Mike Roach
Texas high school football players don’t want to stay in Texas anymore. At least not the elite ones. There was a time that this was inconceivable. If they did leave the state borders it was understandably to a regional rival like Oklahoma or LSU. Now, kids are leaving their families and flying across the country to play college football, and it’s hard to blame them.
Over the past five cycles, half of the prospects in the Texas Top 10 decided to leave the state. Of those prospects who stayed, Texas only signed 13. A big percentage of that number was bolstered by the 2018 class in which the Longhorns locked down the elites in Tom Herman’s first cycle. The larger fact remains that it’s difficult to criticize kids for going elsewhere.
Do you want to win? The best a team in Texas has done in the postseason was the Longhorns’ Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia in 2019. Do you want to get developed and play in the NFL. Texas A&M and TCU have had years with higher than normal numbers, but no school in the state can compete with the elite programs in the country.
During the last five years, no two schools have victimized the in-state powers more than Alabama and Ohio State. Over the past five years, those schools combined to take 10 of those Texas Top 10 prospects. What do they have in common? Winning and development. Sure we can write stories about recruiting rainmakers, and to a point they matter, but the two key components of winning and development are usually central to strong recruiting results.
Over the past decade, Texas has just three Top 25 finishes with one in the Top 10. Texas A&M has just four Top 25 finishes with one in the Top 10 and another opportunity to do so this year as the Aggies are ranked No. 5. Baylor has five Top 25 finishes with one in the top 10 and TCU had the most impressive run with 5 Top 25 finishes and four in the Top 10.
Fair or unfair, this falls on Texas and Texas A&M. As the two major powers in the state, lackluster results by and large left the most talent-rich state in the country vulnerable to outsiders. 2022 is already off to a hot start for the Buckeyes in Texas. In the last week, Ohio State landed five-star Texans Quinn Ewers and Caleb Burton. Ewers was a former Texas commit the Longhorns held on to for a little over a month and Burton is an Austin native the Longhorns were hoping to keep at home. He will join former Lake Travis wide receiver Garrett Wilson in Columbus.
If this is upsetting to fans of schools in this state, it’s understandable. While it’s common for fans to question a kid’s loyalty to their home state, they rarely question the contributing factors that led them there. While it’s a novel idea and admirable for a kid to want to stay home and change the path of a program, we’ve seen that story play out over the last ten years and ultimately end up nowhere.
Programs in Texas have a battle on their hands, or we will continue to watch our favorite high school players leave the Lone Star State for better opportunities. Elite kids don’t want to stay in Texas, and it’s tough to blame them for that right now.