Head coach Steve Sarkisian and company finished loaded with impact players at pretty much every position. The Longhorns pulled off one of the most shocking wins of the recruiting cycle when they landed five-star defensive tackle Justus Terry out of Georgia.
“I did interview him after his Texas official visit and he said at that time it was a great visit and Texas really helped themselves in this race,” said Jason Suchomel of Orangebloods.com. “This staff just stayed on him when everybody thought it was going to be Georgia or maybe Auburn. The staff really stayed on him until the very end and when everybody at the end was focused on Georgia, there was always a quiet confidence among our sources in Austin that they thought they had a really good chance to get him. They just kept chipping away.
“Let’s be honest, in today’s day and age of NIL, that was probably a big part of the decision, but you still aren’t going to win those types of recruiting battles without developing good relationships, without earning the trust of Terry and the people close to him. I think the staff did a really good job with that and they were able to close the deal right at the wire, the last day of the Early Signing Period.”
Of course, this recruiting class is packed with impressive prospects but upon closer inspection it’s clear the Longhorn’s really flexed their recruiting muscles this year.
1 – Texas was the only team to sign a top-10 prospect from Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas this year. Signees Jonah Williams, Kaliq Lockett, Lance Jackson and Kade Phillips represent the Longhorns in the top 10 of the Texas state rankings. Justus Terry finished at No. 4 in Georgia, Jaime Ffrench is No. 9 in Florida and No. 3 in Louisiana is James Simon.
“With so many guys going out of state, the staff knew early on they’re going to have to recruit nationally,” Suchomel said. “I don’t think Steve Sarkisian minds recruiting nationally at all. Being in the SEC, they feel like it kind of opens up their footprint for Florida, for Georgia, for Louisiana. Certainly they have coaches with ties to those areas. They went out and did a great job in those states.”
9 – The number of points between No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Georgia in the team rankings. This is the smallest margin of victory since Rivals began tracking the national recruiting race in 2002. However, top-100 prospect J’Vari Flowers, who just reclassified up to the 2025 class, has the potential to flip the script if he decides to sign with Georgia.
Rivals.com’s John Garcia Jr. has more on the drama surrounding Flowers and the abrupt acceleration in his recruitment.
2 – Top 100 prospect Kade Phillips originally committed to Texas in early July but flipped to LSU the following month. When he flipped back to Texas and finally signed with the Longhorns, Phillips became the only member of this class of signees to commit to Texas twice.
“The Texas staff just did a good job again,” Suchomel said. “They’re like bulldogs. If a guy commits elsewhere, they almost look at that like a challenge. They don’t panic, they don’t give up. So they stayed with Phillips, built good relationships there, the entire defensive backfield staff did. From my conversations with him, Kade just ultimately thought that maybe being at the University of Texas and being a Texas kid, it would open more doors for him in the long run.”
4 –Texas signed four five-star prospects this cycle: Terry, Williams, Lockett and Jackson. The only other team to sign four five-star prospects this year was Oregon.
