You want to know the best compliment I can give Texas defensive coordinator Chris Ash?
My own eyes can see clearly that players at every level of his defense are improving on a weekly basis.
From Juwan Mitchell to DeMarvion Overshown to T'Vondre Sweat to Chris Brown to almost everyone in-between. Seriously, the Longhorns held a Big 12 offense that scored nearly 40 points last week to 13 points seven days later and it had almost zero to do with the continued emerging greatness of Joseph Ossai.
I know that it's a hard thing to recognize around these parts after the last decade, but do you know what they call that? Do you?
Development.
It's that thing that occurs when players are better in November than they were in September. It's that thing that occurs when a player like Mitchell can be trusted in game No. 7 when you weren't sure he could stay on the field in week two without costing the team seven points. It's also that thing that occurs when you're left wondering how a defense that gave up 142 points in a three-game stretch from game No. 2-No. 4, but has only given up 63 in the three games that followed.
D-E-V-E-L-O-P-M-E-N-T.
When the season ended last year, one of the most damning things you'd say about the entire team is that you could probably count on a few fingers the number of players that had made legit progress as players from the previous season.
Now?
Now the Longhorns can get a "meh" game from Ossai, lose standout defensive tackle Keondre Coburn early in a game and not be handed a single lucky break turnover, yet none that ever seemed to make a difference. The unit stopped the run at an elite level, limited the big plays in the passing game and held the Mountaineers out of the end zone for nearly the final 54 minutes of the game.
I'm telling you right now, that Tom Herman has made some bad personnel decisions since he was named the Texas head coach, but if what we're watching isn't some kind of mirage, it's possible that Ash is the best hire that Herman has made in the four years he's been in Austin. This recent three-game winning-streak has everything to do with Ash's unit and a whole lot less to do with an offense that can't quite figure out who the hell needs to be on the field among the skill players heading into the eighth game of the season.
Should Herman pull a Houdini act over the next month, win a Big 12 championship and keep his job along the way, it feels like today it will be because of the decision he made back in December to hire the guy he brought in last October to audit the performance of the defensive coordinator he hired three years earlier.
After feeling a little unsure about Ash after the stretch of games that included Texas Tech, TCU and Oklahoma, his quality as a leader of the defense is shining through. That man is earning his salary. He's instilled confidence in a unit that has mostly felt left for dead for the last five or six seasons.
Again, you don't even have to show me the stats because I can see it with my eyes.
If only I felt that way about the Texas offense ...
No. 2 - The next three games ...
On one hand, I fully believe that the Longhorns will be involved in coin-flip games in two of the final three weeks of the season, but on the other hand, check out the quarterback efficiency numbers of the quarterbacks in these final three games.
READ THE REST OF KETCH'S 10 THOUGHTS FROM THE WEEKEND HERE (PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS)
