AUSTIN, Texas -- He was called the face of the Longhorns’ program all offseason long, including here. He was named Big 12 preseason Defensive Player of the Year in the summer. This was supposed to be Malik Jefferson’s year.

His sophomore season isn’t meeting the grand expectations he and everyone else had going into 2016. The 3-4 Longhorns are stuck in a rut, and so is their most-adored star.

The player around whom Charlie Strong built his Texas rebuild is having a hard time busting out of a sophomore slump, and it’s starting to affect his playing time. Jefferson was only on the field for 55 percent of Texas’ snaps on defense last weekend in a 24-21 loss at Kansas State.

Longhorns LB Malik Jefferson has struggled under the weight of expectations as a sophomore. John Rivera/Icon Sportswire

Whether or not you want to call that being benched, it was clear Texas coaches tried to shake things up at linebacker in the hopes backups Edwin Freeman, Tim Cole and Jeffrey McCulloch could help provide better results.

So what exactly is wrong here? Why isn’t one of Texas’ most talented and exciting players enjoying the breakout year he and everyone else expected?

Jefferson has not done interviews for the past two weeks, but two of his veteran teammates offered insight Monday into what Texas’ young star needs to do to get his season back on track.

Cole, the senior backing up Jefferson at Mike linebacker, says he wouldn’t necessarily call this a funk. He just wants to see the sophomore get back to basics and avoid “making things bigger than they are.” From his perspective, this is just a learning experience.

And from where he sits, Cole can appreciate the overbearing challenge of trying to live up to all the hype that Jefferson has accumulated over the past three-plus years.

“A lot of people put this unnecessary pressure on you,” Cole said. “I’m not saying he gives into it, but the media plays into a lot of added pressure on him. I just tell him don’t worry about that, drown that out, just focus on the team and what you came here for.”

Texas senior defensive tackle Paul Boyette Jr. wants Jefferson to understand that, no matter what anybody says, he needs to worry only about doing his job and doing it well.

“Honestly, he’s been down on himself, putting so much pressure on himself,” Boyette said. “He’s got to learn to just relax and just go with the flow. Every football player has a slump. You’re not going to go out there and just make every play. Like I told him, you’re human. Everybody who plays the game is human. You’ll get nicks and bruises, aches and pains.”

Through seven games, Jefferson has logged 40 tackles but only 3.5 for loss. He has two sacks and zero takeaways. It’s easy to argue his talents are being misused at the Mike spot, but he also has been in position a number of times to make big sacks and stops behind the line of scrimmage and has missed.

Cole points out having the right mentality is easy as a true freshman. You just go out and play and figure it out along the way. The game is different for a sophomore, especially one getting so much attention.

The Longhorns having lost four of their last five is a burden he has put on his shoulders, too. After a few of those disappointments, Jefferson responded by saying he needed to be a better, more vocal leader. He has carried himself with a level of maturity since arriving in Austin last year that can make people forget he’s still a sophomore, not a senior. He’s not supposed to have all of the answers.

Texas linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary shared some concerns in August that read a bit prescient today. He admitted he was not comfortable with reporters referring to Jefferson as the face of the program.

He believed that title created unfair expectations. Jean-Mary didn’t like it when Teddy Bridgewater starting hearing that talk at Louisville, either.

“I would never put that type of pressure on a young man,” Jean-Mary said. “This is still amateur athletics. You want a kid to still feel like the college student we ask them to be. I think that’s unfair pressure to put on a young man to say he’s the face of a program, especially a program the size of the University of Texas.”

To bust out of his slump in a huge game Saturday against No. 8 Baylor, Jefferson doesn’t need to be Superman or The Predator or the face of anything. He just needs to get back to doing his job and making plays.