A lot has changed for Texas recruiting since last December

On3 imageby:Eric Nahlin12/04/22

Generally speaking there are two types of personalities who follow recruiting: those who love the unending drama and those who gravitate towards roster management. It’s not that binary, though, as it’s more of a spectrum between the star gazing drama kings and the junior General Managers. Very few reside on the absolute ends of the spectrum.

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The junior General Managers mostly follow recruiting because it’s a leading indicator of what their team could be with adequate coaching and development. They want four- and five-stars because those players make it easier to win. The star gazers want four- and five-stars because it helps the team acquire more four- and five-stars. They’ll tell you they like wins, but for the most hardcore, that’s only because wins make it easier to recruit. Overall, recruiting momentum for them is a drug high just without the diminishing returns — until Texas goes without a new commitment for 4-5 days.

Last year at this time both personalities, and those in between, shared concerns over how the class would finish after Texas went 5-7. In particular, Texas had a glaring hole in the class on the offensive line. A hole that if we’re being honest was large enough to set the program back. Texas only had commitments from Cole Hutson and Connor Robertson. Both players were good prospects — underrated in fact — and committed on the same day in early July. By the time December rolled around it had been a long time since Texas added a player who addressed its greatest class need.

What was at one moment the biggest question in the class quickly became the budding foundation for the entire program. Texas would add five-star Kelvin Banks on December 11th, highly underrated Cameron Williams on December 12th, Top 100 swing player Neto Umeozulu on December 13th, and agile giant Malik Agbo on December 15th. If you want to complete the straight with five-star DJ Campbell on the 14th, go right ahead, though he didn’t announce for Texas until February 2nd.

Banks is a franchise left tackle on this level and the next. Hutson started every game as a true freshman. This underlines how big the need was and also how talented the class is. Next year it is possible there will be four starters from that class.

During that mammoth run of landing mammoths, Texas added Quinn Ewers on the 12th, Savion Red and Ethan Burke on the 15th, and Ryan Watts on the 22nd. That’s two current starters and two future starters.

That two-week stretch from Banks’ commitment to Watts’ firmly put Steve Sarkisian on the path to immediate and long-term success at Texas.

This year there won’t be quite as much to captivate the two personality types, at least when it comes to high school recruiting, though they surely overlap in coveting Denton Ryan linebacker Anthony Hill. The star-gazers love his On3 Consensus five-star rating, while the junior General Managers look at the need at linebacker next to Jaylan Ford. And of course every Longhorn fan wants to win a grueling head to head battle against downtrodden Texas A&M. In many ways the recruitment mirrors that of Colton Vasek, just replace A&M with OU.

Many other high profile recruitments are more uphill battles for the Horns, though they will win a couple as they look to finalize DB, WR, DT, and LB recruiting.

Because Texas rode its 2023 momentum wave over the summer, the staff is in a better position to focus on the portal this year. That’s good because the portal will essentially compress a full cycle into six weeks. Like high school recruiting in the 2023 cycle, it will be filled with twists, turns, highs, and lows, but star-gazers and junior general managers alike should gain the satisfaction they seek. 

Year over year Texas improved on the field, but given the relative calm right now, the program is in a better place when it comes to recruiting, too. Fans should be excited to see how much changes between now and next December as the roster increases yet again in talent and depth.

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