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Texas Recruiting Notes 2025: Duck Around and Find Out


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6 minutes ago, Professor Chesney said:

On Texas released their player rankings/grades for the Texas Class

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Five 5-star's headline OTF final 2025 rankings

OnTexasFootball spent the entire 2024 season watching, studying, seeing in person and taking in all information on members of the Texas Longhorns No. 1 ranked recruiting class. 

While OTF is not going to rank a top 100 national overall, top 300 and so on ... two decades plus in the business continue to help identify and formulate a range of where a prospect would be ranked. Rankings are never going to be an exact science with so many variables, but through miles on the road and experience there is the ability to build out a ranking for individual prospects. 

The 2025 class has as much top end depth as any I have covered for the Longhorns. Along with five 5-star's, there are 14 top 100 level prospects, and 20 top 300 level prospects in the uber impressive class. 

The ranking system:

5-star - obvious

4-star++ - top 75 level prospect in the country

4-star+ - top 150 level prospect in the country

4-star - top 350 level prospect in the country 

3-star++ - top 500 level prospect in the country 

The OTF 5-star's ...

Jonah Williams, S, Galveston (Texas) Ball

Kade Phillips, CB/DB, Missouri City (Texas) Hightower 

Lance Jackson, EDGE, Texarkana (Texas) Pleasant Grove

Justus Terry, DL, Manchester (Ga.) High 

Nicolas Townsend, TE/LB, Houston (Texas) Dekaney

The OTF 4-star++ ...

Myron Charles, DL, Port Charlotte (Fla.) High
Note: First non 5-star on the list.

Jaime Ffrench, WR, Jacksonville (Fla.) Mandarin 
Note: Top 40 level prospect overall.

Josiah Sharma, DL, Folsom (Calif.) High
Note: Top 60 level prospect overall.

Kaliq Lockett, WR, Sachse (Texas) High
Note: Top 60 level prospect overall.

Elijah Barnes, LB, Dallas (Texas) Skyline 
Note: Top 60 level prospect overall.

Michael Terry, ATH, San Antonio (Texas) Alamo Heights

Smith Orogbo, EDGE, Alief (Texas) Hastings

The OTF 4-star+ ...

Nick Brooks, OT, Loganville (Ga.) Grayson
Note: Top 100 level prospect

James Simon, RB, Shreveport (La.) Calvary Baptist
Note: Top 100 level prospect

K.J. Lacey, QB, Saraland (Ala.) High 

Zelus Hicks, S, Carrollton (Ga.) High 

Graceson Littleton, N/CB, Wesley Chapel (Fla.) Wiregrass Ranch

Daylan McCutcheon, WR, Lucas (Texas) Lovejoy

The OTF 4-star's ...

Jordan Coleman, IOL, Cedar Hill (Texas) High 

Jonathan Cunningham, LB, Fort Worth (Texas) North Crowley

Rickey Stewart, RB, Tyler (Texas) Chapel Hill 

Devin Coleman, C/IOL, Cedar Hill (Texas) High 

Caleb Chester, CB, Missouri City (Texas) Marshall

The OTF 3-star+...

Jackson Christian, IOL, Port Neches (Texas) PNG

Emaree Winston, TE, Calhoun (Ga.) High 

 

 

Curious if anyone else has final thoughts on the class.

It's good. 

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Lockett is fast enough when you consider his quickness/suddenness, his frame, timing, and his arm length/hand size. His release is also a less than talked about strong suit. 
Once he puts on about 15-20 pounds, I could see a Jalynn Polk kind of guy with even better hands. 

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39 minutes ago, Professor Chesney said:

On Texas released their player rankings/grades for the Texas Class

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Five 5-star's headline OTF final 2025 rankings

OnTexasFootball spent the entire 2024 season watching, studying, seeing in person and taking in all information on members of the Texas Longhorns No. 1 ranked recruiting class. 

While OTF is not going to rank a top 100 national overall, top 300 and so on ... two decades plus in the business continue to help identify and formulate a range of where a prospect would be ranked. Rankings are never going to be an exact science with so many variables, but through miles on the road and experience there is the ability to build out a ranking for individual prospects. 

The 2025 class has as much top end depth as any I have covered for the Longhorns. Along with five 5-star's, there are 14 top 100 level prospects, and 20 top 300 level prospects in the uber impressive class. 

The ranking system:

5-star - obvious

4-star++ - top 75 level prospect in the country

4-star+ - top 150 level prospect in the country

4-star - top 350 level prospect in the country 

3-star++ - top 500 level prospect in the country 

The OTF 5-star's ...

Jonah Williams, S, Galveston (Texas) Ball

Kade Phillips, CB/DB, Missouri City (Texas) Hightower 

Lance Jackson, EDGE, Texarkana (Texas) Pleasant Grove

Justus Terry, DL, Manchester (Ga.) High 

Nicolas Townsend, TE/LB, Houston (Texas) Dekaney

The OTF 4-star++ ...

Myron Charles, DL, Port Charlotte (Fla.) High
Note: First non 5-star on the list.

Jaime Ffrench, WR, Jacksonville (Fla.) Mandarin 
Note: Top 40 level prospect overall.

Josiah Sharma, DL, Folsom (Calif.) High
Note: Top 60 level prospect overall.

Kaliq Lockett, WR, Sachse (Texas) High
Note: Top 60 level prospect overall.

Elijah Barnes, LB, Dallas (Texas) Skyline 
Note: Top 60 level prospect overall.

Michael Terry, ATH, San Antonio (Texas) Alamo Heights

Smith Orogbo, EDGE, Alief (Texas) Hastings

The OTF 4-star+ ...

Nick Brooks, OT, Loganville (Ga.) Grayson
Note: Top 100 level prospect

James Simon, RB, Shreveport (La.) Calvary Baptist
Note: Top 100 level prospect

K.J. Lacey, QB, Saraland (Ala.) High 

Zelus Hicks, S, Carrollton (Ga.) High 

Graceson Littleton, N/CB, Wesley Chapel (Fla.) Wiregrass Ranch

Daylan McCutcheon, WR, Lucas (Texas) Lovejoy

The OTF 4-star's ...

Jordan Coleman, IOL, Cedar Hill (Texas) High 

Jonathan Cunningham, LB, Fort Worth (Texas) North Crowley

Rickey Stewart, RB, Tyler (Texas) Chapel Hill 

Devin Coleman, C/IOL, Cedar Hill (Texas) High 

Caleb Chester, CB, Missouri City (Texas) Marshall

The OTF 3-star+...

Jackson Christian, IOL, Port Neches (Texas) PNG

Emaree Winston, TE, Calhoun (Ga.) High 

 

Generally Gerry’s rankings make a lot of sense but few things surprised me.

First, I am a bit shocked to see Jonah Williams ranked first overall given the other top end talent in the class. Understand he is super athletic and fluid, but safety usually takes at least a year or two of seasoning to understand the position. His baseball practices will take away study time and reps, which could slow this development further. Even Caleb Downs, who has elite speed and probably came in with the best understanding of the position of any high school prospect in recent memory, took multiple games to get comfortable.

I’m also surprised to see Lance Jackson and Michael Terry ranked so “low”. Both players stand to make huge athletic/strength games coming from “normal” high schools instead of power programs like Katy, Allen, or Southlake. Lance Jackson in particular might be the most athletic recruit in the class AND one of the most likely to maximize based on work ethic, etc. Just an absurd combination.

Finally, not sure if Kaliq Lockett is ranked too low or too high. Receivers are weird to project, but it seems like those without elite speed are less likely to become superstars (although this is purely observation and not based on any kind of data). Lockett only has average long speed and is raw as a route runner, which would ordinarily temper expectations. While he has the burst and fluidity to still somehow achieve just enough separation in high school and in camp 1-on-1 settings, it isn’t a sure thing that he can do this consistently at the P2 level. But despite those short comings, he is truly ELITE at body control and contested catches. I don’t know if Texas has ever had a prospect with these skills, maybe the $9.95er mythologized practice version of Troy Omerie that no one got to see. He looks like Matthew Golden catching the ball. If he learns to run better routes and has at least moderate improvement athletically, I could see him outplaying this ranking.

Curious if anyone else has final thoughts on the class.

I would say #1 to quite #1.

Edited by TotallyLegit
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12 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

OL will also be interesting. I agree with others on here that the recruiting services are generally bad at rating OL, but Flood has now gone 3 full recruiting classes of taking OL ranked outside the top 300 nationally, with Baker being the only exception. There's been a lot of trust placed in Flood over his evals the last three years, but the team's OL performance this year and the inability to find anyone on the roster who could play G at a high level this year really cost us in the run game and probably cost us a title this year.  2025 will be a huge year to see what he does with an OL of only guys he recruited. Our OL next year will need to time to develop, but if they're not playing at a high level by the end of the year it will lead to a lot of questions about Flood as an OL coach.

I've been thinking about this a lot. I think we all kind of assumed that the plan after the epic 2022 haul was to stack up high upside 3-star types and let them bake in the oven. 2025 will be the year that we find out if that strategy holds up. The recruiting this last year was weird. They seemed kinda lukewarm on Fasusi for most of the cycle then decided very late that they absolutely had to have him. Never seemed to really press for guys like Lamont Rogers. I kinda hate the assumption that Turntine is the guy. Someone could always come over the top of us and decide that he's the guy that they absolutely must have.

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We lost Fasusi. We didn’t punt on him. He chose OU, mostly due to their OL coach and his social motivations. 
His mom was also not on board with him living in Austin. 
 

Losing John Mills at the 11th hr sucked, but this should be another cycle where we go heavy OL. 

OL is not a position for stargazing, it’s all about physical/mental traits, Torre Becton, and Kyle Flood. 

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1 minute ago, Atticus said:

OL is not a position for stargazing, it’s all about physical/mental traits, Torre Becton, and Kyle Flood. 

That's what @Burt Macklin is saying - we're not worried, but it's time to see if Flood really has been the evaluator/coach he's cracked up to be now that the bluechip tackles are gone.

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12 minutes ago, Sock Monkey said:

Who of the seven OTF 4-star(-) and 3-star do we think could most exceed expectations? I have two names in mind, but want to hear others’ opinions first.

I like Rickey Stewart more than most. But RBs are weird. They can look like great takes but then show up and Vondrell McGee/Kyle Porter it up all over the field, making you question your judgement. My second would be Chester. 

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2 hours ago, Burt Macklin said:

Good stuff. I'm surprised he has Phillips #2 overall in the class. He's a physical freak, but there's uncertainty over his position and fit. Seems like too much of a question to have him as 5 star and #2 in the top overall class. 

Not sure what you mean about Lance Jackson being low. He's #3 overall in the top class in the country, meaning Gerry probably has him as top 15 or 20 player in the whole country. I agree on his upside. I could see him being a more explosive version of Alfred Collins, except he won't take 4 or 5 years to reach Collins' level this year. 

The WR takes this year are interesting. Ffrench and Lockett are good. I'd probably swap them and have Lockett higher. I think he has enough speed to be elite when combined with his size, quickness, and ability to make contested catches. Neither Ffrench or Lockett have the elite speed that Sark usually goes after. Wingo might be the only guy getting a lot of snaps next year who has the speed Sark usually covets.  It could mean Sark is moving towards bigger targets who can make contested catches or these were just the guys he liked best this year.  My guess is the latter, but it will be interesting to watch moving forward. 

Most people agreed DL was the biggest need for HS recruiting this year, and while it was a rollercoaster to get to NSD, we ended up with 3 elite prospects at DT. That's a massive win for the program.  The odds all 3 of these guys hit are still low, and we need to keep stacking elite talent at DL, like tOSU and UGA do every year. 

OL will also be interesting. I agree with others on here that the recruiting services are generally bad at rating OL, but Flood has now gone 3 full recruiting classes of taking OL ranked outside the top 300 nationally, with Baker being the only exception. There's been a lot of trust placed in Flood over his evals the last three years, but the team's OL performance this year and the inability to find anyone on the roster who could play G at a high level this year really cost us in the run game and probably cost us a title this year.  2025 will be a huge year to see what he does with an OL of only guys he recruited. Our OL next year will need to time to develop, but if they're not playing at a high level by the end of the year it will lead to a lot of questions about Flood as an OL coach. 

 

 

On Jackson, I think he's got the highest floor of any player in the class. I think Gerry thinks the same. Other services criminally underrated him, from my view. 

At WR, Sarkisian really wanted the guy out of Hitchcock that went to ATM. That dude didn't want to join a big time class at Texas and thinks he'll be the man at ATM. The targets from there ended up having some serious input from Jackson, who is earning Sarkisian's trust. The McCutcheon recruitment was 100% Jackson. 

All fall, the word was that they wanted a burner at WR from the portal. Either they're waiting for the spring window to really lure somebody or they've decided that they have that guy on the roster. I am dubious on the premise that Jaggerstone is really that guy. 

Things look good on the DT front for the 2026 cycle. They're well-regarded by multiple guys that they have high on the board. Let's hope Sarkisian let's Baker be more aggressive early. 

The word is 6 OLs for the 2026 class and that it's a favorable class for high level talent liking Texas inside the state. Some folks think Turntine is the perfect fit at LT for Sarkisian's offense.

 

2 hours ago, tokamak said:

I've been thinking about this a lot. I think we all kind of assumed that the plan after the epic 2022 haul was to stack up high upside 3-star types and let them bake in the oven. 2025 will be the year that we find out if that strategy holds up. The recruiting this last year was weird. They seemed kinda lukewarm on Fasusi for most of the cycle then decided very late that they absolutely had to have him. Never seemed to really press for guys like Lamont Rogers. I kinda hate the assumption that Turntine is the guy. Someone could always come over the top of us and decide that he's the guy that they absolutely must have.

No one is coming in over the top for Turntine. He's the number 2 priority behind Bell on the entire national board for Texas. He's viewed as the surest thing since Banks and a surefire 1st round pick if he's healthy. 

6 minutes ago, Sock Monkey said:

Who of the seven OTF 4-star(-) and 3-star do we think could most exceed expectations? I have two names in mind, but want to hear others’ opinions first.

I like Cunningham. My view is that the Coleman guys never play a major role due to timing of former and future signees. Stewart doesn't do it for me. Chester is a mystery and maybe they know something no one else does because they made him an early priority and faced little competition in keeping and landing him. Winston was a bizarre take whose upside looks like Juan Davis in his 5th year, to me. Token Christian will transfer to Lamar and start as a 5th year senior at Guard and then have a nice career in farm equipment sales in East Texas. 

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10 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Let's have an eval-off! I think Cunningham will be the standout of the 7 lowest rated guys. You take Stewart. The winner will likely never even remember the bet in 4-5 years. The loser, if called upon, has to take one of the village idiots off of ignore for a month and then like everyone of their idiotic posts on this board for that period.

Deal. It's a loaded class obviously, but Cunningham was one of the very few (maybe only - no wait Jackson Christian exists) head scratchers for me. I don't get it. 

People in the stands around me in 2028: "Man that dude really loves Rickey Stewart.... and really fucking hates that third string LB." 

Edited by Red Five
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I actually think one of the Coleman brothers will break through. They’re both big, strong as hell, and athletic. Great support system with all three triplets being there. Jordan is the safer bet. Devin is raw, but has some great reps when he keeps his feet underneath him. 
 

I also have Cunningham being a special teams impact player, with defense rotational upside. 

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5 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Deal. It's a loaded class obviously, but Cunningham was one of the very few (maybe only - no wait Jackson Christian exists) head scratchers for me. I don't get it. 

There was late activity from other schools trying to flip him. He supposedly had a stud senior season and is still growing. We're right on the edge of thin at LB, so getting into the two deep after Hill heads to the NFL doesn't sound insane to me. He'll almost certainly play on STs if he's at all worth a fuck. That will be a good indicator for Chester too. If they're not playing STs, probably both ain't going to make it. 

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I think Terry should’ve been a low 4 star. I have high hopes for him since he’s from San Antonio. But I watched all of his last playoff game and was not impressed, he looked slow and like he did not care about the game at all. Did not participate in the team warm-up after halftime. However he did have a circus catch over a DB in the 4th, so there’s talent there for sure.

Since he has no speed, I’d love to see him bulk up and get his attitude fixed. He’s comfortable taking snaps, he’s slow but shifty and powerful. And he can catch passes. He’d be a hell of a redzone weapon. 

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7 minutes ago, Helobious said:

I think Terry should’ve been a low 4 star. I have high hopes for him since he’s from San Antonio. But I watched all of his last playoff game and was not impressed, he looked slow and like he did not care about the game at all. Did not participate in the team warm-up after halftime. However he did have a circus catch over a DB in the 4th, so there’s talent there for sure.

Since he has no speed, I’d love to see him bulk up and get his attitude fixed. He’s comfortable taking snaps, he’s slow but shifty and powerful. And he can catch passes. He’d be a hell of a redzone weapon. 

Quoting this because I assume @closetojumping has him on ignore and I think he’d enjoy this read. 

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9 minutes ago, Helobious said:

I think Terry should’ve been a low 4 star. I have high hopes for him since he’s from San Antonio. But I watched all of his last playoff game and was not impressed, he looked slow and like he did not care about the game at all. Did not participate in the team warm-up after halftime. However he did have a circus catch over a DB in the 4th, so there’s talent there for sure.

Since he has no speed, I’d love to see him bulk up and get his attitude fixed. He’s comfortable taking snaps, he’s slow but shifty and powerful. And he can catch passes. He’d be a hell of a redzone weapon. 

Michael Terry Freshman All American season, confirmed.

 

#HookEm 

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8 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Quoting this because I assume @closetojumping has him on ignore and I think he’d enjoy this read. 

I find helobious entertaining, so I’ve never pondered putting him on ignore, if memory serves. 

I thought his write-up was useful as a data point. Maybe the guy is kind of a dud due to attitude, we’ll see. 

I know the staff is pretty high on him as a swiss army knife on offense and he didn’t come cheap on the NIL front. So now we get to wait and see - is it Sarkisian, Banks and Jackson that we should trust, or will Helobious’ superior evaluation skills rule the day?

Edited by closetojumping
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Not to mention, Oregon wasn’t willing to concede him up until the very end. 

Terry also runs sub 11 seconds in the 100m. He’s a strong runner who can be too finesse at times, but he’s the kind of guy who is a cheat code if he develops.

I’ve never heard any consistent issues about his work ethic or behavior. 

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24 minutes ago, Helobious said:

I think Terry should’ve been a low 4 star. I have high hopes for him since he’s from San Antonio. But I watched all of his last playoff game and was not impressed, he looked slow and like he did not care about the game at all. Did not participate in the team warm-up after halftime. However he did have a circus catch over a DB in the 4th, so there’s talent there for sure.

Since he has no speed, I’d love to see him bulk up and get his attitude fixed. He’s comfortable taking snaps, he’s slow but shifty and powerful. And he can catch passes. He’d be a hell of a redzone weapon. 

When will you release the helobipus hot 100?

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41 minutes ago, Atticus said:

Not to mention, Oregon wasn’t willing to concede him up until the very end. 

Terry also runs sub 11 seconds in the 100m. He’s a strong runner who can be too finesse at times, but he’s the kind of guy who is a cheat code if he develops.

I’ve never heard any consistent issues about his work ethic or behavior. 

Maybe I mistook his tentativeness as a lack of speed. I did like the vision I was seeing, he was seeing the right holes, getting skinny, then bringing contact to the 2nd level guys. Didn’t have the top end speed I thought he would. I think he’s a perfect wildcat QB. Can hit a pop pass, and due to his background I think he can hit some more challenging passes too. It’d be a mistake to use him primarily as a WR I think.

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50 minutes ago, Atticus said:

Not to mention, Oregon wasn’t willing to concede him up until the very end. 

Terry also runs sub 11 seconds in the 100m. He’s a strong runner who can be too finesse at times, but he’s the kind of guy who is a cheat code if he develops.

I’ve never heard any consistent issues about his work ethic or behavior. 

I know one of the assistant coaches at Alamo Heights, he said Terry is a good kid, was well liked in the program and is the best player he’s coached by a wide margin. That being said, even after being around the kid for years, he wasn’t confident about his best position in college, but landed on receiver/maybe a sort of halfback role. Thinks he’ll really benefit from college S&C. All that to say, he essentially parroted what’s been said on this board the past year. 

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