John Reiger: USA TODAY Sports
In the weeks leading up to the Texas Longhorns‘ season debut on August 31, Rant Sports is previewing some of the key members of this year’s team. Today, we profile defensive standout Quandre Diggs.
Diggs, a junior cornerback, has proven himself to be the next in a long line of outstanding defensive backs to come out of Austin, following in the footsteps of former Longhorn All-American Quentin Jammer, who happens to be Diggs’ older brother, a top five NFL draft pick who spent the last ten seasons with the San Diego Chargers and recently signed with the Denver Broncos.
Heading into his third year with Texas, Diggs has played in 26 games with 24 starts, 23 consecutively. As a freshman, he was named to the both the CBSSports and YahooSports! Freshman All-American teams and garnered Big 12 Freshman of the Year Honors. Last year, he was one of the few bright spots on a Texas defense that was less-than-stellar, leading the team in interceptions (4) and pass break-ups (7) as a sophomore. Heading into his junior year, he was recently named to the 2013 Nagurski Trophy and Thorpe Award watch lists and is poised to have another huge season.
As the best player in the Longhorn secondary, it makes perfect sense that the 5’10″, 200-pound junior would shift over to play nickel back in the 4-2-5 defense this season, a position recently vacated by former Longhorn and first-round draft pick Kenny Vaccaro. After all, the nickel back is probably the most important piece on defense when it comes to slowing down the spread offenses fielded by most team in the Big 12 and Diggs has proven that he’s up to the task.
In this new position and with another year under his belt, Diggs will have an even greater chance to showcase his talents and versatility. As a result, look for him to have his best season yet on the 40 Acres.
