In an appearance at the annual THSCA convention in San Antonio on Sunday, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian addressed a topic at top of mind for the attendees — the program’s recruiting in the Lone Star State.
It’s a critical point of emphasis for the state’s flagship college football program every year, but it’s taken on more pertinence in the 2026 class with the looming implementation of revenue sharing increasing competition for top prospects and the Longhorns increasing filling high-level
needs with high-level prospects from across the SEC’s footprint after last year’s move to the nation’s premier football conference.
Asked about the need to balance in-state and out-of-state recruiting, the Texas head coach launched into a valuable talking point.
“I was just looking at something here — we’ve had 23 draft picks the last two years, which is the most in the country,” Sarkisian said. “We had 11 two years ago and 12 this year. Of those 23 players drafted, 19 of those players are from the state of Texas. We had nine two years ago get drafted from the state of Texas and we had 10 this year get drafted from the state of Texas. So this is vitally important for us and our ability to recruit our state.”
Sarkisian admitted that it’s a challenge to balance the need to recruit the best in-state prospects with the burgeoning ability to land players out of Georgia like defensive lineman Justus Terry, the No. 12 overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, and linebacker Tyler Atkinson, the No. 12 overall prospect in the 2026 recruiting class.
“Where do you draw the line? The fine line of we have to make sure that we’re recruiting a roster that can compete for national championships, but at the same token, make sure that we’re continually recruiting the best players in the state of Texas,” Sarkisian said.
As one of the top talent-producing states in the country, Texas is hotly-contested year after year.
“We don’t get to sign them all and there’s a lot of really good schools in our own state. As I’ve touched on this numerous times, I think as much as people view us and maybe some other schools in our state for recruiting out of the state, I think a lot of schools are recruiting in our state as well, and a lot of players are a lot more apt to leave the state,” Sarkisian said.
Texas A&M’s move to the SEC for the 2012 season made the state part of the conference’s footprint, allowing other programs greater access to Texas recruiting. National powers like Ohio State under Urban Meyer and now Ryan Day have long recruited the state at a high level. North of the Red River, Oklahoma traditionally leans heavily on talent crossing the border.
In the 2026 recruiting class, the out-of-state programs with a commitment from a top-20 player in the state are USC, Oregon, Oklahoma, Arizona State, Florida, Georgia, and Michigan.
Meanwhile in-state programs that are typically forced to settle for second- or third-tier prospects are making an impact in recruiting with Texas Tech holding a commitment from Mansfield Lake Ridge offensive tackle Felix Ojo, the state’s top prospect, Houston holding a commitment from Spring Legacy the School of Sport Sciences quarterback Keisean Henderson, the state’s No. 2 prospect, and Baylor holding the commitment of Temple EDGE Jamarion Carlton, the state’s No. 5 prospect.
“I’m going to praise all the programs because really what Coach [Mike] Elko is doing at A&M, what Rhett [Lashlee] has been doing at SMU, the commitment, obviously, what Joey [McGuire] is doing at Tech, what Dave Aranda has been doing at Baylor, the track record of Willie [Fritz], of the success he’s had, Houston is going to get going,” Sarkisian said.
“There’s so many great programs in our state. I don’t know that that kids need to leave, but I do think that kids need guidance of why they should stay, and there’s a lot of advantages to that, which I won’t get into.”
So as much as the Texas head coach would prefer to build his roster from within the state’s borders, there’s too much competition to accomplish that task every year.
“At the end of the day, our job is to recruit the best roster that we can the character of kids with the talent that they have that put us in a really good position to compete and to compete for championships. So I would love not to have to leave our state, but inevitably, history tells me we’re not going to sign all the best players every year from the state of Texas. Some are going to go to other schools within our state. Some are going to leave. And at that point, we then have to go find them in other places,” Sarkisian said.
That’s been the case this year for the Longhorns in the 2026 recruiting class — of the 21 pledges, 11 are from out of state, including six of the seven top-ranked players, out-of-state recruiting success enabled by strategic decisions to replace outgoing assistants with coaches who have recruiting ties across the SEC footprint, supplemented by personnel staffers with their own recruiting ties in those areas.
“I think a couple few years ago, we were playing from behind with that mindset. We’ve shifted our focus a little bit to be a little bit more aggressive, but that’s just the reality of the state of recruiting right now,” Sarkisian said.
It’s helped salvage the current recruiting cycle in a year in which Texas has received little traction with in-state prospects, holding just two commitments from the state’s top 50 players.
And it stands in marked contrast to the first full cycle for Sarkisian and his staff at Texas in 2022. Buoyed by a large and talented group of offensive linemen that continues to shape the trenches for the Longhorns, the class ranked No. 5 nationally, but only 10th in average star rating. It also featured a significant amount of attrition, especially from lower-ranked players — of the 28 signees, 17 have transferred.
But despite all the success Texas has had recruiting out-of-state prospects in the 2026 recruiting class, Sarkisian is putting an emphasis on having more success within the state’s borders moving forward.
“I wish we could corral it a little bit better than we have, and that’s going to be a goal of mine over the next 12 to 24 months, as we continue to we’ve always had short-term goals, but long-term goals, how do we corral the state better than we have?” Sarkisian said.
It’s a challenge that Sarkisian extended to other in-state head coaches and to the high school coaches, as well.
“I don’t think it’s just the University of Texas. I think it’s all the schools involved to make that happen. I think there’s a responsibility on our end. I think there’s responsibility from the high school coaches to do that because I think we would all love for the players that play high school football in the state of Texas to go to one of our schools and to have success and to compete for championships, and to graduate from college and and to get drafted into the NFL.” Sarkisian said.
“And so I do think that we’re putting a product on the field that that models that, and we have numbers to back that up, but now we’ve got to recruit that way as well.”
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