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The 4th of July weekend didn't go as expected for the Longhorns and now fans are starting to wonder why.
The biggest guy-punch of the whole ordeal was the one that seemingly kicked things off; and it turned out to be a bit of a harbinger of what was to come in the near-term: Dakorien Moore, the best receiver in the nation and a player the Longhorns had legitimate confidence in landing, committed to Oregon and not Texas on the 4th of July.
On the surface it was reminiscent of Kelvin Banks doing the same thing in the 2022 class, and we all know how that ended up. Both Banks and Cam Williams ended up flipping from Oregon late in the process and coming to Texas, so all was well that ended well. However, the circumstances there were different then in that Mario Cristobal (an OL-centric head coach at Oregon) moved on from the program after the 2021 season, throwing the plans of those two future studs into the wind. This allowed Texas and Kyle Flood to swoop in and save the day.
After Dakorien Moore visited Texas, seemingly with his entire extended family in-tow, most of those who follow recruiting thought it was pretty close to game over. Oregon -- thanks in large part to Assistant HC and RBs coach Ra'Shaad Samples -- came through with a presentation and a package that they should be commended for. Texas didn't get beat on NIL money; they certainly didn't get beat on flash, sizzle and momentum. Texas, coming off a CFP berth, entering the SEC, and featuring a future QB in Arch Manning to pair with this young crop of future receivers, has more to market right now than it has at any point dating back to the heyday of Mack Brown.
One of the things that Oregon sold Moore on was going his own way -- doing something different. Ironically, if Moore was interested in doing something so different and bucking recent trends, the real way to do so would be actually committing to Texas. As things stand, the top WR in the state staying home at UT would be the actual outlier outcome. Outside of Johntay Cook in 2023, think of all the other Micah Hudsons and Evan Stewarts and Jojo Earles and Demond Demases and Jaxon Smith-Njigbas and Theo Weases and Jaylen Waddles and Ceedee Lambs that went elsewhere.
You have to go back to 2016 to find the next highest-rated WR in the state to come to Texas, and that was Devin Duvernay, who came to Texas along with his brother and highly-rated OL prospect Patrick Hudson only after Art Briles was fired from Baylor to which they had originally committed.
But back to the present: once Moore's commitment went the wrong way for the team that readers of this column will consider the good guys, it was easy to see that the Longhorn faithful might not have as many recruiting fireworks over the weekend as they'd probably seen at their local displays in honor of the stars and stripes.
LB Riley Pettijohn was trending the wrong way for a while prior to the weekend, as he told reporters at the Rivals 5-star that Texas was not in his Top 2. That one became clear it wasn't happening. DL Brandon Brown, whose commitment to Texas had seemed about as solid as an over-easy egg for months, was all but locked in to switch his pledge to LSU. OL Lamont Rogers was always going to be found money after Texas really only seemed to truly, squarely enter the fray in the closing weeks of his recruitment. Suchomel had S Kade Phillips' commitment story written up for a good while before that one went down.
What I'm saying is that things basically went totally as reasonably expected ... with the BIG exception of Dakorien Moore. But, when taken in aggregate, No Moore AND no Pettijohn, no Brown and no Rogers made it just seem that much worse among close observers of Texas recruiting, even though all of those other three were longshots to begin with at best.
Now, no Michael Fasusi on top of this would definitely make things suddenly feel more concerning, but that's for another column.
There's still hope on the Texas side that Moore will flip to Texas in the end. And, to be fair, Sark and Co. have a good track record with closing strong and seeming to have aces up their sleeves that aren't realized in real-time by the fanbase.
But remember the Micah Hudsons that got away? Well, was Ryan Wingo front and center in the minds of Texas fans at that point as a possible pivot or even a consolation prize? Not in the heat of the moment, of course, but look at the early returns there. Texas instead gets Ryan Wingo, and regardless of how good Hudson ends up being, Wingo looks set to enter the college football world like a buzzsaw. Total, complete stud.
This isn't really meant to be a "cope," but I understand it definitely comes off as one. So, if that's what it is, let's cope: What if Texas now increases attention on WRs like Jamie Ffrench and Kaliq Lockett and really goes hard there? Would that be such a terrible outcome to land those guys instead of Moore? In fact, if you had your choice ... would you rather have Ffrench + Lockett or the singular Moore? I know that the answer most will have is that they would have liked all three, but that wasn't ever likely to happen at all.
What about Pettijohn? We've heard that Johnny Nansen actually really covets another LB similarly from California: Madden Faraimo.
Here's what I wrote about Faraimo prior to his Texas visit a few weeks back:
Madden Faraimo, OLB Jserra Catholic (CA)
Texas loves these linebackers that grow into LBs after spending time at safety and that's what happened with Faraimo in high school. He's a different type of LB prospect than Jonathan Cunningham, who visited last week, though, as Cunningham sort of looks like a player who maybe could play some safety, whereas those days are almost certainly over for Faraimo who has all the looks of a future college sideline-to-sideline prowler at the will inside linebacker spot. He has good speed, takes good angles and makes plays despite spending a whole lot of his junior season in high school wearing a massive wrap on his forearm. He's slender, and flexible enough to not look out of place knifing off the edge at times while also possessing that nose for the football and sure-tackling you'd expect from a more traditional downhill thumper. All around, he's an excellent LB prospect.
The recruiting class we're going to see for Texas this season probably isn't going to resemble the recruiting class that Texas fans came into the process projecting/hoping for. They never do, and what fun would all of this be if they didn't?
