At the moment of writing this article on Monday June 27th, the Texas Longhorns have acquired the additional commitments of seven members of the 2023 class.
Four-star linebacker Liona Lefau, four-star wide receiver Jonah Wilson, four-star offensive lineman Jaydon Chatman, three-star offensive lineman Andre Cojoe, three-star offensive tackle Connor Stroh, three-star offensive lineman Trevor Goosby, and most newsworthy of all, five-star quarterback Arch Manning, have all made commitments to the Texas Longhorns over the past seven days.
According to 247sports.com, the Texas Longhorns currently have the number five ranked recruiting class for the year of 2023.
However, the intent of this article is not to highlight the commitments of the past week nor their projected impact on the college football landscape and the Texas Longhorns football program.
Rather, this article is to highlight the core issue of the Texas Longhorns lay within the inability of the program to establish coaching continuity.
At the closure of the 2021 college football season, the Texas Longhorns finished with a disheartening record of 5-7.
Looking back eight years, including the 2021 season, the Texas Longhorns have not had consistency at coaching at any position.
Over the period of eight years/seasons three different head coaches, five offensive coordinators, five quarterback coaches, five offensive line coaches, six tight-end coaches, three running back coaches, six wide receiver coaches, five defensive coordinators, five defensive line coaches, four linebacker coaches, nine defensive back coaches, six special teams coaches, and three strength coaches have come through the doors of the Texas Longhorns .
This assortment of coaches produced a record of 53-46, four bowl wins, and only one season with double digit wins over the course of eight years.
Ironically, Texas was still able to produce several respectable recruiting classes during this time of downturn. According to 247sports.com Recruit Football Team Rankings, Texas only had three seasons between 2014 to 2021 where they did not have recruit classes ranked at number ten or higher.
The most recent recruitment classes of 2022 and 2023 both rank in at number five overall.
The issue is clearly not a lack of talent or skill coming to the University of Texas at Austin. but rather coaching and the creation of lasting coaching cultures.
If the Texas Longhorns football program desires to genuinely return to glory and eliminate the comedy attached to the phrase “Texas is back!”, it will first require Texas to allow its coaches to be BACK for more than a year or two.
It is no accident Texas running back Bijan Robinson is the most valuable and productive player returning to the Texas Longhorn team. Not only does his talent speak for itself, but his position of running back is the only position on the Texas Longhorns team to have the same position coach for more than three plus years.
Not only does continuity of coaching more than likely lead to the blossoming of players like Robinson, but it also has contributed to the creation of position depth within the running back core of Texas.
The commitments of players like Arch Manning are huge for any program, no matter the position of the program and I do not doubt he will bring much benefit to Texas.
However. if Texas wants to create a program of lasting legacy, it will take patience and development at all positions of players and coaching staff and that cannot be substituted with new multi-star commitments each off-season.
Hook’em!