The best defense in 2025? This ESPN analyst says it's the Texas Longhorns
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback said something nice about the Texas Longhorns.
On his Always College Football podcast, Greg McElroy, now an analyst for ESPN, gushed about the Longhorns’ defense.
“They lost some key pieces in the past couple of years, notably at defensive tackle, but if you look at the star power that they return at so many different positions,” he said, “I don’t think there’s a team in the country that has a higher ceiling than Texas with the amount of guys who can take over a game and absolutely wreck an opponent’s offense.”
He mentioned junior linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. as “the best linebacker in the country,” and a “complete superstar.”
“He should be one of the best players in America this upcoming season,” McElroy said of Hill.
He pointed out Texas edge rushers Trey Moore and Colin Simmons as other playmakers. He called Simmons “ridiculous,” and was surprised that Moore decided to come back for another season. He thought Moore became “elite” near the end of the season.
McElroy said Simmons could be “the most feared pass rusher in the SEC.”
If you have Colin Simmons on one side, Trey Moore on the other, and Anthony Hill in the middle, I don’t know what you do,” McElroy said. “One of those guys is going to get home on a down-in, down-out basis.”
He said transfers Travis Shaw and Cole Brevard were key additions, and he expects the secondary with Michael Taaffe and Malik Muhammad, among others, to be “really solid.”
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“They have continued to be as sound against the run as one would imagine,” McElroy said. “I don’t think there’s a group in the country that can get after the quarterback better. That’s what makes the Texas Longhorns the No. 1 defense heading into the 2025 season.”
McElroy tabbed Ohio State’s defense as the second-best, which should make for a tremendous matchup Aug. 30 in Columbus for college football’s opening week.
McElroy was a seventh-round pick in the 2011 NFL draft by the New York Jets. He helped lead the Crimson Tide to the BCS national championship in 2009, beating the Longhorns 37-21 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
