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Most Texas fans have probably come to observe that Steve Sarkisian's Texas staff does not seem to recruit with a primary eye toward team needs. Of course, team needs come into play in the actual business of recruiting. That is to say, when the coaches are selling the prospects on the idea of coming to Texas, playing time and openness of a depth chart can be key talking points. But, that doesn't necessarily mean the pieces all fall into place in a tidy order that feels comfortable for fans.
A box checked here and a box checked there en route to shoring up weaknesses and preparing for contingencies methodically while leaving the "luxury" types of options off the table until the meat and potatoes have been established -- well, it just doesn't happen like that, and certainly not based on what we've seen through one true cycle of Sarkisian's recruiting philosophies.
See the 2022 offensive line haul: At the time, it was Texas' most glaring, red-lights-blazing need one could ever imagine. It was already November when Sark said that if he wanted to fill up the class right now, he could, but preferred to not settle on guys the staff viewed as lesser than the options still out there. They wanted the birds in the bush when many fans said to take whatever you know you can get in the hand. And that wasn't necessarily a foolhardy stance for a fan to take. If Texas were to miss out on offensive line recruiting in 2022, Sark's second season would have been doomed from the start.
Coming into National Signing Day, though, it really was a late scramble to pull together such a tremendous haul. And nowadays, with the transfer portal being so heavily utilized and NIL money being such an alluring phenomenon, a school like Texas still has outs to fill needs even AFTER the river card is flipped over on NSD2. In non-poker lingo, this just means there are ways you can get right these days, even if things don't fall your way in the end with a few of your major targets in key areas.
Sark's approach in recruiting reminds you a little bit of the idealistic routine that NFL GMs espouse to reporters around the time of the NFL draft about taking the best player available. Indeed, it is wholly understood in league circles that "drafting for need" is suboptimal. So, execs and decision-makers talk about how you need to let the draft "come to you" and always simply take the best player available. "Now," you can envision any one of them saying at their pre-NFL draft press conference, "if there is a tie on your board between two players, maybe your team needs can become a tie-breaker," but they'll have you believe that this splitting of hairs rarely comes to the forefront when making big decisions -- and investments -- with their draft capital. NFL players tell reporters things like "I can only focus on what I can control," and "we're going to go out and give it 110%" and NFL GMs tell them they're not going to prioritize team needs in the team-building process.
But of course they worry about team needs, in fact it likely keeps them up at night. College coaches are no different in recruiting. While the company line will always be "bring in the best players and let the chips fall where they may," the state of your roster and concerns regarding how your personnel stacks up from position group to position group is surely running a constant loop in the background.
For Texas, here's how I'd stack up their team needs for 2023 recruiting if we were to put them in order by position group, keeping in mind that Texas does already have verbal commitments from the following players for the 2023 class: WR Ryan Niblett (4-star), S Jamel Johnson (4-star), DE/DL Dylan Spencer (4-star), RB Tre Wisner (4-star), and ILB S'maje Burrell (3-star).
1. EDGE RUSH - This is going to continue to be the main issue for Texas, even if Ray Thornton is gone and will not be hogging all the snaps as a remarkably unproductive edge presence. Ovie Oghuofo looks to be an improvement as Thornton's replacement for 2022 with zero experienced depth behind him. It is likely Texas may have to depend on contributions from true freshmen like J'Mond Tapp in 2022 given the lack of any impact that guys on campus such as Prince Dorbah and DJ Harris Jr. have made thus far. Texas badly needs its next Joseph Ossai worse than it needs any other positional archetype.
2. INSIDE LINEBACKER - Even if Texas is able to land Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey, and even given the presumptive future presence of Burrell, the inside LB position is thin and will be even more so after the graduation of three seniors this cycle in Demarvion Overshown, Luke Brockermeyer and Jett Bush. By 2023, David Gbenda and Devin Richardson will be seniors themselves. Texas not only needs better LBs who can stop the run at the second level and get their fits, they need more of them. In addition to Burrell, they could probably take 3 more in this cycle alone.
3. DEFENSIVE LINE - Defensive line should always be a Top-5 priority, even if there is no glaring need -- see what Nick Saban has done at Alabama. Still, there are two pretty valid concerns along the Texas DL: 1) Keondre Coburn, T'Vondre Sweat and Moro Ojomo are all set to graduate while Alfred Collins could, conceivably, be gone as early as this year should he surprise us all with a bit of a last-minute breakout -- either way, he'll be gone after next. That's a lot of bodies leaving who represent high snap percentages with unproven players (outside of Byron Murphy) behin them in the line's interior; and 2) The strong-side DE position is truly in flux. A combination of Barryn Sorrell and Justice Finkley in 2022 could be surprisingly good, but Texas needs to be recruiting a few more players in the Dylan Spencer bucket this cylce.
4. QUARTERBACK - Always has to be a Top-5 priority, period. Don't care if you have 10 of 'em. It's the most important position in sports.
5. OFFENSIVE LINE - Again, like QB and DL, the offensive line always has to be a Top-5 priority. The infusion of young talent last season was nice -- but also remember it was necessary. Texas is flush with talented new players to compete and make the OL better, but we can't forget that this was not the rich getting richer. This was the destitute returning to baseline. Now is when it can be built upon.
6. WIDE RECEIVER - In the real world, you probably have to plan for the idea that Jordan Whittington is going to struggle to get a full season in at any point and that Troy Omeire might not return as the beast everyone hopes he'll be after missing two straight seasons following extremely impressive camps. Xavier Worthy will be draft-eligible after 2023, and with big seasons he's likely gone. It shows that the staff feels this as a big need that they just took an unproductive and relatively unimpressive grad transfer from Iowa State to seemingly fill holes left by Marcus Washington, Kelvontay Dixon and Dajon Harrison to the transfer portal.
7. RUNNING BACK - How can this be such a need when you have Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson? Well first, it's 7th out of 10, so it's not a giant need, but we should already be baking in the idea that 2022 will be our last year of watching Bijan on the 40 Acres and Roschon Johnson will also be gone following the campaign. While Keilan Robinson, Jonathan Brooks, Jaydon Blue and (presumably) Tre Wisner make a good enough tandem, you're going to need one more in this cycle at least. (Rueben Owens, anyone?)
8. TIGHT END - Losing Jahleel Billingsley after 2022 won't be a program-shaking loss, but it will also likely not be of the totally insignificant variety. Still, Ja'Tavion Sanders, Juan Davis and Gunnar Helm all being sophomores doesn't exactly have you up nights about the future of the position. Throw in Liebrock and there is even some existing depth. It will need to be somewhat replenished soon, but should be far from a priority at this time.
9. SAFETY - We're getting into areas where Texas really doesn't need to be too worried, and at safety, they have one of the top players in the state already committed for 2023 in Jamel Johnson. Morice Blackwell's emergence in the defensive backfield has really buoyed this group and the fact that Trevell Johnson from the 2022 class is rumored to possibly getting looks as a DB really shore up a young-ish unit that is only losing (admittedly it's most seasoned player in) Anthony Cook.
10. CORNERBACK - Texas will lose D'Shawn Jamison and guys like Jahdae Barron are getting older, but the CB position is probably the most overrepresented in good, super young players in sophomores Ryan Watts and Jamier Johnson along with a RS freshman in Ibraheem (should he return from his off-field issues) and four impressive new arrivals from the 2022 class in Jaylon Guilbeau, Terrence Brooks, Xavion Brice and possibly Austin Jordan.
Find Your Perfect Franchise at MyPerfectFranchise.Net
Orangebloods Owned! Contact Andy Luedecke (aka @Andy MyPerfectFranchise.Net) anytime at:
aluedecke@myperfectfranchise.net
(404) 973-9901
www.myperfectfranchise.net
Most Texas fans have probably come to observe that Steve Sarkisian's Texas staff does not seem to recruit with a primary eye toward team needs. Of course, team needs come into play in the actual business of recruiting. That is to say, when the coaches are selling the prospects on the idea of coming to Texas, playing time and openness of a depth chart can be key talking points. But, that doesn't necessarily mean the pieces all fall into place in a tidy order that feels comfortable for fans.
A box checked here and a box checked there en route to shoring up weaknesses and preparing for contingencies methodically while leaving the "luxury" types of options off the table until the meat and potatoes have been established -- well, it just doesn't happen like that, and certainly not based on what we've seen through one true cycle of Sarkisian's recruiting philosophies.
See the 2022 offensive line haul: At the time, it was Texas' most glaring, red-lights-blazing need one could ever imagine. It was already November when Sark said that if he wanted to fill up the class right now, he could, but preferred to not settle on guys the staff viewed as lesser than the options still out there. They wanted the birds in the bush when many fans said to take whatever you know you can get in the hand. And that wasn't necessarily a foolhardy stance for a fan to take. If Texas were to miss out on offensive line recruiting in 2022, Sark's second season would have been doomed from the start.
Coming into National Signing Day, though, it really was a late scramble to pull together such a tremendous haul. And nowadays, with the transfer portal being so heavily utilized and NIL money being such an alluring phenomenon, a school like Texas still has outs to fill needs even AFTER the river card is flipped over on NSD2. In non-poker lingo, this just means there are ways you can get right these days, even if things don't fall your way in the end with a few of your major targets in key areas.
Sark's approach in recruiting reminds you a little bit of the idealistic routine that NFL GMs espouse to reporters around the time of the NFL draft about taking the best player available. Indeed, it is wholly understood in league circles that "drafting for need" is suboptimal. So, execs and decision-makers talk about how you need to let the draft "come to you" and always simply take the best player available. "Now," you can envision any one of them saying at their pre-NFL draft press conference, "if there is a tie on your board between two players, maybe your team needs can become a tie-breaker," but they'll have you believe that this splitting of hairs rarely comes to the forefront when making big decisions -- and investments -- with their draft capital. NFL players tell reporters things like "I can only focus on what I can control," and "we're going to go out and give it 110%" and NFL GMs tell them they're not going to prioritize team needs in the team-building process.
But of course they worry about team needs, in fact it likely keeps them up at night. College coaches are no different in recruiting. While the company line will always be "bring in the best players and let the chips fall where they may," the state of your roster and concerns regarding how your personnel stacks up from position group to position group is surely running a constant loop in the background.
For Texas, here's how I'd stack up their team needs for 2023 recruiting if we were to put them in order by position group, keeping in mind that Texas does already have verbal commitments from the following players for the 2023 class: WR Ryan Niblett (4-star), S Jamel Johnson (4-star), DE/DL Dylan Spencer (4-star), RB Tre Wisner (4-star), and ILB S'maje Burrell (3-star).
1. EDGE RUSH - This is going to continue to be the main issue for Texas, even if Ray Thornton is gone and will not be hogging all the snaps as a remarkably unproductive edge presence. Ovie Oghuofo looks to be an improvement as Thornton's replacement for 2022 with zero experienced depth behind him. It is likely Texas may have to depend on contributions from true freshmen like J'Mond Tapp in 2022 given the lack of any impact that guys on campus such as Prince Dorbah and DJ Harris Jr. have made thus far. Texas badly needs its next Joseph Ossai worse than it needs any other positional archetype.
2. INSIDE LINEBACKER - Even if Texas is able to land Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey, and even given the presumptive future presence of Burrell, the inside LB position is thin and will be even more so after the graduation of three seniors this cycle in Demarvion Overshown, Luke Brockermeyer and Jett Bush. By 2023, David Gbenda and Devin Richardson will be seniors themselves. Texas not only needs better LBs who can stop the run at the second level and get their fits, they need more of them. In addition to Burrell, they could probably take 3 more in this cycle alone.
3. DEFENSIVE LINE - Defensive line should always be a Top-5 priority, even if there is no glaring need -- see what Nick Saban has done at Alabama. Still, there are two pretty valid concerns along the Texas DL: 1) Keondre Coburn, T'Vondre Sweat and Moro Ojomo are all set to graduate while Alfred Collins could, conceivably, be gone as early as this year should he surprise us all with a bit of a last-minute breakout -- either way, he'll be gone after next. That's a lot of bodies leaving who represent high snap percentages with unproven players (outside of Byron Murphy) behin them in the line's interior; and 2) The strong-side DE position is truly in flux. A combination of Barryn Sorrell and Justice Finkley in 2022 could be surprisingly good, but Texas needs to be recruiting a few more players in the Dylan Spencer bucket this cylce.
4. QUARTERBACK - Always has to be a Top-5 priority, period. Don't care if you have 10 of 'em. It's the most important position in sports.
5. OFFENSIVE LINE - Again, like QB and DL, the offensive line always has to be a Top-5 priority. The infusion of young talent last season was nice -- but also remember it was necessary. Texas is flush with talented new players to compete and make the OL better, but we can't forget that this was not the rich getting richer. This was the destitute returning to baseline. Now is when it can be built upon.
6. WIDE RECEIVER - In the real world, you probably have to plan for the idea that Jordan Whittington is going to struggle to get a full season in at any point and that Troy Omeire might not return as the beast everyone hopes he'll be after missing two straight seasons following extremely impressive camps. Xavier Worthy will be draft-eligible after 2023, and with big seasons he's likely gone. It shows that the staff feels this as a big need that they just took an unproductive and relatively unimpressive grad transfer from Iowa State to seemingly fill holes left by Marcus Washington, Kelvontay Dixon and Dajon Harrison to the transfer portal.
7. RUNNING BACK - How can this be such a need when you have Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson? Well first, it's 7th out of 10, so it's not a giant need, but we should already be baking in the idea that 2022 will be our last year of watching Bijan on the 40 Acres and Roschon Johnson will also be gone following the campaign. While Keilan Robinson, Jonathan Brooks, Jaydon Blue and (presumably) Tre Wisner make a good enough tandem, you're going to need one more in this cycle at least. (Rueben Owens, anyone?)
8. TIGHT END - Losing Jahleel Billingsley after 2022 won't be a program-shaking loss, but it will also likely not be of the totally insignificant variety. Still, Ja'Tavion Sanders, Juan Davis and Gunnar Helm all being sophomores doesn't exactly have you up nights about the future of the position. Throw in Liebrock and there is even some existing depth. It will need to be somewhat replenished soon, but should be far from a priority at this time.
9. SAFETY - We're getting into areas where Texas really doesn't need to be too worried, and at safety, they have one of the top players in the state already committed for 2023 in Jamel Johnson. Morice Blackwell's emergence in the defensive backfield has really buoyed this group and the fact that Trevell Johnson from the 2022 class is rumored to possibly getting looks as a DB really shore up a young-ish unit that is only losing (admittedly it's most seasoned player in) Anthony Cook.
10. CORNERBACK - Texas will lose D'Shawn Jamison and guys like Jahdae Barron are getting older, but the CB position is probably the most overrepresented in good, super young players in sophomores Ryan Watts and Jamier Johnson along with a RS freshman in Ibraheem (should he return from his off-field issues) and four impressive new arrivals from the 2022 class in Jaylon Guilbeau, Terrence Brooks, Xavion Brice and possibly Austin Jordan.
