The Texas Longhorns rebounded with a win against the then-No. 7 Mississippi Rebels on Saturday after back-to-back losses to unranked teams. The Longhorns' defense deserves particularly high praise for holding the country's ninth-best scoring offense to just 27 points despite not having Colin Simmons, arguably the best defender in college football.

The absence of Simmons left defensive coordinator Will Muschamp in a difficult position going up against Ole Miss' dangerous 'Veer-and-Shoot' offense. However, he came up with the perfect answer.

Here is how Muschamp and the Longhorns shut down the Ole Miss offense and their Heisman-hopeful quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss.

Changes at All Three Levels

The goal of the Veer-and-Shoot is to attack every inch of grass on the gridiron and put constant pressure on the end zone. Texas had already stopped two of these attacks prior to Saturday, holding the Texas State Bobcats and Tennessee Volunteers' offenses to a combined 17 points.

However, the Longhorns achieved both of these feats with Simmons as a big part of the equation. Without him, Texas had to make changes to all three levels of its defense.

The Front-Four

Muschamp had to shift around his defensive line in the wake of losing Simmons. Brad Spence, Colton Vasek, Lance Jackson and Justus Terry picked up much of the edge-defending workload, which forced Zina Umeozulu and Alex January to take over some of the defensive-end duties.

Muschamp played this group in three-down alignments on around 50% of snaps while also frequently playing them in odd fronts.

A three-down front is an alignment which uses just three defensive linemen with a hand in the ground, allowing Muschamp to spread bodies around the field and shut down quick-hitting perimeter plays. An odd front places a defensive lineman over the offensive center, which is an easy way to better protect against the run while sacrificing some pass rushing.

Texas Stopping the Run in Under-Manned Boxes Against the Ole Miss Rebels

Muschamp made up for the loss of Colin Simmons pretty well in the run game pic.twitter.com/zttGCBHIIB

— Carter Long (@carter_long818) October 28, 2026

These tactics allowed Texas to cover down-field shots and plays to the outside while crushing the run in under-manned boxes. Still, Texas' pass rushing left a lot to be desired, which led to Muschamp's next adjustment.

The Second Level

With the Longhorns' defensive line in a poor position to create pressure, Muschamp set Rasheem Biles loose. The former two-time All-ACC linebacker blitzed 13 times, smashing his previous season-high of seven.

While Texas still only pressured Chambliss on 21.8% of his drop-backs, Biles' presence in the backfield forced the passer to speed up his process and miss shots down the field. Biles also logged four tackles, three run-stops and an interception.

Fellow transfer portal-acquisition and linebacking-mate Justin Cryer had a similar impact in a slightly different role. Cryer played 24% of his snaps in the slot, something he had done just 13% of the time prior to Saturday.

Placing Cryer on the edge of the box allowed Texas to out-leverage quick passes, hem in outside runs and get him involved as a blitzer. He finished the game with five tackles, a batted pass and an interception of his own.

Some (SOME) Justin Cryer and Rasheem Biles Highlights Against Ole Miss

The pair played every snap and were a big part of Muschamp's plan for life-without-Colin Simmons pic.twitter.com/CVwiuA4vcb

— Carter Long (@carter_long818) October 28, 2026

Both Biles and Cryer played all 85 snaps against the Rebels and were called on to fill a variety of holes. The ability for both to be versatile allowed Muschamp to make his final tweak.

The Back-End

One of the standard answers for the vertical running game of the Veer-and-Shoot in Saban-system defenses is deep safeties playing the run first and getting downhill. Muschamp took this one step further by using three safeties.

Nickelback Graceson Littleton often rotated back to play alongside regular safeties Derek Williams and Jelani McDonald. This allowed one of them to play as a deep-middle roamer and back up the spine of Texas' run defense.

Having three coverage players over the top also protected the end zone against Ole Miss' dangerous deep-shots.

McDonald, Williams and Littleton all played at least 84 snaps and finished with the three highest tackle tallies on the day, combining for 28 of Texas' 70 wrap-ups. McDonald also nabbed the game-sealing interception.

All Together

The Veer-and-Shoot seeks to spread defenses out as far as possible and then attack the space that they leave. They do this by attacking the middle of the field with the running game, the perimeter with quick-hitters and vertically with deep shots.

Muschamp stuffed the middle with odd fronts, protected the perimeter with Cryer and kept a lid on everything with three safeties. He trusted his defenders to make plays in space, and they delivered.

Muschamp's ability to reconstruct a defense around the absence of one of the sport's best players demonstrates why Texas brought him in in the off-season. If he can keep tinkering with the Longhorns' talented unit, they should be able to survive until Simmons comes back in two or three weeks.