AUSTIN, Texas – If Pete Kwiatkowski is concerned by the specter of Gary Patterson, the Texas defensive coordinator still managed a solid self-deprecating one-liner.
As a reporter brought up the topic of the Longhorns’ anemic pass rush Tuesday, Kwiatkowski quickly interrupted.
“What pass rush?” he said.
That’s a pretty good mic drop moment.
It also has the virtue of being grounded in truth, which is why Kwiatkowski enters his second season in Austin under a bit of cloud.
Texas ranked 100th in total defense (425.6 yards per game) and 99th in scoring defense (31.1 points per game). The Longhorns never really found an answer to the outside run schemes in the Big 12, finishing 114th in rushing defense (201.6 ypg) and 114th in yards per carry (5.2) and twice allowing more than 300 yards rushing in a game.
Yes, there’s more as they say on the infomercials including the aforementioned pass rush, which ranked 101th nationally with 20 sacks. It was led by Ben Davis with … 2.5 sacks, which used to be a pretty good game for Brian Orakpo or Jackson Jeffcoat in another era.
“We were very inconsistent playing team defense as a whole,” Kwiatkowski said. “We had stretches we were really good, and then for whatever reason – adversity, bad plays in a game, whatever it is – the wheels would fall off.
“Since last year to now and moving forward, it’s about how we’re going to put ourselves in position to make the plays we need to make and how we’re how we’re going to handle adversity.”
Then there’s the presence of Patterson, who built a reputation in a couple decades at TCU for crafting elite defenses. He now carries the title of assistant to the head coach and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has been careful to say Patterson serves merely as his sounding board and a set of experienced eyes.
Of course, this being Texas, it doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to see Alabama and Heisman winner Bryce Young brutalizing the defense early followed by howls for change.
For his part, Kwiatkowski calls Patterson an asset and recalled seeking him out following the 2008 season, when TCU beat Boise State – where Kwiatkowski was an assistant – in the Poinsettia Bowl.
“Him being here, I look at it as he’s a resource to me and all our coaches,” Kwiatkowski said. “He’s been in the conference for 20-something years. He has the lay of the land in the state of Texas, so there’s a lot of information that he has brought to the table that’s been invaluable.”
Kwiatkowski probably deserves the benefit of the doubt, no matter what happens early in the season. He arrived before last season with a lofty reputation for thwarting spread offenses formed at Boise and Washington.
Then things didn’t work for whatever reason, especially during a six-game losing streak en route to a 5-7 finish. It’s also been hard to get a public handle on Kwiatkowski – who everybody in the program calls PK – because of Sarkisian’s media availability protocols. Tuesday was just Kwiatkowski’s second public meeting with the press.
Sarkisian pointed out that the defense wasn’t that bad last season, stats notwithstanding. Texas didn’t allow offensive touchdowns in the first half of losses to Iowa State or Oklahoma State before things came crashing down after being on the field too long.
“We can’t let one drive or one play dictate our behavior and our morale and things all drop,” Sarkisian said. “The last time I checked, I didn’t see a team go 12 games without allowing a touchdown.”
It won’t be easy. While nearly everybody who is anybody among power conference teams makes awards watch list, linebacker DeMarvion Overshown is the only Longhorn defender to get recognized.
Sarkisian admits the secondary is an area that has to improve. Besides Overshown, linebacker is a question mark with Kwiatkowski high on Jaylan Ford and James Madison transfer Diamante Tucker-Dorsey.
There a lot of veterans up front whose performance haven’t met their potential.
For all the question marks, Kwiatkowski says he has enough of the right personnel.
“I 100% believe these guys can do what we want them to do,” Kwiatkowski said. “We’ve just got to go out and do it.”
