The Texas Longhorns are in their first College Football Playoff and got there after winning their first conference title since 2009. As the No. 3 seed, Texas plays the No. 2 seed Washington Huskies in the Allstate Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1, 8:45 p.m. ET on ESPN).
Coach Steve Sarkisian had to overhaul Texas' roster. Good for him that he's in one of the nation's best recruiting hotbeds. Since coming to the Forty Acres in 2021, Sarkisian has stockpiled some highly rated recruits and, with quarterback Quinn Ewers and receiver Adonai Mitchell, perfect fits from the portal.
We look at the Longhorns' recruiting and usage of the transfer portal and how that construction translates to what they do on the field.
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Recruiting | Transfer portal | By the numbers
Recruiting
Recruiting focus: Unlike the case with Washington, Steve Sarkisian had to build this current roster from scratch. From scheme, fundamentals and development, the Longhorns had to rebuild and get worse before they got better. Sark recruited and developed high school players who fit his offensive scheme in a philosophy similar to what he saw while working under Nick Saban at Alabama. There is a focus on high school recruiting with sustainable players and strategic portal use to fill immediate gaps, particularly at perimeter skill positions. He is attracting four- and five-star high school prospects and, most importantly, retaining them. All but a few prospects he signed in the 2022 recruiting class are still on the roster. Developing players from one of the most fertile recruiting states in the country certainly helps, but Texas still looks outside state lines. The Longhorns are a legendary blue-chip program with players and reach that extends across the country. They have signed 55 ESPN 300 prospects over the past four cycles.
Biggest win: There is an argument for LB Anthony Hill, a former five-star and the No. 16 player in the 2023 class. The in-state five-star was, at one point, a Texas A&M commit. He ultimately signed with Texas and quickly made an impact, ranking among their defensive leaders in tackles, sacks and tackles for loss as a true freshman. But receiver Xavier Worthy, who has a bigger body of work, was huge for the staff. He was a top-10 ESPN 300 player who arrived as an impact freshman in 2021 and notched three consecutive seasons with at least 60 catches. Like Hill, Worthy also looked elsewhere during the recruiting process and actually signed with Michigan, but he parted ways with the Wolverines just a few months later and landed at Texas. Worthy was one of Sarkisian's first key additions as coach of the Longhorns. Sarkisian capitalized on a relationship that extended back to his time at Alabama. Not only did that decision land his offense a top target, but Worthy is also one of the top punt returners in college football.
Sleeper recruit that worked: The Longhorns' roster is filled with high-profile prospects. But their defense is led by Jaylan Ford, who was a consensus three-star in the 2020 cycle. Ford's most notable offer outside of Texas was Utah, and he briefly committed to the Utes before flipping to the Longhorns. Ford signed with the previous coaching staff, who did a good job recognizing the in-state prospect had the tools to develop and was coming off a strong senior season with over 100 tackles for Lone Star High School. Ford has continued to improve since arriving. He was named first-team all-conference last season and is Texas' most productive defender entering the playoff this year. Ford leads the Longhorns in tackles (91), which is 25 more than their second-leading tackler, and in tackles for loss (10.5). -- Craig Haubert
Transfer portal
Sarkisian has used the portal only when the team has had a big need. Case in point, the team needed a quarterback, and the staff added Quinn Ewers from Ohio State.
Ewers dealt with an injury in 2022, but he has been excellent in 2023. The former five-star recruit has thrown for 3,161 yards, 21 touchdowns and six interceptions this season. He ranks 25th in passing yards among all FBS quarterbacks and has been a big part of the team's success.
The team's leader in receiving touchdowns, Adonai Mitchell, transferred in from Georgia and has had 10 touchdowns and 813 yards this season.
Sarkisian has kept some of the recruited players from the previous staff and has also added his own high school prospects, building the roster to where 86.4% of the starters are recruited players.
Hill is second on the team in total tackles with 63 and also has 7.5 tackles for loss and five sacks. Along with Hill's production on defense, 87.4% of the team's tackles this season have come from recruited players. -- Tom VanHaaren
Texas by the numbers
Few college football teams were defined more by line play in 2023 than Texas. The Longhorns boast one of the best run defenses in the country -- fifth in rushing success rate allowed, 12th in stuff rate and are as dominant as they come in short yardage -- and it rendered most opponents one-dimensional. Opponents threw the ball far more than the national average, both on standard downs (47% run rate, 10 percentage points below the average) and passing downs (28%, six percentage points lower). The Longhorns were able to generate solid pressure without blitzing, too. This all added up to opponents having to face lots of third downs against the defense with the nation's second-best third-down conversion rate allowed (26.5%).
Offensively, the Texas line was beyond sturdy as well. The Horns ranked third in pressure rate allowed (23.4%) and 13th in total blown block rate (15.5%). The mostly error-free play allowed Steve Sarkisian and his offensive staff to keep a very rhythm-dependent Quinn Ewers in sync and allowed Texas to almost entirely avoid three-and-outs. -- Bill Connelly