AUSTIN, Texas — As Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian likes to point out, top prospects have differing developmental trajectories that demand nuance to accurately assess, negating the viability of snap judgements from outside the football facility.
Put redshirt freshman safety Xavier Filsaime firmly into the category of defying snap judgements — the 6’1, 194-pounder was a consensus five-star prospect in the 2024 recruiting class ranked as the No. 37 player nationally and the No. 2 safety,
according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, but only played 25 snaps over three games as a freshman, notably failing to earn a spot on any special teams units.
“Your freshman year in college is your freshman year in college. We were all there,” Sarkisian said on Monday.
It was still a potentially concerning development for a player with all the physical tools for the safety position and special teams. Long and rangy, Filsaime ran multiple sub-10.6 100-meter dashes in the spring of 2022, a testament to this athleticism notable enough that redshirt senior safety Michael Taaffe could cite it specifically in a media availability on Tuesday because it makes Filsaime one of the fastest players on a team with plenty of speed.
But if the McKinney product who was a late flip from Florida was behind his ideal developmental trajectory last season, he’s on track now after an offseason of maturation.
“He’s grown his game mentally so much from freshman to sophomore year, so when you put the athletic ability with the mental side, it clicks, and he’s scary,” Taaffe said.
In high school, things came easily enough for Filsaime to require an adjustment period in college to achieve the day-to-day seriousness off the field to make an impact on the field.
According to junior linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., the manifestation of Filsaime’s mental maturation has allowed him to become one of the best young communicators in the secondary and earn practice reps with the first-team and second-team defenses for the Longhorns.
So Filsaime is now in the mix to become the team’s fourth safety behind Taaffe and juniors Jelani McDonald and Derek Williams with Sarkisian indicating that he’ll play a a role on special teams this season beside sophomore Jordon Johnson-Rubell, his classmate in 2024 who was prepared enough as a true freshman to play 40 snaps on special teams and almost 80 snaps on defense.
“They’ve got Coach [Duane] Akina yelling at them all day long, so they’ll get there. I’m sure they want to get there sooner rather than later,” Sarkisian said.
“But as I told them, he’s not going to stop yelling at you, because I hear him yelling at Michael Taaffe every day, too, and you think he’s perfect, and he can’t get anything wrong, but he’s screaming at Michael Taaffe, too. So the development doesn’t stop, but all those young guys are making good strides.”
