Texas coach Steve Sarkisian knows his defense isn’t going to keep Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss bottled up for four quarters Saturday night.
Even with a great defense, the Longhorns’ coach isn’t pretending otherwise.
“He’s going to get out of the pocket,” Sarkisian said on Thursday. “I’d love to say, hey, we’re going to come out of this game for four quarters and he’s not going to get out. He’s going to get out.”
And that’s a problem for the Longhorns, one made considerably worse by the absence of two edge rushers.
Texas will be without star pass rusher Colin Simmons and freshman Richard Wesley, both of whom were ruled out on Thursday’s SEC availability report.
Simmons’ absence is particularly significant.
The junior leads the nation with 10.5 sacks and 16 tackles for loss through six games. He’s accounted for more than half of Texas’ 19 sacks and has been the centerpiece of a defense allowing just 272.5 yards per game.
Wesley, a highly regarded freshman, was expected to help compensate for Simmons’ absence before suffering an injury of his own during practice this week.
That leaves Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp trying to contain one of college football’s most elusive quarterbacks with a depleted pass rush.
Chambliss has thrown for 1,676 yards and 14 touchdowns while adding six rushing scores. Ole Miss has allowed just five sacks all season, a testament to both its offensive line and Chambliss’ ability to avoid pressure.
But as Sarkisian explained, the danger isn’t necessarily Chambliss taking off downfield.
“It’s not always about him scrambling to run,” Sarkisian said. “It’s him scrambling to buy time to create the second play in the passing game, the explosive plays down the field.”
That’s what makes defending Chambliss particularly difficult. Even when the initial play breaks down, he can extend it long enough for receivers to find openings in the secondary.
Sarkisian said Texas must maintain disciplined rushing lanes to limit those opportunities. And when Chambliss inevitably escapes, the secondary has to stay with its assignments rather than allowing an explosive completion.
“The people that have defended him the best have tried to minimize him getting out of the pocket, but also not giving up those big kind of home run plays when the first play breaks down and it goes to the second play,” Sarkisian said.
Doing that without Simmons won’t be easy, though.
“You never like losing good players,” Sarkisian said. “That part’s disappointing, but that’s also part of football, and that’s why you have to recruit to the depth that I think we have to withstand some of the injuries that occur.”
Ole Miss has injury concerns of its own. Starting offensive linemen Terez Davis and Brycen Sanders were listed as questionable Thursday, potentially complicating the Rebels’ efforts to protect Chambliss.
But there’s no denying the opportunity Simmons’ absence presents.
Texas has recorded 19 sacks this season, but the rest of its defense has combined for just 8.5 without Simmons’ contributions.
Against a quarterback capable of making defenders miss and turning broken plays into explosive gains, replacing that production won’t be a simple task.
And as Sarkisian readily admits, containing Chambliss was already going to be difficult enough.
