When recruiting 'athletes,' Steve Sarkisian has real evidence of two-way usage

Several players Texas is currently recruiting have the recruiting industry designation of “athlete.” Those prospects have skill sets that translate to both sides of the ball in college, leading to an eventual decision by players and coaches that have significant impacts on the direction of certain recruitments.

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A school calling a prospect an “athlete” used to be a somewhat sly way to ensure no one got scared off.

“You’re taking how many other receivers in this class?”

“There are two other cornerbacks committed already?”

You call someone an athlete, and the position choice problem can gets kicked down the road to a point after pen hits paper. Plus, it then becomes the head coach’s problem.

That’s all to provide a little background on a recruiting trend that has changed drastically in the past two years. Thanks to Travis Hunter, players with positional versatility have looked at the designation as a positive. It doesn’t mean a prospect has no clear fit, or just one clear fit. In fact, players now see two fits on either side of the ball.

Schools can tell prospects “You’re the next Travis Hunter” all they want, but it’d be disingenuous. Players who can catch 96 passes for 1258 yards and 15 touchdowns AND log four interceptions, 11 passes defended, and one forced fumble in a Power Four conference truly are generational.

That’s not to say there aren’t talents who can provide quality play on both offense and defense, because there are multiple examples of that within college football.

And this is where Steve Sarkisian steps in.

In 2014, Sarkisian’s first year at USC, he had a player on his roster named Adoree’ Jackson. A 5-foot-11, 185-pounder from the Los Angeles area, Jackson was a five-star according to every service and one of the best players in the country. His primary role for USC in 2014 was as a corner, where Pro Football Focus says he logged over 600 snaps. But he also returned kicks and moonlighted as a wide receiver, logging 138 receiving yards and three touchdowns.

Jackson’s two-way capability was on full display in 2015, a season that saw Sarkisian fired midway through because of off-field problems. But the usage was still there and very prominent under Sark. In the five games Sarkisian coached in 2015, Jackson logged 10 receptions for 196 yards and one score. He also tallied 11 tackles, a pass defended, and averaged 12.4 yards per punt return.

That year, Jackson had his most prolific season. On defense, he logged 35 tackles, one pick six, and eight passes defended with a forced fumble. He had two punt returns for a touchdown. He also caught 27 balls for 414 yards and two touchdowns. 162 of his 835 snaps were on offense, but those 162 snaps were very impactful.

835 is a lot, but it once again goes to show there’s only one Travis Hunter. During his Heisman campaign in 2024, Hunter logged 1552 snaps across 13 games.

Even so, Jackson is the type of player Sarkisian and company can point toward when recruiting top athletes like top target Jalen Lott and current commit Jermaine Bishop Jr. The coaches have their preferences for each, but the players have preferences too. Jackson stands as an example of a player whose performance can be approached because anything approaching Hunter’s 2024 is unlikely to be seen for a long, long time.

While the snap split may look a bit different for players like Lott, Bishop, and whoever else Texas recruits with two-way aspirations, Sarkisian and company can point toward Jackson as actual evidence that his staff will deploy two-way talents two ways.

And maybe that’ll lead to a renewed pitch. It could lead to Texas no longer having to call athletes the next Travis Hunter or the next Adoree’ Jackson. Of course, not every athlete can do even what Jackson did. But if deployed right with the correct player, Texas can sell two-way success as well as any team in the nation.

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Who knows? Texas could be telling some athlete in a few years they’ll be the next Jermaine Bishop Jr.