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AUSTIN – Tom Herman has a logical explanation for why the Texas defense has won both of the team’s fall scrimmages.

“Our defense is really hard to prepare for,” Herman said following Saturday’s latest triumph for the defense. “It’s really really difficult.”

It might be easy to dismiss Herman’s words as coach speak if he hadn’t previously had experience watching his offenses struggle to move the ball and get into the end zone against a defense coached by Todd Orlando.

Herman produced productive offenses during his two seasons as the head coach Houston. Last season, Herman’s Houston offense finished 26th nationally in scoring (35.8 points per game) and 41st in total offense (443.4 yards per game), which wasn’t a bad encore for a 2015 campaign that saw the 13-1, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl champion Cougars finish 29th or better in the country in red zone offense (29th with an 88.1-percent conversion rate), total offense (20th with 484.1 yards per game), rushing offense (13th with 235.8 yards per game) and scoring offense (10th with 40.4 points per game).

Nevertheless, as good as the Cougars were at shredding opponents, they were unable to break through against Orlando’s defense in scrimmage situations.

“Probably, in spring and summer, only won a couple of scrimmages against our defense on offense,” Herman said. “Our defense is difficult to prepare for.”

Things haven’t changed in that regard from the spring on the Forty Acres when the defense was getting the upper hand in scrimmages. Orlando doesn’t hold back on the practice field during live periods, showing quarterbacks Shane Buechele and Sam Ehlinger the same looks he’ll unleash on whichever quarterback emerges from Maryland’s ongoing competition when the Terrapins roll into Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Sept. 2.

While winning a scrimmage is nice, Herman likes that the defense has shown improvement in one area this fall that was an issue coming out of spring practice.

“We’re getting better in the red zone,” Herman said. “That was an area in the spring that was of concern for us. We’re getting better, we’re not where we need to be, but these guys, so much more so that in the spring, they’re running and hitting.”

Texas finished 69th in the country in red zone defense in 2016. That was good enough for seventh in the Big 12 with the five-win Longhorns finishing ahead of only Texas Tech, Iowa State and TCU, three programs that combined for a 14-23 record (only the six-win Horned Frogs made earned a bowl berth).

The Longhorns allowed opponents to score on 85.1-percent of their trips inside the 20, a conversion rate allowed that looks worse due to the fact that only Kansas State (36) and Oklahoma (46) faced fewer red zone possessions among Big 12 squads.

Both the Wildcats (22) and Sooners (22) allowed fewer red zone touchdowns than Texas (27).

Houston’s red zone defense under Orlando was ranked 93rd nationally in 2016. While the Cougars allowed 30 scores on the 34 trips opponents made inside the Cougars 20-yard line, the six passing touchdowns Orlando’s unit allowed in the red zone tied for the sixth-fewest in the country and only 29 programs gave up fewer red zone rushing touchdowns than Houston (13).

It’s a good thing Herman is seeing the Longhorns be stingy when the field shrinks because playing good defense in the red zone can directly relate to success in the Big 12. Last season, the Oklahoma (11-2), Oklahoma State (10-3), West Virginia (10-3) and Kansas State (9-4) finished in the top half of the conference in red zone defense with three of the Big 12’s four teams that won nine or more games finished 25th or better nationally.

With a defense that Herman said was running around and hitting with energy and enthusiasm on Saturday, the Longhorns are showing traits in camp that will allow them to dig down deep and keep opponents out of the end zone if they happen to knock on the door.

“Today was one of those ‘give us everything you’ve got [practices],’” Herman said. “I know it’s not going to look like you’re 100 percent. But we know your 75 percent is. We know what it should look like, Practice 12, if you’ve given everything you’ve got.

“They gave us everything they had today.”

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