AUSTIN, Texas — It was almost like Steve Sarkisian was sounding an unintentional alarm in February when he reminded everyone how fortunate Texas was to have interior defensive linemen T’Vondre Sweat, the 2023 Outland Trophy winner, and Byron Murphy, the Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year, playing next to each other as the Longhorns won their first conference championship since 2009 and reached their first ever College Football Playoff last season.
“Those two guys were so good a year ago,” Sarkisian said on college football’s second signing day (Feb.7) when talking about Sweat and Murphy. “We’re talking about two potential first-round picks. I mean, how many teams have that?”
The answer is national championship teams tend to have two monsters side-by-side on the defensive line:
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