Over the last several years, one of the most persistent preseason storylines is whether Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian will expand his notably tight wide receiver rotation.
Asked on Monday about his “circle of trust” at the position, Sarkisian put the onus on his players to earn their playing time.
“I think ultimately the players kind of determine that. To go in and say, ‘Hey, I want to play seven guys or whatever the number is,’ they earn that trust of what the capacity is in which we
can play them if they’re in the ball game,” Sarkisian said.
The top three receivers — junior transfer Cam Coleman, junior Ryan Wingo, and junior Emmett Mosley — are well within that circle of trust for Sarkisian and position coach Chris Jackson and need little introduction. Any rotation behind those three players will require one of them coming off the field, with available snaps for those three standouts already limited by Sarkisian’s preference to frequently use two tight ends.
So, beyond managing in-game load for the top players, can the backups play well enough during preseason camp and non-conference opportunities to earn the level of trust necessary to earn snaps? Four of the six backups already have.
“I think Daylan McCutcheon has kind of earned our trust. He knows what we do, how we do, why we do,” Sarkisian said.
The sophomore has already provided some production for the Longhorns after recording seven catches for 74 yards last season after arriving as a polished route runner with quickness and strong hands.
“I think Kaliq Lockett has really come a long way to get himself into a position where we’re running him a lot right now because he’s playing a ton of special teams, which is great for him, so we had to manage his rep count, but he’s earned that trust,” Sarkisian said.
The special teams nugget with Lockett is an interesting admission because Lockett was held off of special teams last season as he redshirted.
On offense as a true freshman, the former consensus five-star prospect flashed in the Citrus Bowl win over Michigan with a 30-yard touchdown catch that demonstrated some ball skills, but since it came on a go route, it’s not exactly an indication that he’s on track to become a nuanced route runner, a critical step to turn his prodigious raw ability into a more refined package.
“I think Sterling Berkhalter is a guy that knows systematically what we do, and so there’s some trust there,” Sarkisian said.
A Wake Forest, Cincinnati, and NC A&T transfer with nearly 1,400 career snaps that have produced 76 receptions for 1,083 yards and six touchdowns over four seasons across three programs, Berkhalter has a combination of maturity and proven production in addition to another edge that allowed him to acclimate quickly on the Forty Acres.
“He brings experience,” Sark said during the spring. “He played a very similar system at Wake Forest and had a very productive year last year for them. I think he brings experience. I think the understanding schematically of what we do. I think he brings maturity. He’s a very no-nonsense guy. He’s very coachable.”
In spring practice, Berkhalter also flashed some ball skills after making six contested catches in nine opportunities last season.
“The thing that he’s been doing this spring is he’s been making plays,” Sarkisian said. “He’s been making plays on 50/50 balls. I feel very comfortable when he’s in right now. And I think that’s the sense of maturity and confidence and a guy that’s been doing it a while. So he’s been a very nice addition.”
Of the three freshman receivers, Jermaine Bishop is the most likely to earn a package of plays to take advantage of his explosiveness.
“I think of the young guys, Jermaine Bishop is a guy that that has shown can play all three positions,” Sarkisian said. “I think he had four catches Saturday, three of those four came on third-down conversions, and so you talk about earning trust — making those plays on those critical downs is critical.”
The snap count for the other two freshmen, Kohan Brown and Chris Stewart, will likely only come at the end of blowouts.
“Kohan and Chris, I think one of the big things is we know the skill set, and now it’s getting their comfort level systematically with what they do, but both those guys are very talented, they’re very fast,” Sarkisian said.
If that’s a snapshot of the current wide receiver corps, what do the last six years of Sarkisian’s wide receiver rotations indicate about how much he tends to actually trust his backups?
For the 2020 national-title winning Crimson Tide, five receivers played 100 or more snaps, but significant caveats apply — in a top-heavy group that featured three collegiate stars, Jaylen Waddle suffered a major lower-leg injury in late October that forced Slade Bolden into the rotation. And Javon Baker only reached the 100-snap threshold by playing in a number of conference blowouts.
In Sarkisian’s first season on the Forty Acres, five wide receivers reached that threshold, largely because someone had to be on the field after Jordan Whittington suffered a broken clavicle against Oklahoma that kept him out until the final two regular-season games. As indicated by the limited snap counts for well-regarded recruits who ended their Texas careers as busts in Al’vonte Woodward and Montrell Estell, there simply weren’t many quality options beyond freshman wide receiver Xavier Worthy once Whittington went down as Joshua Moore’s production decreased even prior to a late-season altercation with the coaching staff in practice.
The circle of trust constricted to Worthy and Whittington in 2022 as Sarkisian played reserve offensive lineman Andrej Karic more than 150 snaps as a blocking tight end, in part because heralded transfer wide receiver Isaiah Neyor tore his ACL during preseason camp and the incoming recruiting class provided little help — Brenen Thompson had to transfer twice to make an impact on a bad team and Savion Red was a desperate late addition to the class after following numerous misses.
The transfer portal addition of Georgia wide receiver AD Mitchell in 2023 was a much more successful move, affording Sarkisian three legitimate options at the position with some limited support from freshmen Johntay Cook and DeAndre Moore Jr., as well as Casey Cain.
The 2024 wide receiver corps may be the most comparable of the Sarkisian era at Texas with six players seeing 100-plus snaps, although how the season ended may be the most instructive in illustrating the need for quality depth. After Cook’s early-November departure, the Horns dealt with injuries down the stretch as Isaiah Bond struggled with an ankle sprain for most of the season, Moore had to undergo postseason surgery for turf toe, and Golden played limited snaps in the College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Ohio State, forcing dynamic punt returner Silas Bolden into a larger role on offense.
Injuries impacted the 2025 rotation, too, as Moore’s early-season concussion forced McCutcheon onto the field as a true freshman, along with a preseason camp injury sustained by Mosley, which delayed his Texas debut until the SEC opener. Beyond the injury-related playing time for McCutcheon, the three heralded freshmen largely weren’t able to earn the coaching staff’s trust, even as other injuries and ineffectiveness made the snap-leading Wingo the least-played No. 1 option of the last six years under Sarkisian.
Those six years are a large enough sample size to indicate that the Texas head coach does have a strong preference for a short rotation at wide receiver only really altered by injuries. And what does the usage of freshmen indicate for Bishop’s chances at playing time this year? Unless you’re Xavier Worthy or Ryan Wingo, it’s just not really going to happen.
The level of trust that Sarkisian indicated in four backups is the best indication in Sarkisian’s tenure that seven players could go above the 100-snap mark. But that still feels unlikely absent the type of long season Horns expect to play and the concurrent injuries that go along with nine conference games, a marquee non-conference tilt against No. 1 Ohio State, the possibility of a conference championship game, and as many as four CFP games.
In the best-case scenario, even with good injury luck, the experience of a backup like Berkhalter or the explosiveness of Lockett could be the difference between achieving the team’s lofty goal and falling just short like the Longhorns did against the Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl.
But as much trust as Sarkisian may say he has in the backups, history shows that he’s going to stick with his top options for heavy snaps.
