DeAndre Moore Jr. has big plans for 2025

Texas wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. has big goals. One is to help Texas do something it hasn’t achieved in nearly two decades. The other? To take home something no other Longhorn has brought back to the 40 Acres.

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“First and foremost, I want to win a natty,” Moore said Thursday. “I think we’ve gotten to the doorstep two years in a row. Two too many for my liking. I want to win a national championship. We got short in the SEC championship. I want to win the SEC championship.”

On the way there, there’s hardware he wants to obtain.

“As far as personal, I want the Texas touchdown record,” Moore said. “I want at least 1200 yards. And, I want to win the Biletnikoff.”

Get ready for a lot of lasts.

The last Longhorn national championship was in 2005, and prior to that Texas football last finished No. 1 in a major poll in 1970. Moore wants to be a key part of bringing home the program’s fifth national championship and first in the College Football Playoff era.

But the other goals? They’re lofty.

The single-season touchdown record is 13, a mark set by Jordan Shipley in 2009. Shipley accomplished that feat 14 games. A Steve Sarkisian wide receiver has approached that mark several times. Xavier Worthy notched 12 scores in 12 games in 2021. Adonai Mitchell hauled in 11 in 14 games in 2023. If Texas makes another CFP appearance, Moore will have ample opportunity to reach the end zone.

Eight Longhorns have hauled in 10 or more touchdowns in a single season. The number of Texas wideouts to eclipse 1200 yards? That’s truly elite company. Shipley set the school record in 2009 with 1485. In 2019, Devin Duvernay put up 1386 yards in 13 games. While other Longhorns have come close, those are the only two to have gone over 1200 in a single season in burnt orange.

No Longhorn, however, has won the Biletnikoff. Shipley came close in 2009, becoming the only Longhorn to be named a finalist for the award given to the best receiver in college football. There’s an argument both in Austin and outside of Texas that Shipley’s Biletnikoff currently resides in South Bend, Ind. with Notre Dame wideout Golden Tate‘s name on it. But since that trophy is under the golden dome, it means that’s one of a limited number of major honors that has eluded Texas football in its storied history.

The Biletnikoff watch list will be released on August 6, and Moore’s name is almost a certainty to be on that list.

As Moore mentioned, however, his main goal is to win the national championship. To get there, Moore knows he’ll need to lead this version of the Longhorns.

Much has been made about how Jordan Whittington helped groom Moore into the next man up at the slot position in Sarkisian’s offense. That not only means on the field, but off it, too.

That means getting to the field before anyone else to show others how it’s done.

“I saw those other guys do it before me,” Moore said. “(It was) me being the younger guy soaking everything that I could back then. Getting out to practice, getting out there early, getting my feet under me, getting my pre-practice rituals in. Whatever I need to do to make sure I’m playing at my best, I’m going to do it.”

Moore may see a lot of action in the slot, but Sarkisian likes to move his receivers around. No matter what Moore does, he’s ready to succeed, and achieve his goals, in 2025.

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“Last year was a really great foundation, and I’m looking forward to building onto that this year. I know the coaches have a really great gameplan, and I know I’m going to trust in them. Whatever comes out of this year will come.”