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Only two draft-eligible Texas starters weren't drafted from the back-to-back semi-final teams

Eric Nahlinby:Eric Nahlin•05/13/25
Steve Sarkisian
Steve Sarkisian (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Texas was the only team to make the last two playoffs. Even better than that, they made the semifinal of each. During that two-year stretch, the only two draft-eligible players who weren’t drafted were center Jake Majors and linebacker David Gbenda. 

Majors is the career leader in starts at Texas, so despite the NFL questioning his value, he provided a TON of it for Texas. Majors signed a UDFA deal with Tampa Bay Bucs.

Gbenda started in 2023 and into 2024 before being replaced by Liona Lefau. Ironically, he might have been playing his best when he was replaced. He signed a UDFA deal with the Tennessee Titans. 

This post is no slight to them. Each player was integral to Texas’ return to prominence and both will make practice squads at minimum. 

This ties into something I said recently—if you become a multi-year starter at Texas you’re virtually guaranteed to be drafted. Majors and Gbenda didn’t reach that mark. Again, not to diminish what they did for the program but neither of them were Steve Sarkisian recruits. 

Everybody on the current roster, save Michael Taaffe, is a Sark recruit. And Taaffe will be drafted.

It’s just another sign the program is still trending up.

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