Rodney Terry explains how he kept Texas recruits on-board after staff change

It has been a group effort in keeping five-star recruits Ron Holland and AJ Johnson committed to Texas.

Texas head coach Rodney Terry couldn’t have done it on his own, especially after Chris Beard was fired. Beard was the one that Holland and Johnson committed to originally, which could have caused some trouble keeping the two blue-chippers on board.

Terry made sure to shoutout all of the current players who helped stay in contact with the pair received the credit they deserved for the role they played in keeping them committed.

“When you sign recruits, first of all, you’re going to have guys come into your program based on the guys you already have in your program,” Terry said during his introductory press conference. “Our best recruiters are our players. Our players did a great job of hosting those young men and making them a part of our family.

“Those [recruits] still have great relationships with [our players]. They stayed in contact with them over the course of the year. … On those two players, I headed up the recruiting process for those guys. But again, our guys were the ones that sealed the deal.”

Holland, a 6-foot-8 SF, is the No. 7 overall recruit in the 2023 class and the No. 1 player in the state of Texas. Johnson, a 6-foot-5 PG, is the No. 16 overall recruit and No. 2 point guard in the class. Both rankings are courtesy of the On3 Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services.

The two alone give Texas the No. 3 recruit class in the nation and No. 1 class in the Big 12. Terry is looking forward to getting the two on campus as the centerpieces of his team during his first full season as head coach.

“Ron Holland is the best player in the state of Texas and is going to have a great career for us,” Terry said. “AJ Johnson is a very young player that is extremely talented playing out of the west coast. He’s going to be a very good player for us as well.”

Depending on which players choose to return, enter the transfer portal, or test the NBA Draft waters, Terry will be tasked with rebuilding the roster in his image in the hopes of making another run toward the Elite Eight next season and beyond.

After signing a five-year contract to officially remove the interim tag from his title, Terry has half a decade to keep Texas nationally relevant. If 2023 was any indication of what that might look like — Texas might be back for real this time.