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SB Nation    •   21 min read

Steve Sarkisian on the Texas WRs: ‘I feel great about that room’

WHAT'S THE STORY?

NCAA Football: CFP National Playoff First Round-Clemson at Texas
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A year does make a difference.

Entering the 2024 season, the only returning receiver for the Texas Longhorns with a career catch was Johntay Cook after Xavier Worthy, AD Mitchell, and Jordan Whittington were all selected in the NFL Draft.

So while position coach Chris Jackson once again lost three receivers heading into this offseason, the wide receiver corps is much more stable heading into the 2025 campaign, obviating the need to make extensive additions from the portal thanks to impressive seasons

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from DeAndre Moore Jr. and Ryan Wingo, who combined for 928 receiving yards and nine touchdowns on 68 catches in 2024.

“The receiving corps is one we’re really excited about — we’ve had receivers drafted in the first round the last two years’ draft, but this group is really good,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said at SEC Media Days.

The expectations aren’t exactly sky high for the Texas wide receivers, though.

“This year’s group is kind of flying under the radar,” Sarkisian told Greg McElroy in June.

Sarkisian considers Moore, now a junior, the leader of the room — skills he learned from following Jordan Whittington around as a freshman — after finishing second among the wide receivers in touchdown catches with seven despite a slow start to the season and an unfortunate finish that saw the California product battle through a late-season toe injury that caused him to miss most of spring practice.

In fact, Moore didn’t record his first career reception at Texas until Arch Manning took over for Quinn Ewers against UTSA and hit Moore for a 19-yard touchdown on his first pass attempt.

After a quiet performance in the blowout win over Louisiana-Monroe, the rapport between Manning and Moore surfaced again in the SEC opener against Mississippi State on a 50-yard touchdown with 29 seconds left in the first half that allowed the Longhorns to take a 14-6 lead into halftime.

On the slot fade, Moore created separation on the vertical route and tracked the football well on a perfect throw from Manning standing tall in the pocket under pressure.

Moore finished the runaway win over the Bulldogs with four catches for 104 yards and two touchdowns, his first 100-yard performance at Texas and his first multi-touchdown game.

Two more touchdowns by Moore in the narrow road win over the Commodores in Nashville helped the Horns avoid a season-changing upset prior to a big-time performance in the SEC Championship game loss to the Bulldogs that saw Moore record nine catches for 114 yards and a touchdown, a 41-yard score early in the fourth quarter on a glance route run-pass option that tied the game.

“DeAndre Moore was a really good player for us last year and was really good player for us at critical moments in big games,” Sarkisian said.

Wingo’s trajectory looked a little bit different — the St. Louis product recorded both of his touchdown catches and 239 of his 472 receiving yards during the non-conference schedule before hitting a freshman wall impacted by a pre-game knee injury sustained against Vanderbilt.

“I think Ryan Wingo is a budding star. He didn’t get the opportunities maybe that a couple of the other freshmen around the country got last year, but when he got his ops, man, he made some big-time plays for us in some big games. And he’s big, he’s physical, he’s fast, So what is he going to provide for Arch? I think they’ve got great rapport,” Sarkisian told McElroy.

But Chris Jackson’s position room would qualify as exciting for Sarkisian if it only had top talent — there’s also a key transfer and developing young talent.

“We brought in Emmett Mosley, a transfer from Stanford, who had 50 catches there as a true freshman at Stanford that we’re excited about, to go along with a really good recruiting class and a bunch of young guys with Parker Livingstone leading that charge of younger players in that room,” Sarkisian said.

Mosley is this year’s lone addition from the transfer portal after one season at Stanford. The California product was a Texas target in the 2024 recruiting class until the staff backed off following a knee injury prior to his senior season.

In Mosley’s one season at Stanford, he recorded 48 receptions for 525 receiving yards and six touchdowns in nine games, which ranked second on the team in receptions and yards and tied for the team lead in touchdowns. The 525 receiving yards notched by Mosley were the most by a true freshman for the Cardinal since Richard Sherman had 581 receiving yards in 2006.

“When they made the coaching change and he decided to go on the portal, we just felt like he was a really natural fit. He’s got experience, but yet he’s a younger player to fill the void in that room. He’s got a really good head on his shoulders, great character, great work ethic, so we’re excited about him,” Sarkisian said at the end of spring practice.

Capable of playing inside or out, Mosley was a possession receiver for the Cardinal who could improve his explosiveness another with a full offseason of speed training unencumbered by rehabilitation and Manning’s vertical proclivities.

While Mosley didn’t arrived until the summer, the receivers who were on campus for spring practice benefited from the extra repetitions afforded by the absences of Moore and Wingo, including redshirt freshman Parker Livingstone and the four 2025 signees — Kaliq Lockett, Jaime Ffrench, Daylan McCutcheon, and Michael Terry III.

That resulted in the type of inconsistencies normally reserved for second-team or third-team reps, but should provide long-term benefits for Texas.

Livingstone played 28 snaps while redshirting in 2024 after arriving from Lucas Lovejoy as a consensus four-star prospect ranked as a top-300 recruit before drawing buzz during the spring for his improvement.

“I think Parker Livingstone had a great spring practice for us as a guy that can play all three spots for us,” Sarkisian said.

The versatility is an improvement for Livingstone, who was a linear vertical threat out of high school best suited to play outside.

With Livingstone likely to round out the top four rotation players, securing playing time won’t be easy for redshirt freshman Aaron Butler, redshirt sophomore Ryan Niblett, likely back from spending the spring on the defensive side of the ball, and the four true freshmen.

Jackson is certainly high on the character of the 2025 recruiting class, a strong sign for their ability to stick in the program long enough to make an impact.

“It’s a phenomenal class, not only from a football perspective, but I’m more excited about the type of people they are. Now going into year three and second trying to build a culture of guys that just buy into the culture that Coach Sark stands for, what he’s trying to preach. these guys all fit that — they’ve got great families, they’re great kids, humble, blue-collar kids that want to work. So I’m more excited about the type of dudes they are. I already know what type of football players they are,” Jackson told Burnt Orange Nation at Peach Bowl Media Days.

A consensus five-star prospect ranked as a top-20 prospect nationally and the No. 2 wide receiver, Lockett is perhaps the most physically gifted of the four 2025 signees, but is also raw as a receiver.

“Kaliq is a different type of cat, played the majority outside at Sachse, but you’ve got speed, you’ve got him having the ability to take the top end off of coverage, making 50-50 catches, using his speed and the size on the outside,” Jackson said.

If Lockett needed some adjustment time to playing wide receiver in college, it started to happen as spring practice advanced.

“I loved where Kaliq Lockett finished up spring,” Sarkisian said on the On Second Thought podcast in May.

French is a 6’1, 185-pounder from Jacksonville (Fla.) Mandarin who was ranked as the No. 44 player nationally and the No. 9 wide receiver, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

“Jaime, his body control, his savvy, he plays with different types of football speeds, his back-shoulder plays that he’s able to make — Jaime is a little bit different in that realm,” Jackson said.

A highly-productive wide receiver at Lucas Lovejoy, including as Livingstone’s teammate, McCutcheon totaled more than 1,500 receiving yards and 38 touchdowns over his final two seasons of high school football, finishing the cycle ranked just outside the national top-100 after flipping from Florida State to Texas during the summer of 2024.

“Daylan McCutcheon plays slot, inside out, again, has different play speeds, great route runner, savvy, understands how to set up routes, his details with all the route-running and play-making ability,” Jackson said.

During the spring, the 5’11, 178-pounder established himself as a reliable presence in Moore’s absence.

“Daylan McCutcheon I thought remained really consistent at wide receiver,” Sarkisian said.

The final addition to the class is Terry, a San Antonio Alamo Heights product who committed on Early Signing Day. A multi-purpose player in high school ranked as the nation’s top athlete, Terry has focused on learning the nuances of the wide receiver position over the eight months he’s been in Austin.

“You can definitely see the skill set of all them and you can start to see the guys that are picking it up maybe a little quicker than others,” Sarkisian said near the end of spring practice.

As a group, Sarkisian is high on his wide receiver room because it features a combination of playmaking, the versatility to play across multiple positions on the field, and better size and physicality to block more effectively to bolster the screen game.

“I think we’ll block better on the perimeter, which in our offense is a huge component to what we do of getting the ball in space and blocking on the perimeter,” Sarkisian said.

In sharp contrast to a running back room that Sarkisian has repeatedly referred to as “solid,” the Texas head coach is more effusive overall about Jackson’s group.

“I think the combination of all those guys in that room and what they can do — I feel great about that room. I don’t feel good about it, I feel great about that room, probably better than most people do on the outside,” Sarkisian said.

“That’s the beauty of being in the building every day with these guys and the rapport they have with Arch.”

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