Texas OLB/DE Marqez Bimage Joins the Bears as a Transfer Walk-On

The Bears add a former Longhorn to their defensive ranks.

Longhorn state defensive line transfer arrived on campus earlier this year and has showed up on the 2021 roster as an OLB.

Bimage was a 2017 3*(247)/4*(Rivals) out of Texas who held offers from Baylor, Cal, LSU, and Utah. Initially, he was committed to Houston only to flip to the Texas Longhorns. He started as a true freshman for Tom Herman’s defense, he opted out of the 2020 Covid season prior to transferring.

Source: Patrick Meredith, Texas Athletics

He was expected to be a big contributor to the 2021 Texas defense as an edge player, per Burnt Orange Nation:

A 6’2, 251-pounder and one-time Houston commit who followed Tom Herman to Austin in 2017, Bimage spent the 2020 offseason dropping weight to make the transition from playing heads up against offensive tackles to getting the opportunity to more frequently play on the edge. Ultimately, the Brenham product lost 20 pounds in an effort to capitalize on the flashes that he showed late in 2019 when he was able to use his speed and explosiveness against Texas Tech to force a strip-sack and add another quarterback hurry.

Looking at the above quote and how the Cal defense operates with its OLBs, we can look to him to compete for the Big OLB (Tevin Paul/Braxten Croteaux spot) opposite of the Cam Goode spot. He tried playing at 270 lbs in 2019 as a 4i (lined up on a Tackle’s inside shoulder) DE but opted to slim down to go back to being a stand-up OLB.

Wescott Eberts @SBN_Wescott

Was interested in seeing what a slimmed-down Marqez Bimage could do playing on the edge at Texas. Forcing him to gain weight and play 4i negated the explosiveness that made him special in high school. Now Bimage is in the transfer portal.

Fun fact: one of Bimage’s hobbies is doing magic! (Sources say it was a tough decision between Cal football and Hogwart’s #1 ranked quidditch team.)

While at Texas he was also a weight room beast with the video below of him quarter-squatting 700 lbs.

Texas Football @TexasFootball

Marqez Bimage making it look easy. Get this man a bigger bar. 😤 @MarqezBimage_ @yjmcknight #ThisIsTexas #HookEm