With his mom watching from afar, Texas LB Rasheem Biles makes a case for the Butkus Award

Texas linebacker Rasheem Biles (3) celebrates a sack during the game against Mississippi State at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026 in Austin. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman) Texas football announced that a crowd of 103,586 was at Royal-Memorial Stadium for the first-ever Halloween night game Saturday night. Rasheedah Biles wasn't among those fans.The mother of Texas senior linebacker Rasheem Biles, Rasheedah was back home in Ohio for a funeral. Rasheem Biles told reporters that his 97-year-old uncle had passed away earlier in the week, which forced his mother to miss one of his football games for the first time. MORE:Why Rasheem Biles is crediting basketball for his clutch plays this seasonBiles was able to talk and pray with his mom over the phone before the game. And during that pregame discussion, Rasheedah Biles brought up her son's statistics. "She told me you've only got one sack this season. It's time to step it up," Biles said.And like a good son, Biles listened to Mom.In a 31-3 win over Mississippi State, Biles registered eight tackles, a career-high three sacks and two forced fumbles. One of those sacks knocked Mississippi State quarterback AJ Swann out of the game and knocked loose a football that UT defensive lineman Maraad Watson returned for a second-quarter touchdown."Pretty incredible performance for him," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by hookem.com (@hookemdotcom)Biles was coming off a week in which he was named the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week, and Saturday's showing put him again on the short list for that weekly award. Biles was also recently named a semifinalist for the Butkus Award, which is a 41-year-old honor for linebackers that has been won only once by a Longhorn (Derrick Johnson in 2004)."I've got to go win it," Biles said. "Being a finalist, that's cool. But I've got to go be the one. I told my mom, that's what I came here for."For the season, Biles has recorded 61 tackles, four sacks, three interceptions and three forced fumbles. Biles joined the Longhorns this offseason as a Pitt transfer. Texas linebacker Rasheem Biles (3) and Texas defensive lineman Ian Geffrard (95) sack Mississippi State quarterback Parker Puckett (15) during the game at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026 in Austin. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman) Without Colin Simmons, Texas still stacks sacksThe play of Biles against Mississippi State was complemented by fellow linebacker Justin Cryer, who had three tackles and a sack. When asked after Saturday's game if Biles and Cryer are the best linebackers in college football, defensive lineman Hero Kanu bluntly said "they are."As a team, Texas recorded seven sacks and held Mississippi State to 187 yards of total offense. Saturday marked the first time since 2018 that the Bulldogs failed to exceed the 200-yard mark.MORE: How the Longhorns graded out in their Mississippi State winThose seven sacks - which were split between Biles, Cryer, Justus Terry, Zina Umeozulu and Colton Vasek - were recorded without star edge rusher Colin Simmons, who missed his second straight game with a leg injury. With 10 ½, Simmons is still the Football Bowl Subdivision-level leader in sacks."Even when Colin had the 5 1/2-sack game against Tennessee, I tried to say it then that we're playing really good as a front and we're playing really good as a defense," Sarkisian said. "You have (some sacks) where you have just a guy beat a guy and you get a sack, but mostly sacks occur, and we've done a good job of this all year, as far as having rush lane integrity and flushing quarterbacks, forcing them to go certain places where we want them to go, and then allowing that rusher then to get that sack. You have to play tight coverage so the quarterback can't get the ball out of his hands, so you have to have a secondary that is working well together and tying it all together. And then you have to have timely (play) calls." Texas has now compiled 26 sacks this season, which ranks seventh nationally. The Longhorns are also allowing just 17.1 points and 273.1 yards per game, which gives UT the SEC's fourth-best scoring defense and a unit that stands third in the conference in total defense.Next up for Texas is Missouri, which is averaging 31.5 points and 424.6 yards per game. On Sunday, the Associated Press respectively listed Texas (6-2, 3-2) and Missouri (6-2, 3-2) 10th and 19th in its updated poll.Sign up for the Daily Briefing from the Austin American-Statesman. Start your day with the must-read headlines from Austin's most trusted news source.This article originally published at With his mom watching from afar, Texas LB Rasheem Biles makes a case for the Butkus Award.