Inside Rasheem Biles' Takeaway Game at Texas
A first start offered a dramatic hint, but the better answer lies in the unusual route and range of the new Texas linebacker. Here is how to read the plays that make a defender feel suddenly unavoidable.
One bouncing football can turn an ordinary stop into a small electrical storm: the ball is loose, the sideline rises, and a dozen players suddenly become treasure hunters. I think that switch is the best way to understand the attention around Texas's new No. 3 linebacker. A big tackle tells you who arrived at the ball. A takeaway tells you who changed the whole afternoon.
Rasheem Biles is a senior linebacker at Texas who spent 2023 through 2025 at Pitt before transferring in spring 2026. Texas lists him at 6-foot-1 and 222 pounds, from Columbus, Ohio, and notes one charming correction worth learning early: the S at the beginning of his first name is silent, so it is pronounced Raheem. In his first Texas start, against Texas State on September 5, 2026, the official bio records five tackles, an interception, a two-yard tackle for loss and a forced fumble that was returned for a touchdown. Texas's roster biography is the cleanest record of those facts.
The answer starts with range, not one highlight
The Texas State line is a loud introduction, not a finished scouting report. The useful context comes from Biles's final Pitt season. Texas says he produced 101 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, six pass breakups, two interceptions returned for 85 yards and two touchdowns, plus two forced fumbles in 2025. That is a crowded stat line because it reaches several jobs at once: finding a runner behind the line, affecting a pass, finishing a tackle and occasionally making possession change hands. Texas's August 13 profile also says those 17 tackles for loss tied for eighth-most in the FBS that season.
I would resist flattening all of that into the vague label of a big-play player. A linebacker can be valuable because he reads a run quickly, covers a short route, arrives as a blitzer, or brings down a ball carrier before a manageable down becomes an awkward one. Biles's previous production suggests he has appeared in each of those places. It does not guarantee that Texas will use him in exactly the same way, or that one September game fixes his role for the year.
The quick Biles card
- Current listing
- Senior linebacker, Texas, No. 3
- Previous school
- Pitt, from 2023 through 2025
- First Texas start
- September 5, 2026, against Texas State
- What made it pop
- An interception and a forced fumble returned for a touchdown
Why the word takeaway fits
A takeaway is a useful fan word because it combines events that official box scores keep distinct. An interception begins with a pass and ends with the defense controlling it. A forced fumble describes the defender's disruptive act, while a fumble recovery records who gains the loose ball. The NCAA keeps football rules and its official statistics guidance in separate, very technical documents, which is why a single spectacular play can leave several lines in the box score. The NCAA's football rules hub and its football statistics manual are better places to settle a scoring argument than a clipped highlight.
For a linebacker, those numbers matter because they are interruptions. A tackle for loss can flip a possession from comfortable to complicated. A pass breakup can make a quarterback come back later. An interception or a recovered fumble literally transfers the ball. The cheerful little truth is that the most memorable defensive play often becomes a group project: one player supplies the disruption, another finds the wobbling prize, and somebody else may get the glide toward the end zone.
The route here is stranger than a neat recruiting label
Biles did not arrive as a lifelong linebacker in the tidy storybook sense. Texas says he played running back, receiver and wildcat quarterback until his final high-school season, when he played safety. At Pitt, he played linebacker and defense exclusively for the first time as a freshman. Pitt's own roster remembers that first year for a different kind of mischief: three blocked punts, tied for the school season record. Pitt's biography preserves that lovely detail. It helps explain why the numbers do not feel limited to one narrow defensive task.
| Stage | What the official records establish |
|---|---|
| Before college | Offense through most of high school, then safety as a senior |
| Pitt freshman year | First season on defense exclusively, including three blocked punts |
| Pitt in 2025 | 101 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks and multiple takeaways |
| Texas in 2026 | A first start with an interception and forced fumble against Texas State |
What to watch after the first burst
When the next Texas game arrives, I would watch for three things before treating any new stat as a verdict. First, where is Biles aligned before the snap: stacked behind the line, walked toward an edge, or matched against a receiver? Second, does he appear around the ball on routine downs as well as the glorious chaotic ones? Third, after a near-takeaway, does the defense still finish the series? Those questions reveal usage and consistency, while a single turnover can be partly bounce and timing.
We can be precise about what the public record shows and still leave room for football to surprise us. Texas has a veteran transfer whose recent numbers reached into tackles, backfield stops, passes and possession changes. It also has a player whose name begins with a silent letter and whose college career started with blocked punts. That is a much more enjoyable answer than pretending one spectacular September sequence has told the whole story.
Sources
Every factual claim above traces to one of these. Links open in a new tab.
