Recapping a calm, productive National Signing Day for Texas
The new recruiting landscape can certainly lead to unexpected turbulence, but for Steve Sarkisian and his coaches the landing could not have been smoother on National Signing Day as all 21 commits signed as expected. Texas even added Edge Tausili Akana to take the total to 22, and announced the signing of former Wake Forest cornerback Gavin Holmes in addition to Stanford punter Ryan Sanborn out of the transfer portal.
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For Sark, this is further evidence he has a firm grip on the controls at Texas. As we’ve mentioned, this is the most drama-free December in Austin on recent record. Not even National Signing Day in the Wild West could change that.
The staff’s ability to gain summer commitments meant they could focus most of their efforts on class retention rather than acquisition. It’s easier to retain than acquire, so the amount of commits in the class before the season allowed the staff to laser focus on the few remaining loose ends, like five-star linebacker Anthony Hill and Akana.
Very little intrigue surrounded whether the elite prospects in the class would sign. While there was some background noise centered on highly rated Louisiana safety Derek Williams possibly delaying his decision, he signed right on time as Inside Texas expected.
Akana was perhaps a big surprise to outsiders, but clearly that was a positive development and it didn’t come as much of a surprise to a staff that put in a lot of time and effort to recruit him. He probably has the best pass rushing traits in the class, so defeating OU and LSU for his services was quite the coup.
Landing Akana also led to the best non-Dabo Swinney related tweet of the day:
While last year’s class was quite strong, there were some imbalances between offense and defense. Those imbalances were addressed this cycle as the defensive talent is about on par with the offense. Texas needed to address linebacker in a major way and that it did. In his press conference Sark mentioned something we’ve echoed for years, it’s hard to find off-ball linebackers. Well, normally it is. While Hill is the headliner for the group, Sark also raved about S’Maje Burrell and Liona Lefau.
Sark also alluded to Texas maybe not being done in recruiting, that likely centers around Jelani McDonald, yet another off-ball linebacker. McDonald signed with the school of his choice but won’t make it public until January 7.
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Needless to say, Texas linebackers coach Jeff Choate had a tremendous cycle. Not only did he recruit linebackers, but he also assisted on the Edge recruits as well.
Regarding defensive recruiting, Sarkisian had this to say, “I think in the end, the reason a lot of these guys are coming is because they saw the growth and the progress that our defense made from year one to year two. They could see the growth and development of just our overall defense and our style of play. This is a great haul.”
Of course Sarkisian’s side of the ball more than held up its end of the bargain. Arch Manning, Cedric Baxter, Johntay Cook and Ryan Niblett, five offensive linemen and more all signed without a hitch.
As of this writing wide receiver DeAndre Moore is the lone high school target the staff is after on the offensive side of the ball. Moore was set to sign for Texas today but decided to wait and ponder between UT and Louisville. We’ll see how that shakes out, but either way Texas will be fine at receiver by the time the spring semester begins.
As we continue to write the epilogue to the 2023 cycle, we’ll begin to shift a little closer gaze towards the transfer portal. While the portal could provide some drama, we expect things to unfold in a nice, orderly fashion, just like everything else these days.
