The move helped Barron become the Thorpe Award winner. What can it do for Guilbeau?
DBU is back.
The Thorpe Award is on the Forty Acres once again, and so is Duane Akina, as the Texas Longhorns burnish the program’s reputation for developing defensive backs.
Jaylon Guilbeau has next.
Once upon a time the starter over Jahdae Barron at the Star position for the Longhorns, the Port Arthur Memorial product is now following the 2024 Thorpe Award winner in moving to outside cornerback from playing in the slot, the same transition that helped vault Barron into the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Now Barron’s advice is helping smooth the transition for Guilbeau, a fourth-year defensive back who has now appeared in 31 games with 17 starts for Texas.
“I talk to him all the time — that’s my brother,” Guilbeau said of Barron. “So I talked to him. I called him and asked him, like, ‘What did you do at corner that I can do to get me at that standard that you was at?’ He was basically telling me, go to outside and show them that you can cover. That’s they wanted to see with him. So I’ll say, I’m just doing the same thing, just going to corner and showing the scouts that I can cover.”
So Guilbeau returned to his high school position of outside cornerback this offseason and began re-establishing his rhythm there by focusing on the fundamentals that are a little more simple outside.
“I feel like corner is easier than nickel, because in nickel they’ve got two-way gos, so I feel like you’ve got a better advantage that you can use the sidelines,” Guilbeau said.
There will still be plenty of playmaking opportunities for Guilbeau, though, if Barron’s 2024 season was any indication — five interceptions, two tackles for loss, one sack, 11 passes broken up, two quarterback hurries.
Guilbeau is still looking for his first career interception after facing adversity early in his career when he tore his ACL and MCL against Oklahoma State as a freshman in 2022 that limited him to seven games in 2023 and impacted his mental health.
During rehabilitation, Guilbeau leaned on his mentor, Kevin Carroll, and made sure his academic and social lives didn’t spiral just because he was away from football.
Now he has more reason to push hard for a breakout season — his daughter, Ryleigh, was just born in July.
“That’s the reason why I’m doing it — I’ve got a little daughter that’s leaning on me, so I wake up every morning and I kiss my daughter on the forehead and tell her, ‘Baby, I got you. You don’t have to worry about nothing.”