The 2024 college football season presents an entirely new landscape. Texas is in the SEC. SMU is back in a power conference as ACC members. The College Football Playoff now includes 12 teams and an automatic bid for the best G5 team in the land. For most, the start of the season is in Week 1 on August 30, though SMU starts in Week 0 and TCU plays its first game on Aug. 29.
To celebrate us making it through another off-season, we’re counting down the 50 most important players in Texas as we inch closer to kickoffs. This list isn’t necessarily about which players are the best in terms of NFL draft stock. It ranks players in order of importance to their team's success.
No. 39: Texas EDGE Trey Moore
The history: Moore is San Antonio born and bred. He was the District Defensive Player of the Year at Smithson Valley before signing with hometown UTSA. There, he set the program's single-season record in 2022 with 18 tackles for loss and another in 2023 with 14 sacks. Moore earned American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year for his efforts last season.
The skillset: Moore will serve as an edge rusher in defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski's 4-2-5 scheme. He can drop into pass coverage, but Moore makes his hay against offensive tackles rather than running backs and slot receivers. While slightly undersized for an NFL prospect on the edge at 6-foot-3, 245 pounds, Moore wins with his motor and elite first step.
The impact: Texas had a stout run defense in 2023 with tackles T'Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy. But Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. had time to bake a cake in the pocket and picked the Longhorns apart during the College Football Playoff semifinal. Texas finished the year 52nd in the country with 2.29 sacks per game. Moore was targeted in the Transfer Portal to fix that figure. Moore's athleticism helped him dominate in Group of Five football, but can it propel him to win one-on-one battles in the SEC?
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