Texas Football: How JK Dobbins nearly ended up a Longhorn

A key cog in the Ohio State Buckeyes football machine, running back JK Dobbins, nearly wound up playing for Texas football.

The 2017 Texas football recruiting class featured a bevy of big names that either signed with the program and are still on the roster or were offered and chose to take their talents elsewhere. One key target of the 2017 Texas football recruiting class that ultimately elected to take his talents elsewhere is the former four-star La Grange, TX, all-purpose running back JK Dobbins.

Entering the 2019 regular season, Dobbins is a premier running back in the nation as the starter in the backfield for head coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes. He’s also just one of a number of key skill position recruits that hail from the state of Texas that wound up choosing Ohio State over the Texas Longhorns football program.

The final set of 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions for Dobbins before he committed and signed his National Letter of Intent to play for Ohio State actually favored Texas over any other program. The top two programs listed in that final set of Crystal Ball Predictions were actually Texas and the Oklahoma Sooners.

Each and every recruiting cycle, there will be at least one player that the Longhorns miss out on that is confusing and the fans would want to have on the Forty Acres. The current running back situation at hand for head Texas football coach Tom Herman would lead almost anyone to believe that having Dobbins in the mix would be very beneficial now.

In a piece where Dobbins opened up with Sports Day of the Dallas Morning News, he gave a similar explanation that five-star 2019 wide receiver Garrett Wilson had for why he picked the Buckeyes over the Longhorns. He stated this about the former coaching regime with the Texas football program:

"“Charlie Strong was the coach of Texas at the time and I knew that program wasn’t stable,” Dobbins said. “I know you’re not supposed to pick a school for the coaches, but that played a big part in it. I knew [Strong being fired] was going to happen.”"

Dobbins also mentioned in the piece that he grew up a huge fan of the Longhorns. Picking a school as far away from home as Ohio State had to be a tough decision for him when it was all said and done. But Ohio State worked out well for him thus far.

However, the confusing part about the college pick for Dobbins is what he told 247Sports when he was still entering his junior season at La Grange High School.

"”I know that UT won the national championship in 2005,” Dobbins said. “I can’t think of all the things right now about them though. I’ve visited Texas for the orange and white game. I’ve visited them two more times this year for track, and one was for the Texas Relays and this weekend ill be there for the state track meet. My thoughts on Charlie Strong are that he’s going to turn the program back around. He’s an outstanding coach and that he’s not only building great football players, but he wants his players to have character.”"

Dobbins seemingly bought full into what former Texas head coach Charlie Strong brought to the table prior to the 2015 season. But there was a lot that transpired for the Longhorns between when Dobbins was interviewed for that piece and when he signed with Ohio State in January 2017. Texas already had a new head coach, with Tom Herman hired away from the Houston Cougars in December 2016, by the time National Signing Day 2017 arrived.

The allure of playing for former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer had to draw the attention and intrigue from a highly touted top 50 ranked 2017 high school prospect in the nation like Dobbins. He was a very talented player that wanted to play for a team that had won the first ever College Football Playoff National Championship Game a few years earlier.

All in all, Dobbins held more than 20 scholarship offers coming out of La Grange during the 2017 recruiting cycle. The highlights of his offer sheet included the Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida Gators, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Tennessee Volunteers, Texas A&M Aggies, and USC Trojans. Add all of those blue bloods to the offers Dobbins held from Texas, Ohio State, and Oklahoma and you get a kid with a ton of national recruiting attention coming his way.

Alabama tried to make a big final push for Dobbins, offering him back in June 2016 after he was already committed to Ohio State. It appears that his final decision encompassed Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, and Oklahoma more than any other school. If not for a down 2015 campaign for the “Stronghorns”, then we might be looking at Dobbins wearing the burnt orange instead of Buckeye red.