Texas football: 5 bold predictions for the Longhorns in 2020

3. Caden Sterns is a Thorpe Award finalist.

If you wanted to point to the one thing that held Texas back last season, it was their defense. The Longhorns were No. 89 in total defense last year, giving up nearly 28 points per game. That is not going to do it against the high flying Big 12 offenses.

That being said, they get a lot of their guys back on that side of the ball this season and one of those guys is Caden Sterns, a safety that broke out in his sophomore season. In just nine games, Sterns placed No. 3 on the team in tackles with 59. Give him a full season of football and there is no question that he could be considered one of the best defensive backs in the country come season end.

Sterns, a former five-star recruit and No. 1 safety in the class of 2018, has always had the ability to be one of the best defensive backs in the country and he gave college football fans a glimpse of that greatness in 2019. If he can stay healthy in 2020, not only will the defense benefit immensely, but there could be some serious hardware on his way.

If you watched a Texas football game last year, it seemed like he was involved in almost every other play, and that won’t change in 2020.

He will be one of the deciding factors as to how this team turns out, and if he has a monster year like he is capable of, it will only help Texas in getting back to the top of college football.