One of the reasons for the success in 2023 was the defense going from last in total defense to fourth. Borland got a good laugh from the room when he said it was coaching.

“I'd like to think it was just great coaching, you know, but I don't think it was,” he said.

He credited the players learning the scheme and catching on to the defense they have been learning since they arrived.

“I believe that obviously, our players, one year more of experience, one more year of really preaching the same message, trying to do a lot of the same things, just an improvement that way,” Borland said. “And I do think we, you know, we've recruited pretty well, we've developed guys pretty well.”

Borland mentioned it can be difficult to load up with four and five star recruits, and he said one of the recipes for success is developing players.

“I think that's something that Coach Leipold, myself, and our staff really pride ourselves in, our ability to develop players and get them to perform at a pretty high level.” He said. “So, I think all those things contributed to that. That is something to that we do, you know, feel good about. But at the same time, there's still a lot more that we can. There's still a lot more we can do better at.”

Gone from last year’s team is Craig Young, who gave the coaches a versatile defender who could line up at several different positions. He could play the HAWK and stay on the field and play a linebacker position without using a substitution.

Marvin Grant is one candidate to take some of the snaps at the HAWK position when they move into the pass defense scheme. There are several players getting a look including true freshman Dre Gibson.

“If we're playing with our more of our nickel defense, our 4-2-5, that's really the guys that are doing that are all coming from our safety room,” Borland said. “The Dye brothers and Marvin Grant. We're trying to take one of the younger freshmen, Dre Gibson, and he's working there as well. He's a bigger, thicker corner. So that's when we're seeing those more spread out three and four wide receiver formations. Those are the guys that are going to be in there.”

When teams line up in more of a traditional formation, or a multiple tight end look they will move back to three linebackers.

“And then when we get to more of two tight end formations and things like that, then we'll use really a third linebacker, which would be the Jason Gillioms and some of those kind of guys like Alex Raich,” he said. “Some of those guys jump in there and play. So, it really depends on what the offense has given us.”

They have identified the group of players who will play a role in different situations and want to get them reps in fall camp.

“We have probably tried five or six different players at that Cinco position,” he said. “That's what we call that field player, the field outside backer. In our four two five stuff, we tried out some different guys and we've kind of whittled it down a little bit and got to those guys, so they get the reps.”

One of the questions going into fall camp was, who would fill the role of playing the pass rush defensive end with the loss of All Big 12 performer Austin Booker.

Lance Leipold mentioned in his press conference Dean Miller had a good summer. There are newcomers Bai Jobe, DJ Warner and Dak Brinkley. Borland said he expects all of them to contribute.

“I think I really like our d-end position,” he said. “I know Jereme Robinson is probably the only guy with a ton of experience, but if you just watch our defensive ends as a group doing things, man, we're longer, we're more athletic probably than we ever have been overall from top to bottom.”

There will be several players competing for the defensive end who can get to the quarterback. Borland likes the competition he has seen in fall camp.

“I do feel like there's good competition for some of those other spots, some playing time,” Borland said. “Obviously, Dean Miller's been doing a really good job, and I don't want to just single him out, but he has. But I think we're going to play four to five guys every game. I just feel like there's really good competition down the line for some of those other snaps.”