AUSTIN, Texas — White Chocolate.
The nickname bestowed upon Texas Longhorns redshirt freshman wide receiver Parker Livingstone couldn’t come from a member of the team’s white delegation. Redshirt senior safety Michael Taaffe is well aware of that.
“I can’t give that to him,” Taaffe said last week.
Junior running back Quintrevion Wisner, however, is qualified to give Livingstone a nickname like that, and who wants to argue with someone rocking a South Dallas shag?
Livingstone lived up to the moniker with
four catches for 128 yards and two touchdowns against San Jose State on Saturday, earning SEC Freshman of the Week honors for his breakout performance, a full-throated announcement of his arrival.
“I’ve been saying it all all along. I just don’t know if you guys believe me, I’ve been saying it since spring ball — Parker Livingstone is a really good player,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said on Saturday.
“He played good all spring. He played good all training camp. He’s played good for two weeks, like the guy is a good football player. He’s obviously got good rapport and good trust with Arch [Manning], and he makes plays. When the ball comes his way, he makes his plays and that’s a valuable asset to have, when you’re trustworthy. And he’s definitely a trustworthy guy.”
After scoring the team’s only touchdown in the season-opening loss to Ohio State, Livingstone helped break open the win over San Jose State with an 83-yard touchdown catch late in the first quarter, the longest pass play for Texas since John Burt’s 90-yard reception in 2017 and the 12th longest in school history.
Reaching 20.3 miles per hour on the catch, Livingstone tied for the seventh-fastest Week 2 speed in college football.
“He can roll, for a white guy, too,” Texas quarterback Arch Manning said.
On Monday, Livingstone said he’s recorded a faster time on the team’s Catapult GPS systems during the summer, but the pads might have weighed him down during the game.
The ability to run away from opponents hasn’t always been there for Livingstone, who said that he got caught from behind as a sophomore. Then-Lucas Lovejoy head coach Chris Ross never let him forget about it.
A year later, though, Livingstone impressed Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian and offensive coordinator Kyle Flood in a high-scoring matchup against Melissa, scoring two touchdowns while recording a season-high 123 yards on four catches, including a 77-yard touchdown on a screen pass and a 74-yard kickoff return.
“The thing where he surprises you is he will run away from you in a hurry,” Sarkisian said on Early Signing Day in 2023.
Livingstone also flashed his heady play and catch radius on a scramble drill — when Manning rolled right out of the pocket, Livingstone broke deep and extended outside the frame of his body for a 42-yard reception turned into a 32-yard gain after a block in the back penalty on redshirt freshman wide receiver Aaron Butler.
“He’s got great length. He has great ball skills,” Sarkisian said when Livingstone signed.
Livingstone’s speed and ball skills didn’t translate into lofty recruiting rankings, though, despite receiving 35 offers, including Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas A&M — 247Sports ranked the 6’4, 191-pounder as the No. 106 wide receiver nationally and the No. 97 player in Texas.
And after Texas added three wide receiver through the NCAA transfer portal, Livingstone’s skill set didn’t translate into much playing time as a freshman as he played only 28 snaps while redshirting, a difficult year for Livingstone magnified by an injury as a senior that essentially kept him off the field for two years.
“Always super energetic, positive, but he’s been doing that ever since he got here. He’s corrected and matured some things from last year to this year, but it’s always been, you throw him the ball, he’s going to come down with it, and it’s like, it’s not the flashy, Oh, this guy, like, he just, it’s really consistent, catches the ball when they throw it to him, runs perfect routes. And, you know, you get rewarded when you when you practice really hard,” Taaffe last week.
Livingstone was the recipient of Taaffe’s pre-game note before the season opener against Ohio State as Taaffe told the Lucas Lovejoy product to soak in the experience of his first start because he deserved the opportunity.
An emphasis on taking advantage of opportunities, including the extra reps available during the spring when junior wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. and sophomore wide receiver Ryan Wingo were both injured, has served Livingstone well, even though it wasn’t a flawless performance because of a holding penalty on the first play from scrimmage.
“The holding penalty was a great teachable moment. I really challenged our receivers on our perimeter blocking going into the game, in the run game and and on some of those perimeter screens,” Sarkisian said. “Parker’s a really conscientious guy, so he wasn’t going to be the guy that didn’t make his block. But a lesson learned is you have to let go — when the runner cuts up the field and he goes to react, you can’t tug him. That’s the easiest call for an official to make. You’ve got to let him go and trust that DeAndre is going to run through that. So I think he’ll learn from that.”
What impressed Sarkisian is how Livingstone responded to the penalty.
“He didn’t get down on himself. He just went right back to play, and he’s playing fast right now,” Sarkisian said. “He’s playing confident. I think he provides a real spark for us. I think the guys value his work ethic, and the fact that he’s making his plays is really uplifting, not only to the offense, but to the entire team.”
