Texas Film Room: Colin Simmons Experiments in New Role for Longhorns Defense

The Texas Longhorns held the sneakily dangerous Texas State Bobcats offense to just seven points in defensive coordinator Will Muschamp's first game in this stint with the team on Saturday. While his game plan shared many similarities to those of his predecessor, Pete Kwiatkoski's, it also introduced new wrinkles.

One of those wrinkles was his usage of Colin Simmons, whose previous success as a prototypical edge rusher did nothing to dissuade Muschamp from employing him in new ways.

Here is how Muschamp is finding new spots to utilize one of Texas' most impactful athletes.

How Will Muschamp Is Using Colin Simmons

Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator Will Muschamp after a game against the Rice Owls | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

While Simmons spent around 80% of his plays on Saturday in a seven- or loose five-technique outside of the offensive tackle, he took five snaps as an off-ball linebacker, something he only did on five percent of his snaps across his first two seasons at Texas.

One of those snaps was taken as a dedicated quarterback-spy, and another was as a looping blitzer; however, the other three came as a result of Muschamp's penchant for using the 'Mint' front.

The mint front is a defensive alignment which, generally, places a defensive tackle head-up with the center, two defensive linemen on the inside shoulders of the offensive tackles and a 'jack' linebacker outside of the tight end or offensive tackle away from the passing strength.

Georgia Bulldogs Mint 4 MOD — Georgia Football

Simmons often plays as the jack in other Muschamp fronts; however, in a mint front, the jack has a pass-coverage responsibility and it is, in fact, the off-ball 'money' linebacker who is rushing no matter what. This led Muschamp to place Simmons at that off-ball money spot and use linebacker Rasheem Biles as the jack for the first three plays that the Longhorns were in mint.

Here is what those plays looked like.

While Simmons does not make a huge impact on any of those plays, he is frequently in the right place while doing an unfamiliar job well. His only real hiccup comes on the third play, when he briefly falls for the quarterback's run fake.

Muschamp used some variation of the mint front on 20% of Texas' plays. Those were the only three where Simmons was the off-ball money. In subsequent mint fronts, Simmons would either be off the field or used as the jack linebacker, with Muschamp employing a blitz or stunt that would keep him out of pass coverage.

Despite the change in strategy, Longhorns fans should still expect to see Simmons in a larger off-ball role. Especially since, despite not nabbing a sack, Simmons was still productive and is off to an even better start than he was last season.

Colin Simmons' PFF Grades	Week 1 2026	Weeks 1-4 2025
Overall	75.4	64.4
Run-Defense	69	64.2
Pass-Rush	72.2	73.8

He would have been even more productive if he had not been limited to playing 44% of defensive snaps due to a combination of Saturday's sweltering heat and Texas' increased use of its backups given its domineering lead over the Bobcats.

While there are still kinks in how Simmons is used in the mint front, Longhorns fans should have full confidence in a coach like Muschamp and a player like Simmons to iron them out. Once they do, Simmons will be able to bring his game-changing range and awareness to the second level of Texas' defense.

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