Texas recruits react to departure of Tashard Choice
A little over a week ago, Tashard Choice was mentioned as a potential candidate for the Dallas Cowboys running backs position.
The Texas assistant coach didn’t land that job. But on Thursday, it was reported that Choice would be leaving the Longhorns for the same position with the Detroit Lions.
And it caught a lot of the top Texas running back targets by surprise.
“I’m shocked,” No. 1 running back Ezavier Crowell said. “We had a great relationship.”
Crowell, from Jackson, Ala., was something of a longer shot to land at Texas as Alabama is the frontrunner in his recruitment with Auburn among many others still very much involved.
But the 2026 running back class in Texas is absolutely loaded – one of the best groups in recent memory – and the Longhorns have been considered the frontrunners for at least a couple of them for some time.
“Definitely came out of the blue,” said four-star Forney, Texas, running back Javian Osborne, who’s had the Longhorns and Michigan battling at the top of his recruitment.
“Surprised me because I’m like, wow. I had kids at school saying that the coach left and I’m like, ‘What’s that? Not true,’ and when I saw it with my own eyes, just was in shock but very happy for him and his family.”
Jakoby Dixon, a four-star running back in the 2027 class from Brenham, Texas, had a similar feeling on the Choice news as Crowell: “I’m shocked. I haven’t heard about it until now.”
Texas and Texas A&M have been going back and forth with the state’s top running back, Carthage’s KJ Edwards, who was told by Choice during a recent visit to Austin that he looked forward to developing him there.
Michigan, Baylor, SMU, Stanford, Tennessee and Clemson are some others that Edwards has been highly considering in his recruitment but the word has been that the Longhorns have the edge over the Aggies with everybody else chasing.
The Carthage standout is happy Choice is moving on to the NFL for his own career advancement but only time will tell if it impacts his thinking with the Longhorns.
“I’m all for doing and wanting to do better so I’m happy for him,” Edwards said. “He told me his goal was to eventually get to the league so it was a surprise in a sense but wasn’t at the same time.”
