Texas Football Recruiting: Evaluating 2017 Class Before National Signing Day
Even after Tom Herman’s hiring in November, Texas Football would be able to develop an intriguing recruiting class before National Signing Day.
On February 1, National Signing Day will take place and see plenty of recruits from the 2017 pool of players commit to a school. It’s typically the most active recruiting day of the college football year, something that Tom Herman and Texas Football will likely be active in, if the past two months have been any indication.
From the start of Herman’s tenure in Austin, he would be aggressive in pursuing other recruits. More specifically, he went after athletes already committed to other programs like Georgia and Oklahoma State to add to what Charlie Strong already did. A majority of the commitments have stuck around from Strong’s era since Herman officially took over, except for Lagaryonn Carson, whose status remains up in the air heading into February.
The most significant holdover from the Strong era is four-star, dual-threat quarterback, Sam Ehlinger. He missed the majority of his 2016 high school season with a thumb injury, but has a 5,000-plus yard season to back him up from 2015, 1,360 yards of which came on the ground.
Look for the Austin native to potentially compete with Shane Buechele for the starting quarterback job in the spring. Buechele showed plenty of promise during Year 1, becoming possibly the Longhorns’ best passer since the Colt McCoy days and a far cry from the Tyrone Swoopes era.
However, an element of Herman’s offensive schemes has always been to have a running quarterback (e.g. Greg Ward Jr. at Houston, and Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett at Ohio State). Buechele came into Texas as a dual-threat, but only had 97 carries for 151 yards. It’s only after one year, but it could be a reason to suspect that either his speed isn’t translating to the college level, or Strong didn’t create as many designed running plays out of the read option. If Herman sees enough in Ehlinger’s ability to use his legs to create offense, could that mean we get a quarterback change?
Running backs have also been an early focus, as Doak Walker Award winner D’Onta Foreman is being replaced. Toneil Carter and Daniel Young have both been flipped from their previous commitments to join Texas, and should be given an opportunity to carry the bulk of work in camp. This is even with Chris Warren III returning from an injury. We could see multiple running backs get a chance at trying to break out come next season, with one potentially establishing themself midway through the fall.
Perhaps the most intriguing additions have come from the defensive side, specifically top JUCO inside linebacker, Gary Johnson. He’s one of the fastest at his position in the 2017 class and a tackling machine, having the ability to bolt into the backfield to get the sack or tackle for loss.
What’s positive about the Johnson addition is he may slide into the front seven and push others to their more natural positions, especially Malik Jefferson. If players can get comfortable in Todd Orlando’s new scheme, then maybe brighter days are to come for the Texas defense.
Herman has found depth at other positions as well. He brought in tight ends Cade Brewer and Reese Leitao to establish one of the weakest parts of the offense. These two will be able to factor into the run blocking schemes given his power run system, which will see the tight ends used to help open up space for the running backs. Both will be intriguing to see who breaks out in the passing game, however.
Next: Texas Loses Recruiting Battle for Top Player
With National Signing Day only days away, Herman’s first recruiting class will further develop, and lead to everyone being able to see the vision he has for the Texas Football team in 2017 and beyond. Who else will join UT by the 1st?