The non-elite recruits who shape the Longhorns in 2025

When you dive into the Rivals player rankings, you can see a trend in how they separate players using their number system.

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It usually works in multiples of two. A 1.000 recruit is an otherworldly talent. The closest the Rivals Industry Rankings have come in the CFP era is Michigan QB commit Bryce Underwood from last year’s class.

A 98.00 player is in the elite of the elite. Usually, fewer than 20 players per year receive that grade. These are true difference makers who will be signing multi-million dollar second NFL contracts before long. Texas’ Jonah Williams and Justus Terry fit that mold last year.

Then it cascades down. A 96.+ is an elite recruit with high NFL upside. A 94.+ is expected to be playing by Year Two and usually a top-100 player. 92.+ are good college players. 90.+ is the cutoff for four-stars, and anything below signals a three-star prospect.

In the 2025 class, the first player to drop below that mark was the 350th overall. In other words, industry consensus says three-stars are long shots to be drafted.

And yet, entering 2025, on a roster stacked with five-stars, the backbone of Texas football remains built on non-elite recruiting wins.

It starts with former walk-on Michael Taaffe, now in Year Five. Taaffe wasn’t even ranked on most sites and drew little interest coming out of Westlake High. Now he’s a preseason All-American safety and the team’s leader.

“I think they just come with a sense of pride and gratitude because they know that everything they had to do, they had to work for it,” Taaffe said of fellow lower-rated recruits. “Nothing was handed to them. They got on the field by effort, physicality, knowledge of assignment—and by making plays.”

The class of 2022 still holds two starters who began as three-stars. Ethan Burke, once more serious about lacrosse than football, entered with a sub-90 rating but has developed into a starting edge rusher. On the offensive line, centers Cole Hutson and Connor Robertson, part of an elite O-line class, have locked down the position for the next two years.

The 2023 class produced multiple three-stars turned starters. RB Tre Wisner and LB Liona Lefau broke out as sophomores in 2024 and are set to start again. LT Trevor Goosby joined them, while OL depth came from Connor Stroh and Andre Cojoe (before his ACL injury). TE Spencer Shannon is also battling for a key role as the No. 2 tight end in this offense.

The 2024 group may be the most impressive. DT Alex January, LB Ty’Anthony Smith, and S Jordon Johnson-Rubell all played real snaps as freshmen. January is expected to be one of the best interior pass rushers on the team in 2025. Both Smith and Johnson-Rubell weren’t considered elite athletes coming out of high school, but Texas evaluated them as tough, instinctive players who could make winning football plays—and that’s exactly what they’ve become.

Then there’s Parker Livingstone, maybe the biggest riser on the team. If you had to pick one player who has gained the most steam from the start of fall camp till now, it’s him. He redshirted in 2024 but is now set to leap into a starting outside receiver role. He’s tall, fast, and already has a great connection with Manning.

Even the 2025 class is already delivering with TE Emaree Winston and RB Rickey Stewart Jr. flashing enough talent to potentially burn redshirts. Both will contribute on special teams and already look like plus pass catchers.

Transfers have also mattered. DT Lavon Johnson and LB/EDGE Brad Spence provide depth, while Hero Kanu—ranked just the No. 31 DT transfer by Rivals—looks set to start. His leadership and work ethic have made him a cultural fit and a steal for Steve Sarkisian and Kenny Baker. All three were rated as three-stars in the portal rankings.

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Texas is likely to get starting reps from 8–12 players who entered as three-stars or lower. It’s proof that at the championship level, evaluations and development matter just as much as star power.