season average by an offense Sarkisian has been associated with since USC averaged 128 rushing yards per game in 2006 (Lane Kiffin’s last season as Pete Carroll’s offensive coordinator and one season after the Trojans lost Reggie Bush and LenDale White to the NFL).

After a historically forgettable season (the 2025 rushing output was the worst on the Forty Acres since 2014, when Texas averaged 137.4 yards per game), Sarkisian's aggressive, across-the-board rebuild will, hopefully, positively impact how the Longhorns run the football.

Texas overhauled the running back room with two proven commodities at the Power Four level (Raleek Brown and Hollywood Smothers) and its top high school target in the 2026 cycle (Derrek Cooper). When Laurence Seymore and Paris Patterson Jr. join Jonte Newman, Melvin Siani and Dylan Sikorski on campus in June, they’ll complete Sarkisian’s first group of offensive linemen acquired via the transfer portal.

Along with the personnel changes (not to mention Brandon Baker’s shift inside to guard and the addition of Michael Masunas to be an in-line, run-blocking presence at tight end), the Longhorns have also adopted a new mindset in spring practice.

“That means just being able to get set and pound that rock,” Baker said after Thursday’s practice when asked to define what Sarkisian means when he talks about getting the running game going. “Knowing and taking on that responsibility as a group of five, but also the guys behind us as well.”

It might sound like a tired cliché, but 21 years ago, the 2005 offensive line’s battle cry was to “pound that rock.” It’s a creed Will Allen, Justin Blalock, Lyle Sendlien, Jonathan Scott, Kasey Studdard and the rest of the group lived by as they paved the way to the program’s most recent national championship.

Better, more well-positioned personnel should help Texas move the football more consistently and effectively on the ground in 2026. But a mindset rooted in toughness and a desire to move opposing defenders against their will is the kind of foundation upon which championship-caliber running games are built.

— I’ve viewed Ryan Niblett’s status heading into the 2026 season as one that mirrors where Keilan Robinson was at one point in his career.

Like Niblett, Robinson earned his stripes as a difference-maker on special teams. Still, his role on offense didn’t expand until Sarkisian trusted him to be more intricately involved, which made the offense less predictable and tougher to defend with Robinson on the field.

Niblett turned nine targets last season into eight receptions for 60 yards, with just three of those catches resulting in first downs (no touchdowns). He rushed for 15 yards on five carries, with none of those attempts gaining more than seven yards.

It was hard for Robinson to find touches while playing alongside Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson and Jonathon Brooks. Robinson’s 20 touches from scrimmage in 2023 were the fewest in his career, but he averaged a career-high 9.5 yards per touch and scored three touchdowns while continuing to make plays in the kicking game.

Niblett said after studying and watching Robinson as a true freshman in 2023, he learned what it takes to maximize a specialized role like the one he could have this season.

“Just being able to see his role, just how he attacked the workouts, how he attacked special teams and just being able to be there when JB or anybody else was down,” Niblett said. “Being a student of him and watching him in front of me, it's helped a lot.”

— One of the most encouraging things said by the four Longhorns who met with reporters on Thursday’s post-practice Zoom call was Ryan Wingo describing how much work KJ Lacey has put in, aside from the snaps he’s getting with the first-team offense in Arch Manning's stead. 

“I actually was throwing with KJ yesterday,” Wingo said. “That leadership thing — he hit me up to go throw. He's kind of putting that out there off the rip.”

Even though Sarkisian said Tuesday that “the whole roster is competing their asses off right now for an opportunity to play” when asked if Dia Bell is competing for the No. 2 quarterback, there’s a reason why the Longhorns didn’t target a sure-fire backup to Manning in the transfer portal. While Lacey reaching out to Wingo to help him get in some extra work isn’t groundbreaking news on its own, those are the kinds of habits that will ease the staff’s mind regarding the state of the quarterback room whenever the post-Manning era begins.

It can be tough to gauge a linebacker’s performance in non-padded practices, so patience was required while waiting to hear feedback on how the Pitt transfer was adjusting to life in a Texas uniform and his role in Will Muschamp’s defense. When Sarkisian was rattling off players he’d consider pleasant surprises through seven practices, he described how the All-ACC linebacker has been more of a complete player than what the staff anticipated.

“I had an idea we were going to get a flashy player,” Sarkisian said of Biles, who recorded 101 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, six pass breakups, two interceptions (both returned for touchdowns), two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery in 2025. “He's a very good pass rusher. He's physical. He's smart.”

Biles didn’t come to the Forty Acres with the kind of hype that accompanied Cam Coleman. The impact Biles has made hasn’t been as intense or felt as quickly as what the Longhorns have gotten from Bo Mascoe (whose versatility was touted by Sarkisian on Tuesday).

Still, what can’t be overstated is Biles’ importance to the defense.

Every notable Texas defense since Mack Brown’s first season on the job has had a strong heartbeat from the inside linebacker position, including Muschamp’s units (2008-10). Whether it was Rashad Bobino, Emmanuel Acho, Roddrick Muckelroy or Keenan Robinson, Muschamp’s defenses had dependable, productive linebackers playing between an attacking front and a ballhawking secondary.

Biles has the kind of skills Muschamp can weaponize. But the only way he can become a chess piece for Muschamp is if Biles gives the Longhorns the same down-to-down consistency he gave Pat Narduzzi’s Panthers during his sophomore and junior seasons.

From that standpoint, Biles could give Muschamp the same kind of presence he expected to get when he recruited Jordan Hicks to Texas in 2010.

Although Muschamp only coached Hicks for one season, the 10-year NFL veteran left the Forty Acres as an All-American and a third-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. Hicks’ last season as a Longhorn (147 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, two interceptions and four pass breakups in 2014) mirrors the line Biles posted last season.

The two seasons also produced eerily similar Pro Football Focus grades:

Biles — 83.7 overall, 89.3 run defense, 84 tackling, 82.9 pass rush and 74.4 coverage

Hicks — 78.5 overall, 72.1 run defense, 89.8 tackling, 71.8 pass rush and 83.4 coverage

Even though Hicks played 13 games in 2014 compared to Biles' 10-game season in 2025, they finished their respective campaigns neck and neck in total pressures (18 for Biles and 16 for Hicks), stops (51 for Biles and 47 for Hicks) and NFL passer rating allowed (66 for Biles and 66.3 for Hicks).

Biles is arguably the most accomplished transfer Texas landed during the portal window. With spring practice heading down the home stretch, we should start to hear more reports from behind the scenes that jibe with Biles’ résumé.