Jeff Howe

I didn't mention this in the story, but there's a draw to Texas for Hudson and the other late portal additions. First, joining the Longhorns beats the alternative of either leveling down to continue your football career or hanging up your cleats. Second, at the very least, you can finish an undergraduate degree or continue pursuing a post-graduate degree at Texas while getting your school paid for, which isn't a bad thing. I don't want to demean what a guy like Hudson could bring to the table. But if he's a positive presence in the room who can rub off on the young guys and put himself in a position to see the field, it's a win for all parties involved.

Brown defensive back Nick Hudson’s commitment to Texas on Friday makes him the latest addition to the roster for the 2026 season. Like the additions of Darius Snow and Paris Patterson Jr., recruiting Hudson from the portal speaks to how the Longhorns are maximizing the new age of roster building in college football. With roster construction mimicking an NFL model, Texas landing Hudson is akin to an NFL club signing a free agent ahead of training camp. That’s not to minimize what Hudson, who played 777 snaps in three seasons at Brown and led the Ivy League with 13 pass breakups in 2024, brings to the table. Still, with instant impact starters like Cam Coleman, Rasheem Biles, Raleek Brown, Hollywood Smothers, Melvin Siani and Bo Mascoe accounting for where Texas had to devote most of its portal resources, guys like Hudson, Snow and Patterson are like the low-risk, high-reward options found throughout NFL rosters in the preseason. If Hudson, or any of the other post-spring practice additions, earn significant roles in 2026, they’ll be well worth whatever the staff invested in them to get them to the Forty Acres. If things don’t pan out, and Hudson, Snow and Patterson are simply on the roster and contributing mainly through their work on the practice field, then they’ll be unused insurance policies. The best-case scenario for Hudson (along with Snow and Patterson) might be mirroring what Sterling Berkhalter has done since joining the program. Even within a position group oozing talent, Berkhalter has had the kind of spring that has Steve Sarkisian and Chris Jackson believing in him as someone who could potentially be counted on to log meaningful snaps. Regardless, the three most recent roster additions can put a buffer between a talented group of true freshmen and the field, if nothing else. If Tyler Atkinson, Samari Matthews and John Turntine III have significant roles as true freshmen, it needs to be because they’re the best options and not the only options available at their respective positions. That’s not to say the staff should or would put Hudson on the field before Matthews, for example. But a capable, experienced option is a nice fallback plan to consider if, for whatever reason, there are reservations about turning to a true freshman. With college football teams operating under a roster cap of 105 players, late additions like Hudson are more talented, experienced versions of the preferred walk-ons who've previously filled out the roster. If Hudson does nothing beyond giving the starters a better look to go against in practice, taking him will have been a worthwhile addition to the roster. View full news story

I know things didn't end well for Mack at Texas, and part of my job meant calling it as I saw it, but I've got countless personal stories that outweigh any negatives that might've lingered from Mack's tenure on the Forty Acres. When he resigned in 2013, Bobby pointed out that 16 years at Texas made Mack THE head coach for a generation of Longhorn fans. I'm in that group. I was a freshman in high school during Mack's first season at Texas. Mack and Ricky Williams made it cool to like the Longhorns. When it ended, I was covering it in the press box at the Alamodome as a member of the media. People can say what they want about Mack, but you can't deny that he's one of a kind.

CJ wrote about Rasheem Biles yesterday, but his havoc résumé is exactly what Texas was looking for in the portal. In 10 games, Biles had 17 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, four pass breakups and two interceptions. That's 25 havoc plays on the season. By comparison, Anthony Hill had 13 (seven tackles for loss, three forced fumbles, one PBU and two interceptions) in 10 games.

What stood out about the havoc rate under PK is that it was way too player-dependent. If Jahdae Barron, Anthony Hill or Colin Simmons were making plays, then the havoc was there. That's another reason why Sark made the move to hire Will Muschamp. The scheme needs to lend itself to forcing the issue and forcing the opposing offense to make mistakes. You need great players, but you need a scheme that facilitates playmaking more consistently.

AUSTIN, Texas — The 2024 Texas defense was a national championship-caliber unit. Even when the offense struggled, the defense’s knack for the football and their ability to keep opponents out of the end zone positioned the Longhorns painfully close to getting over the College Football Playoff semifinal hump. 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. View full news story

FINAL: Texas 14, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 7

A groundout to short ends it.

Cody Howard is out of the bullpen to get the last out of the game.

Higgins is done with RISP and two outs.

Higgins has given up a couple of base hits, including an RBI knock.

It looked like Tinney took a ball to the inner thigh/groin on Higgins’ first pitch.

He’s walking back to the dugout. Andrew Ermis will finish the game behind the plate.

Tinney is being looked at by the trainer. Schloss is out of the dugout.

Cal Higgins is on to work the ninth.

End of 8: Texas 14, TAMUCC 6

RBI double by Robbins makes it 14-6.

Burns retires the Islanders in order in the eighth.

Thomas Burns is on the mound after Hamilton went 3.1 scoreless innings.