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The Texas Longhorns have a rich-people problem on their hands at the WR position in 2024, despite losing their two best players at the position to the 2024 NFL draft in the form of first and second-round picks. Unbelievably, even with Xavier Worthy and Adonai Mitchell gone, the wide receiver room is a strong and competitive one. So much so that things could be changing before our eyes with the way Steve Sarkisian chooses to deploy members of the unit in contrast to what we've seen during his first three years at Texas.
What has that baseline been for wide receiver usage? Well, it's been playing dudes at their own positions, not necessarily moving them from even the outside WR alignments (X and Z), and certainly not from the slot to the outside and vice versa. Furthermore, it's been a really tight rotation most every year, with 2021 being the season in which the most players mixed in. Let's look at regular-season snap participation since Sark got to Austin among his WRs:
2023 (total snaps, % total snaps)
| WR AD Mitchell | 710 | 86.06% |
| WR Xavier Worthy | 677 | 82.06% |
| WR Jordan Whittington | 431 | 52.24% |
The next player down on this list was Johntay Cook, who played on only 11% of snaps (98 total)
2022
| WR Jordan Whittington | 698 | 88.92% |
| WR Xavier Worthy | 644 | 82.04% |
| WR Casey Cain | 214 | 27.26% |
| WR Tarique Milton | 137 | 17.45% |
The next player down on this list was Savion Red, who played on only 7.9% of snaps (62 total)
2021
| WR Xavier Worthy | 674 | 85.21% |
| WR Joshua Moore | 432 | 54.61% |
| WR Marcus Washington | 408 | 51.58% |
| WR Jordan Whittington | 273 | 34.51% |
| WR Kelvontay Dixon | 132 | 16.69% |
The next player down on this list was Al'Vonte Woodard, who played on only 3.9% of snaps (31 total)
And we bring these historical snap distributions up because there are simply too many guys Texas will want to get on the field in 2024 that it's hard to imagine the snap distribution being as heavily concentrated at the top as the trend has moved from 2021-2023.
You have Isaiah Bond, Johntay Cook, Deandre Moore, Matthew Golden and Ryan Wingo all looking like legitimate weapons, who, in seasons past, would have been in total contention to be the kinds of players that would be candidates to be among the most utilized snap-percentage-wise in that highest echelon.
And with Wingo in particular (who, out of these players listed was the only one working with the second group during the spring game), keeping him off the field might end up being the hardest of all. Everyone remembers the deep ball he scored on over solid coverage from Kobe Black, but what about this one?
(Shoutout to our guy @Nash Talks Texas as usual for the killer condensed cut-up version of the broadcast - go to 36:39 if the link does not take you automatically)
I come away noticing two things on this play: 1) Wingo showing us elite body control and tracking ability/adjustment to the football when Owens drifts it a little over his head and toward his backside shoulder to the sideline rather than dropping it in where he's turned upfield as he's expecting ... that is something that many people may not really take notice of watching casually, but just watch it back and think about how hard it is -- and what kind of hand-eye coordination it takes -- to make that sort of adjustment to the ball mid-flight as you break off the original path of your route; and 2) Ryan Wingo is lined up in the slot. Wingo is in the slot and Parker Livingstone and Aaron Butler are the outside receivers.
This sort of movement into the slot in situational spots (obviously this was a red-zone play dialed up specifically for Wingo) simply hasn't happened with any type of frequency and has been downright rare during Sark's time in Austin. But, look at how the breakdown went during the spring game alignment wise:
(Please note that LHN sucks and sometimes -- actually sort of often -- the play cut in late as the ball was snapped and the camera never panned the full field, but even if these numbers are a little off, they are still telling as it pertains to our main point)
| Player | Total Spring Game Snaps | X | % | Slot | % | Z | % |
| Johntay Cook | 36 | 14 | 38.89% | 5 | 13.89% | 17 | 47.22% |
| Matthew Golden | 25 | 4 | 16.00% | 7 | 28.00% | 14 | 56.00% |
| Isaiah Bond | 36 | 27 | 75.00% | 2 | 5.56% | 7 | 19.44% |
| Deandre Moore | 25 | 0 | 0.00% | 21 | 84.00% | 4 | 16.00% |
| Ryan Niblett | 13 | 0 | 0.00% | 10 | 76.92% | 3 | 23.08% |
| Ryan Wingo | 26 | 18 | 69.23% | 1 | 3.85% | 7 | 26.92% |
| Parker Livingstone | 26 | 15 | 57.69% | 0 | 0.00% | 11 | 42.31% |
| Aaron Butler | 15 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 15 | 100.00% |
We all worry over who's going to "start" among these guys and where they're going to line up, etc. How Texas is going to get the best ones on the field; and whether or not it is wise to play guys "out of position" vis a vis where they have practiced in order to simply get the best group out there together. If the spring game tells us anything, it's that this room of guys (outside of Aaron Butler at Z, and to a similar degree Niblett and Moore in the slot), brings true versatility within the scheme.
We don't have to dream about a play where Ryan Wingo lines up in the slot in the red zone even though he practices and plays mostly at X.
We've already seen it.
