Having a roster of blue chip players doesn’t win championships. Having around eight game-altering players does. It’s why Texas is now winning at a level it hasn’t in over a decade.
The Texas football program has long been known for recruiting good players. For years, outsiders remarked on the Longhorns’ failure to consistently win at a high level over the head coaching tenures of Charlie Strong and Tom Herman. Those teams didn’t have enough players who could take control of games. Sarkisian’s teams have that.
Game changers have changed the course of the program. Sarkisian’s first of many such players was his only 2021 recruit, Xavier Worthy. As a freshman, Worthy put up 62 receptions, 981 yards and 12 touchdowns. Alone, Worthy wasn’t enough to alter game results, but he did make games interesting.
The next offseason, Texas added two five-star offensive linemen. One of them was left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. who went on to a freshman All-American season in 2022. He’s on track to be selected in the first round of a future NFL draft like Xavier Worthy was this offseason.
By the 2022 season, the Longhorns had cultivated or brought in more game changers, but not enough to win a conference title. Linebacker Jaylan Ford and tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders became players of that caliber, but you need more than four players taking over games.
In the 2023 offseason, Texas added a couple more stars in wide receiver Adonai Mitchell and linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. Mitchell went for 11 touchdown receptions while Hill added 67 total tackles and five sacks in limited playing time. Edge rusher Ethan Burke added 5.5 sacks, while interior defensive linemen Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat became All-Americans and early round draft picks. Game changers.
This offseason has seen Texas add five Top 50 portal players in wide receiver Isaiah Bond (Alabama), edge rusher Trey Moore (UTSA), three-year starting safety Andrew Mukuba (Clemson), tight end Amari Niblack (Alabama) and wide receiver Matthew Golden (Houston).
Texas’ 2024 recruiting class added five-star wide receiver Ryan Wingo and a five-star edge rusher and two-time Texas state championship defensive MVP in Colin Simmons. More potential game changers.
We can point to moments where T’Vondre Sweat, Jonathon Brooks, Adonai Mitchell, Xavier Worthy, Ja’Tavion Sanders, wide receiver Jordan Whittington, defensive back Jahdae Barron and perhaps starting quarterback Quinn Ewers altered the course of games. It took all those contributing players to make it to the College Football Playoff.
Five-star or borderline five-star pedigree certainly magnifies the play of big game players. It’s what makes adding players like Anthony Hill Jr., Johntay Cook, Malik Muhammad, Colin Simmons, Ryan Wingo and potential future Longhorn Dakorien Moore so important. Malik Muhammad is primed to break out this season.
Texas is winning recruitments of the five-star skill players it wasn’t getting in the past two coaching regimes. Interestingly, five of the above six are Dallas-Fort Worth area prospects. That alone speaks to how much better recruiting has been since Sarkisian took over.
We have yet to mention running backs where Texas has produced two NFL draft picks in back to back offseasons. The four drafted running backs included fourth string running back Keilan Robinson who was selected in the fifth round this offseason. One or both of five-star running back Cedric Baxter Jr. and home run threat Jaydon Blue could become household names like Jonathon Brooks did last season.
Texas needs around eight players to prove capable of taking control of games in 2024 if it wants to compete for a national title. This group looks to have several players who can take over games. We’ll begin to find out how many they will have when the team kicks off against Colorado State on Aug. 31 at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.