Texas Football: What would Sugar Bowl win do for Longhorns recruiting

The impact that a New Year’s Six Bowl game win can do for a rising blue blood program like Texas football stem beyond the current locker room.

How far a win in a New Year’s Six Bowl game victory stretches in terms of the impact it makes for a program like Texas football can be difficult to determine. Since Texas football is facing a team in the Georgia Bulldogs that it doesn’t compete with for many recruits, it can be tough to tell how many prospects a monumental win like this could sway.

The fact of the matter is that a win over an SEC opponent in the Allstate Sugar Bowl could do wonders for the next two Texas football recruiting classes, or it could have a very minimal immediate impact. The institution of the Early Signing Period took a lot of the significance of bowl season out of the equation for some later commitment decisions. But, there’s still a full recruiting cycle for the Texas Longhorns to pull together the 2020 class, and beating Georgia could help to land some additional interest for the few uncommitted prospects left.

For this 2019 Texas football recruiting class, there’s still a few commits hanging in the balance that could impact its final national class ranking. According to 247Sports Team Composite Rankings as of Dec. 31, this Texas football recruiting class ranks at No. 9 in the nation for the 2019 cycle. The 2020 class has even more work to do for the Horns.

However, the point of emphasis for the Horns on the recruiting trail should now be to pitch the rise of the program and potentially a Sugar Bowl win. Commitment decisions that hang in the balance from top Texas football recruiting targets like five-star athlete Bru McCoy and four-star safety Jalen Catalon could be swayed by the Horns winning the Sugar Bowl over the Dawgs.

The impact that a Sugar Bowl victory would make for the 2019 and 2020 Texas football recruiting classes would stem beyond some important pledge announcements looming. It would give head coach Tom Herman the momentum he needs to make waves on the recruiting trail heading into the 2019 off-season.

Since the 2018 off-season was a roller coaster ride for the Horns on the recruiting trail, a double-digit win season and a marquee victory in a New Year’s Six Bowl game could steady out those results this time around. There’s not much more the Horns could prove to its recruiting targets than beating one of the clear top five best teams in the nation this year, on the national stage of the Sugar Bowl.

Texas also couldn’t hope for a much better sign of progress, realistically, than Herman leading his squad to a Sugar Bowl victory over the national title runner-ups from last season. Georgia is a very formidable team that is one of the top recruiting programs in the nation. Getting the leg up over them on the field could make for a huge breakthrough on the recruiting trail.

The 2019 and 2020 classes for the Horns are off to good starts, but the college football nation will be watching as this team tries to cap a magical 2018 campaign with a win on New Years Day. The 2020 class especially could use the boost from some added interest from a Sugar Bowl win since it only has two commits now and ranks below the top 15 classes in the nation.