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…
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