With this latest defensive lineman, Texas football keeps plugging roster holes | Bohls
Steve Sarkisian obviously means business.
And business is good.
When the Texas football coach decried his Longhorns’ lack of depth on the defensive line after the Orange-White spring game, he then went out and did something about it.
Texas has added four players to the defensive front, including UTSA edge rusher Trey Moore, whom Sarkisian has raved about. Texas then added a pair of down linemen in Arizona transfers Bill Norton and Tiaoalii Savea and this week grabbed a commitment from former Oklahoma pledge Jermayne Lole of Louisville.
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Lole ranked 40th in ESPN’s just-released top 55 additions through the spring portal, and Norton 49th. Both should have big impacts this fall. They certainly have the experience Texas needs now, but Lole was only ESPN’s 12th-ranked defensive lineman out of the portal.
This will be the seventh college season for the 6-foot-3, 310-pound Lole, who spent four years at Arizona State, was hurt for one season and played for the Cardinals two years. He played in just one game in 2022 and had 1½ sacks and 19 tackles last season, but had 25 career tackles for a loss and had 11 sacks in three years with the Sun Devils.
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“I think, obviously, the depth on the defensive line is not where we need it to be,” Sarkisian said after the spring game. “We don't have enough bodies. There’s not enough big humans. I mean, it's simple math, so we've got to address it.”
And he did.
Sarkisian has insisted with the possibility of 16 or 17 games a year in the future with the new, expanded College Football Playoff 12-team format, that he and his staff know they need to play more players in games to develop talent and withstand injuries. He doesn't want to have to use new players who hadn't played in late-season games.
The addition of Lole makes up for the loss of TCU defensive lineman Damonic Williams, who chose OU, and helps atone for the losses of first-round pick Byron Murphy II and Outland Trophy winner T’Vondre Sweat. Williams, who is only a junior, was ranked fourth overall on the ESPN’s top 55 and the No. 2 defensive lineman.
With the arrival of five-star edge rusher Colin Simmons as well as sophomore Anthony Hill Jr., Texas seems better set with the likes of tackle Alfred Collins and Vernon Broughton.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football adds another big defensive lineman with Jermayne Lole
