Playing in Texas gives teams chances to recruit Texas

When Texas plays host to USC at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, the Longhorns won't just be competing against the Trojans. They'll also be competing with Ohio State, which takes on TCU in Arlington, Texas, at the same time only 200 miles north of Darrell K. Royal Stadium.

They'll be competing for the attention of in-state recruits with the Buckeyes and other programs who have seen success recruiting Texas in the 2019 class.

The momentum the Longhorns and coach Tom Herman seemed to be gaining from a top-three 2018 class has dwindled in a short period of time. From the excitement of Jimbo Fisher joining Texas A&M to the lingering questions about the Longhorns, recruiting is seeing another shift within the state.

"It's definitely different than the way it used to be, where, in my mind, it's a three-horse race now with Texas, A&M and Oklahoma," said one Power 5 director of player personnel. "You're going through the kids in Texas, they're probably being recruited by all three, then we're trying to recruit them and some other schools are involved. It's very different where it's wide open for Oklahoma and A&M, which in turn is good for us because the kids' minds are a little more open.

"More and more you're seeing these kids that are wide open, they're not dead set to the Longhorns."

There were similar questions about Texas and in-state recruiting since the Longhorns hadn't landed the top in-state prospect since 2013. Herman changed that in 2018 and quieted some of those questions by not only landing the No. 1-ranked player in the state, but signing the top three in-state recruits and 15 of the 39 ESPN 300 recruits from Texas who signed with a college program.

But after a 7-6 finish to the 2017 season and starting 2018 with a season-opening loss to Maryland for the second straight year, some of the questions from in-state prospects are starting to bubble up once again.

Garrett Wilson, the No. 2-ranked prospect in the state, is committed to Ohio State, which has seen a lot of success in Texas as of late. Wilson, the second-ranked wide receiver in the class, said he initially thought he would wind up committing to Texas, but after going through the process, he chose the Buckeyes because of the offense and being able to play in a more established system.

"I think with the kids in my class, we kind of want to see it more than talking about it," Wilson said. "Texas right now, it's not a lot of doing, it's a lot of planning to do. I know a lot of guys want to win now and we haven't seen it at Texas."

To be fair to Herman and Texas, they are coming off a recruiting class that signed 27 total recruits, 19 of which were ranked in the ESPN 300.

Jordan Whittington, an ESPN 300 prospect committed to Texas in the 2019 class, said he believes those numbers have more to do with the results in 2018 more than anything else.

"For me, it's competition," Whittington said. "I feel like a lot of people change their perspective because they saw how many great kids committed in the 2018 class. The competition, there's a possibility you won't play early at Texas because of that 2018 class."

That might be true, but Ohio State landed a similar number of signees in 2018 (26 total commits) and 19 ESPN 300 signees and has still seen a lot of interest from Texas prospects in the current class.

When the Buckeyes head to Arlington, they will bring with them five players within the two-deep that are from the state of Texas. That includes starting guard Demetrius Knox, who is originally from Ohio but moved to Texas in the sixth grade.

Knox said this game against TCU could help provide an even bigger boost for Ohio State recruiting in the Longhorn State. That the Longhorns still have questions about how the season will play out, but also the large number of Texas players on the Buckeyes' roster will help draw interest from current recruits.

"Big time," Knox said. "For recruits to be able to just go down the street, go to Cowboys Stadium and watch Ohio State players in person, that's huge."

Being able to see the team in person is a nice bonus for the local recruits, but USC assistant athletic director of recruiting and personnel Eric Ziskin said the impact isn't so much the team being there in person, but the former Texas players that will be in the game.

When recruiting the state, USC can point to Ronald Jones, a native of McKinney and a former Trojans running back recently drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and current starting running back Aca'Cedric Ware, who is from De'Soto.

"Once you have the evidence of, 'Look at Ronald Jones, our fifth all-time leading rusher. Look at Ced Ware. People have done it here and have had success here,'" Ziskin said. "It's more on that, here's the hard evidence, look at it and now you can do it, too. They've laid the foundation for you to build upon that, more so than just one game."

Even more than the out-of-state programs, the biggest invasion to Texas' success in the 2019 class has been the addition of Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M.

The Aggies landed only five of the 39 ESPN 300 prospects from the state in the 2018 class, but now with Fisher in his first full recruiting cycle with Texas A&M, he and his staff have 13 of the 30 2019 in-state ESPN 300 recruits already committed.

Much of that has to do with the successful reputation Fisher brings with him from Florida State, and much of it is because of the early success he and his staff have shown in turning around Texas A&M.

Running back Zachary Evans is the No. 2-ranked prospect overall in the 2020 class, the No. 1-ranked player in the state of Texas, and he has already noticed what Fisher has brought to the Aggies in terms of offense -- something he says the Longhorns are lacking.

"All of us [recruits], we like Texas," Evans said. "But if the offense doesn't get better, it's going to take a lot. We need an offense we can fit in, so the offense has to get better."

This weekend against USC, the Longhorns could do a lot to show their in-state recruits that there is improvement on that side of the ball. If not, it could be tough sledding going forward and could continue to open up doors for other programs to come into the state and take the top recruits away.

"If you're on the outside looking in, it's not how it used to be when Mack [Brown] had it going," the Power 5 director of player personnel said. "They drafted the Texas kids and you had to figure it out after they were done. Now, we're looking at Texas as a more important state in recruiting than Florida as far as the big three in California, Florida and Texas. I think it's a huge momentum deal where two years in a row Texas has come out of the gate and dropped the ball, losing its opener, so we're emphasizing Texas more now."