Hero Kanu is Already Impressed with Will Muschamp, New Texas Longhorns Transfers

The 2026 college football season will be here before anyone knows it.

The Texas Longhorns began spring practice earlier this week, with plenty of new faces in tow.

Many of the most important newcomers are on the defensive side of the ball, including new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. One of the Longhorns' veteran defenders shared his thoughts recently.

Texas' Hero Kanu Impressed by Longhorns Defensive Newcomers

Texas Longhorns defensive lineman Hero Kanu reacts during the first quarter against the Mississippi State Bulldogs | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Senior defensive lineman Hero Kanu is one of, if not the, most experienced players in Texas' front-seven. The fifth-year Ohio State transfer is only in his second year on the 40 Acres but has already stepped into a leadership role in Texas' locker room.

This offseason, he was joined in the interior-defensive-line rotation by 747 pounds of tonnage in the form of Arkansas' Ian Geffrard and LSU's Zion Williams. Despite their hulking size, Kanu has been impressed by the pair's fluidity and speed.

"Those two guys are big-body guys, really athletic guys, you don't see a lot of guys at that weight moving this well," Kanu said. "We played against Ian last year, when we saw him on tape, we were like 'Dang, that's a big man right there.'"

Massive, run-stopping interior players have been a staple of head coach Steve Sarkisian's teams. Six different Longhorn defensive tackles have been drafted since he took over.

Texas lacked that gap-crushing in 2025, but intend to get right back in the saddle in 2026.

Muschamp, who is returning to the role he served from 2008-2010, is going to be using similar formulas to those of former defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski.

"You see a couple of changes in terms of how often we play three-down, four-down, five-down," Kanu said. "But, all in all, it's pretty much the same stuff."

It makes sense that Kanu would find similarities between Kwiatkoski and Muschamp, especially during the early phases of installing the new defense.

Both coordinators use similar alignments and packages, but they differ in how the players in those alignments are deployed. Those differences will likely not be seen until much later into spring practice or possibly even the fall.

Still, there are some differences that are immediately evident.

"The energy, the energy is a little bit different," Kanu said. "And obviously, the knowledge of the game, he's been in this business a long time."

While Kwiatkoski was not some first-year coach, it is hard to match the resume Muschamp has. Muschamp has been coaching in the SEC for 30 years, save one year he spent with the Miami Dolphins, and has learned from the likes of Nick Saban, Kirby Smart and Mack Brown.

While it is far too early to say what the Longhorns' defense will look like in 2026, some of Texas' veteran leaders are already getting excited about it.