Oklahoma Football: Five of the Most Dangerous Players Sooners Will Face in 2016
By Chip Rouse
Malik Jefferson Texas Longhorns Sophomore Linebacker
The Texas Longhorns have a long history of recruiting and producing NFL-caliber linebackers. Sophomore Malik Jefferson easily falls into that category.
As a true freshman in 2015, the 6-foot, 3-inch, 232-pound Jefferson played like anything but a first-year player. He played in 11 of the 12 Longhorn games last season, starting in nine of them. He missed only the Baylor game, because of an injury.
Jefferson finished the 2015 season with 61 tackles, 37 of them of the solo variety, including seven tackles for loss and two and a half quarterback sacks. He was named to the Freshman All-American Team and was the Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year.
It may not have seemed like it the last several seasons, but the annual Red River Showdown between Oklahoma and Texas is probably the biggest game of the season every year for both teams, certainly emotionally if not physically. These two schools do not like each other, and there is an enormous amount of pride at stake in the outcome of this annual football rivalry.
A year ago, Texas upset the heavily favored Sooners, and it ended up being Oklahoma’s only regular-season loss in 2015. Jefferson played a key role in the win as the Longhorns shut down OU’s high-octane attack, limiting the Sooners to a season-low 17 points and just 278 yards of total offense. Jefferson had six tackles in the game. Two of those tackles resulted in quarterback sacks and two more in lost yardage.
The Sooners count heavily on a strong running game as part of its offensive game plan. Strong defenders like Jefferson pose a significant obstacle to the success of that plan.
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