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National Signing Day Bonus: Messing With Texas

Go ask grandpa what it was like when the Longhorns were a national power.

By CB969
Sad times in the Lone Star State.
Sad times in the Lone Star State.
Chris Covatta/Getty Images

Gather around children and I will tell you the tale of a once mighty king who ruled and fell by an overinflated sense of self-worth. It is a story as old as the Bible. But this chapter goes way back to year 2009 A.D., the last year the Texas Longhorns did anything of significance and were broken by a man named Saban.

After a 13–0 regular season, Texas loss the BCS National Championship Game to Alabama. Although they did not know it, their program was in deep trouble. Yet, they built a golden idol to themselves despite the gathering storm clouds.

Mack Brown lost 21 games over the next four season (he had 27 losses in his first 12 seasons in Austin) and was fired. This was followed by Charlie Strong getting in over his head for three losing seasons. Despite the failure on the field, recruiting stayed respectable. That is until 2017.

TEXAS TEAM RANKINGS:

2010: #2
2011: #3
2012: #2
2013: #21
2014: #15
2015: #11
2016: #11
2017: #29

The biggest symptom of the Longhorns' recruiting ills begins at home. As of late, they have been raising the flag outside the stadium and expecting in-state recruits to just bum-rush their ways to Austin. It is hard to pinpoint when it started. LSU and Oklahoma had always had success in the Lone Star State but Texas always lassoed the majority of the top in-state prospects. Soon after, schools like Stanford, Michigan and Ohio State started creeping in.

It was 2013, when things really started to turn sour. The top Texas recruit Keith Ford was heading to Oklahoma and #2 Ricky Seals-Jones was headed to hated rival Texas A&M. "Well, at least we have the #3 in-state prospect," they must have felt. They were right until Nick Saban flipped A'Shawn Robinson on NSD.

2014 was better overall but the Longhorns missed out on the top 8 recruits including Myles Garrett (TAMU), Tony Brown (Bama), and Jamal Adams (LSU).

The trend of losing games and losing in-state recruits continues today. Some may try blaming it on a regime change but this past Wednesday was an unmitigated disaster for Texas. Of the top 25 in-state recruits, new head coach Tom Herman - who had been at Houston and is no stranger to the territory - signed exactly ONE player.

2017 TOP TEXAS FOOTBALL RECRUITS:

Rk Name Pos Stars Hometown School
1 Marvin Wilson DT 5 Houston, TX Florida State
2 Jeffrey Okudah DB 5 Grand Prairie, TX Ohio State
3 Walker Little OL 5 Houston, TX Stanford
4 Baron Browning LB 5 Kennedale, TX Ohio State
5 Austin Deculus OL 4 Cypress, TX LSU
6 Brock Wright TE 4 Cypress, TX Notre Dame
7 J.K. Dobbins RB 4 La Grange, TX Ohio State
8 K'Lavon Chaisson DE 4 Houston, TX LSU
9 Anthony Hines LB 4 Plano, TX Texas A&M
10 Jack Anderson OG 4 Frisco, TX Texas Tech
11 Tyrell Shavers WR 4 Lewisville, TX Alabama
12 Levi Jones LB 4 Austin, TX Southern Cal
13 Tyrese Robinson OL 4 McKinney, TX Oklahoma
14 Robert Barnes DB 4 Southlake, TX Oklahoma
15 Sam Ehlinger QB 4 Austin, TX Texas
16 Chevin Calloway DB 4 Dallas, TX Arkansas
17 Omar Manning WR 4 Lancaster, TX TCU
18 Cedarian Lamb WR 4 Richmond, TX Oklahoma
19 Eno Benjamin RB 4 Wylie, TX Arizona State
20 Charleston Rambo WR 4 Cedar Hill, TX Oklahoma
21 Hezekiah Jones WR 4 Stafford, TX Texas A&M
22 Chris Robison QB 4 Mesquite, TX Oklahoma
23 Derrick Tucker DB 4 Manvel, TX Texas A&M
24 Edward Ingram OL 4 DeSoto, TX LSU
25 Major Tennison TE 4 Bullard, TX Alabama

This is verging on embarrassing. In addition to Texas's woes, the entire Big XII had a pretty dreadful showing on Wednesday, outside of Oklahoma. The third highest rated Big XII class belongs to embattled Baylor at #34.

FUTURE LONGHORNS:

The recruiting future does not look too bright in the state's capital either. At this point, most teams have a handful of commits for the next year or two. Texas has none.

You have to think at this point, Texas is eyeing an escape route - most likely to the PAC-12 - further pushing the Big XII towards the eventual of the dissolution.

tiny football

BONUS RECRUITING SCHADENFREUDE FLASHBACK:

Remember when Rashaan Evans signed with Alabama and Auburn posted him as one of their signees? Shortly after that faux pas went viral, the site was taken down. However, now either Auburn is hoping that Evans will transfer or there is a bit of interwebz leftovers still buzzing around in their cloud:

http://www.auburntigers.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/rashaan_evans_884369.html

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