The Top 10 Texas Football Number Duos

At yesterday’s player media availability, Inside Texas asked Ryan Wingo about his number change. Going from No. 5 to No. 1, Wingo stepped into a number donned by Xavier Worthy while also joining defensive star Colin Simmons as the No. 1 guys on their sides of the ball. With both sharing the digit, we asked Wingo if that was planned.

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“I had number one in high school, so I just wanted to get it back,” Wingo admitted. “I didn’t even know Colin was going to get it until I had it. Once I had gotten it, he told me, like that same day.”

Naturally, we followed up: Are you the best number duo on the team?

“Nah man, we’re all even on this team. I’m not putting nobody above nobody,” Wingo said. “We all got super good number duos. 5’s, 4’s.”

With Wingo’s indecisiveness and team-first mentality (how dare he!) not giving us any hints, we decided to give it our crack.

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10th: No. 11 — WR Michael Terry III and CB Kade Phillips

The 10th spot was a tough one because there are only about eight or so numbers that feature starters on both sides of the ball, so we’ll elect for a number with some future fun tied to it. Phillips and Terry likely won’t see a ton of time this year but were a pair of five-star prospects in the class of ’25. You’d hope these two stick to the number duo over time.

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9th: No. 9 — RB Jerrick Gibson and S Jonah Williams

There’s a lot of aura, as the kids say, in this one. Williams is one of the most popular true freshmen in the nation after donning the No. 55 as the starting LF for the Texas baseball team in the spring. He’s going to be on the field in some way in 2025, and his athleticism will pop off the charts.

Gibson will be a feature back in this four-headed room for Texas who’s shown flashes in his short time in Austin. No. 9 at No. 9 also fits too well to not have them here.

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8th: No. 2 — WR Jamie Ffrench and S Derek Williams

Ffrench lucked out that no one stepped in to take Matthew Golden’s No. 2 after 2024, as that’s an elite number pull in your true freshman season. He won’t play a ton in 2025, but Derek Williams will — a player who’s gotten to wear that number every year since his first in Austin. Ffrench is now the third receiver to join Williams with a two on their back.

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7th: No. 6 — RB Christian Clark and CB Kobe Black

Similar to our No. 9 selection, the seventh spot goes to a young RB-DB hybrid, but one that’s a little farther along. Clark is currently ahead of Gibson on the RB depth chart despite a gruesome preseason injury in 2024 and may be the most explosive runner on the roster.

Black is an elite athlete who’s battling a player we’ll talk about soon for the starting CB spot on the team. Both will play a ton in 2025.

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6th: No. 3 — WR Emmett Mosley V and CB Jaylon Guilbeau

Guilbeau was almost buddy-less heading into the year after Quinn Ewers left for the NFL. That was until Mosley came over from Stanford and took over the number left by one of Texas’ most notable QBs. The outside duo will both play a lot in 2025, with Guilbeau battling Black for that CB2 spot. He will likely start against Ohio State, and Mosley is in competition to do the same at the WR3 slot.

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5th: No. 4 — RB CJ Baxter and DB Jelani McDonald

Here’s where it starts getting really good. No. 4 has two of Texas’ biggest breakout candidates for 2025 with Baxter, returning from injury, and McDonald, now elevating into a starting spot. These two will both be starters for Texas in 2025 and play a significant role in whether the Longhorns can finally take down the OSUs and Georgias of the world.

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4th: No. 5 — RB Quintrevion Wisner and CB Malik Muhammad

Flip-flopping the numbers here feels wrong — until you see who’s donning No. 5 this season. Wisner and Baxter are a 1A, 1B in the RB room, but with Wisner slightly ahead and Muhammad being deemed the next elite CB for Texas, they had to jump ahead.

Muhammad has been wearing No. 5 since his freshman year, but Wisner just made the switch from No. 26 this offseason. Why? Wisner’s family has always called themselves “The Wisner 5,” so he wanted to represent his two siblings and parents on the field.

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3rd: No. 0 — WR DeAndre Moore Jr. and LB Anthony Hill

This is where it starts to get extremely tough. Any of the top three could be the No. 1 option, and picking one to be third feels wrong. Unfortunately, one of the best returning duos falls lower in Moore and Hill. The two are each top players on both sides of the ball, with Hill likely to be a first-round pick after this season. The No. 0 with those two is iconic, but I’m not sure it will carry the same allure in the future as the next two.

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2nd: No. 1 — WR Ryan Wingo and EDGE Colin Simmons

You knew these two would show up — it was just a matter of where and when. This duo BARELY edges out Moore and Hill because of two reasons:

1. We anticipate Wingo to be the WR1 of the team.
2. If this duo stands for next year, it may go down as one of the best pairs of players to share the same number in school history.

Both true sophomores from the class of ’24, Wingo and Simmons helping carry Texas to a national championship as No. 1’s in either of their next two years would be one of the coolest combinations possible. There’s so much to connect these two together, and they’ll probably be two of the best players on their respective sides of the ball. Look out, 2027 NFL Draft.

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1st: No. 16 — QB Arch Manning and S Michael Taaffe

You just had to know this was coming. Yes, Nos. 0 and 1 have so much hype surrounding them and feature extremely impactful players, but nothing can touch what No. 16 has. The two captains of their sides of the ball — a former walk-on matched with the most hyped QB of the last decade. It’s almost storybook that Manning and Taaffe are going to get a season as leaders donning the same, albeit unusual, number.

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When Texas fans think back to the 2025 season, this will be the number that stands out, no matter the end result.