SportsDay's panel of college bloggers voted to decide who the best defensive players in Texas are heading into the 2018 season. The top player in their ballots received 10 points, the second received 9 and so on. The totals were added up and we ranked each player by their composite score.
Here's a look at our offseason Best in Texas poll.
Those voting in the poll: Adam Grosbard, Reece Graham, Matthew Berger, Spenser Davis, Alex Miller, Matthew Cardenas, Michael Shapiro and Brett Vito.
| Player | Reece Graham | Matthew Cardenas | Brett Vito | Adam Grosbard | Alex Miller | Spenser Davis | Michael Shapiro | Matthew Berger | Composite |
| Ben Banogu, DL, TCU | 9 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 64 |
| Ed Oliver, DL, Houston | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 60 |
| Dakota Allen, LB, Texas Tech | 6 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 54 |
| Tyrel Dodson,LB, Texas A&M | 7 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 49 |
| Breckyn Hager, LB, Texas | 8 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 48 |
| Landis Durham, DL, Texas A&M | 5 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 38 |
| Ty Summers, LB, TCU | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 22 |
| Kris Boyd, DB, Texas | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 21 |
| Jah'Shawn Johnson, S, Texas Tech | 3 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| Ridwan Issahaku, S, TCU | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 14 |
| Jordan Wyatt, CB, SMU | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Gary Johnson, LB, Texas | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| Justus Parker, S,Texas Tech | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Charles Omenihu, DL, Texas | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Eli Howard, DL, Texas Tech | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Niko Small, DB, TCU | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Brandon Jones, DB, Texas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Derrick Tucker, DB, Texas A&M | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Kingsley Keke, DL, Texas A&M | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Myles Jones, DB, Texas A&M | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ira Lewis, DL, Baylor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ross Blacklock, DT, TCU | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Josiah Tauaefa, LB, UTSA | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kemon Hall, DB, UNT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |