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Looking toward Texas football's future: Trey Owens

by:EvanVieth•01/20/25
Trey Owens
Trey Owens (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Cy-Fair product Trey Owens was the fourth quarterback recruited in the Steve Sarkisian era, joining a fairly elite club of two CFB starters and an emerging superstar between Quinn Ewers (a transfer, but still counts), Maalik Murphy and Arch Manning.

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The Cypress native was not a huge recruiting win in the 2024 class the way that Ryan Wingo or Colin Simmons was, but Sarkisian made his intentions clear with the young quarterback, making him the first signing of an eventual top-six class. Owens’ final ranking was as a low four star, the 20th ranked quarterback in the class.

Despite the fairly modest grading from big-time recruiting sites, there’s reason to have confidence in the player vying to be next in line after Manning. Texas fans got their first glimpse of the 6-foot-5 gunslinger in the spring game, and despite him redshirting his first year he did appear in two games; playing 27 combined snaps against UTSA and ULM. While Owens only completed two of his five total passes, all against the Road Runners, he did show an early sense of pocket presence in garbage time when he connected with Silas Bolden for a first down on 3rd and 10.

Owens won’t be starting anytime soon, at least Texas hopes not. This is Manning’s room, and the only way Owens steps on the field is for blowouts or if Manning is injured. Still, the path for Owens is obvious: learn under Manning during his starting seasons and take over the job ideally as a redshirt junior. The benefit of bringing in a player like Owens after Manning is that it’s less likely he will seek the portal, as the expectations have remained clear from the start of the process.

One extra note on Owens is that he, alongside Manning (and even Murphy if he had stayed), is slowly marking a shift in the style of quarterback Sarkisian has looked to run his offense.

Historically, Sarkisian has opted for his college quarterbacks to play around that 6-foot-2, 215-pound weight. This even dates back to his Washington days when Keith Price was one of the more undersized CFB quarterbacks. With Manning and Owens, however, Sarkisian is putting an obvious emphasis on size and weight with his 2022-24 quarterbacks.

Owens is already huge, and has two offseasons to find his correct playing weight. The next, and most obvious, progression in this Sarkisian offense is size that works into mobility, similar to the way Josh Allen or Justin Herbert operate in the NFL. The streak broke with the signing of this year’s QB KJ Lacey, who sits below 5-foot-11, but the biggest recruiting star at quarterback since Manning is 2026 quarterback Dia Bell, who is already 6-foot-3 before entering his senior season.

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Owens is undoubtedly raw and doesn’t enter college with the same star power that Ewers and Manning did, but he has a clear path to a starting role and the physical traits to blossom into a star. While it’s Manning’s team for the next two years, expect Owens to be an athletic, strong-armed and polished quarterback in 2027 with three Austin offseasons under his belt.

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