How The Texas Longhorns' Two Latest Commits Fit Under Will Muschamp

The Texas Longhorns made back-to-back splashes on the recruiting trail, but how will they fit in with their new defensive coordinator?

Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator Will Muschamp prior to a game against the Wyoming Cowboys | Brendan Maloney-Imagn Images

The Texas Longhorns had one of the biggest offseasons in college football, but they will not be taking their foot off the gas any time soon. In the past week alone, they added class of 2027 four-stars Jabarrius Garror and Kasi Currie.

Those additions are particularly interesting because they are joining the first recruiting class to be fully recruited under new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, meaning they are coming in with specific roles for them to play in mind.

What are those roles? Here is a look at how Texas' newest recruits will fit into Muschamp's elite defensive scheme.

How Jabarrius Garror and Kasi Currie fit in the Muschamp Defense

Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator Will Muschamp watches on the sidelines during the 2010 BCS National Championship against the Alabama Crimson Tide at the Rose Bowl | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

To start, what is Muschamp's scheme?

Well, it is a lot of things, but for the purposes of this article, it is a strategy that heavily employs the 'mint' front, which is an alignment that puts a nose tackle head-up on the center, a defensive lineman on the inside shoulder of both offensive tackles and a 'jack' linebacker on the outside shoulder of the tight end.

Take a look:

A diagram of different variations of the mint front | And The Valley Shook

The front focuses on keeping linebackers free to make plays in the backfield and preventing the offense from resetting the line of scrimmage by holding the point of attack. The only way it achieves those goals is by having physical linemen in the middle.

That is where Currie comes in. At almost 6'5, 315 pounds, he could either stay at the weight and clog the middle of the field as a nose tackle, or drop down closer to 280 and line up as the end on the strong side of the field.

Currie is still raw and might not even play defense at all in college, however his sheer physicality lends itself to the middle of Muschamp's defense while his knack for disrupting plays make him an interesting project at defensive end.

Mint fronts also rely on having smart and athletic quasi-edge rushers to play the jack position and force runs back inside. That is where Garror slots in.

While he currently stands just 6'2.5 and 215 pounds, Garror has plenty of room to grow into the long, strong player Muschamp needs on the edge. If he does not develop physically, he could find a role as an off-ball linebacker or sub-package pass-rusher for Muschamp's defense.

Garror's quickness and motor are ideal fits in a Muschamp front-seven, though where exactly those tools will be deployed will depend on his growth. Still, Muschamp selected him for a reason, so it is safe to say that he will have some role designed for him.

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