Texas Football: Sark can make Ja’Tavion Sanders a great player
The top rated signee in the 2021 Texas football recruiting class, the elite five-star Denton-Ryan athlete Ja’Tavion Sanders, has a lot of potential in his first year on the Forty Acres. Sanders was the lone five-star signee in the 2021 class for newly hired head coach Steve Sarkisian. As a whole, keeping Sanders signed in the 2021 class after Sark replaced the now former fourth-year head coach Tom Herman back on Jan. 2 was a big win for this program.
Getting Sanders on board as an early enrollee to get him set for spring ball is just an added bonus. Anytime a highly coveted recruit/signee such as the Denton, TX, native Sanders is able to land on the Forty Acres a semester early could mean getting a leg up on the rest of the competition.
Keeping Sanders signed in the Longhorns 2021 class had to be a top priority for Sark and his new look coaching staff. Sanders is a very versatile athlete that can play on either side of the ball. But it’s hard to tell what Sark and co. are planning to do with Sanders positionally just ahead of the start of spring ball.
Options for Texas football with Sanders
Given the player development capability that new Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski showed during his time as the co-defensive coordinator under former head coach Chris Petersen with the Washington Huskies, he should be able to do great things with Sanders if his plays on this side of the ball. Texas would clearly do well with Sanders playing in the receiving corps (more specifically likely at the tight end position) for Sark and new offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood.
Pretty much all of the snaps that Sanders played at Denton-Ryan High School were either at defensive end or tight end. In the last three years combined playing for Denton-Ryan on the defensive side of the ball, Sanders registered 93 combined tackles, 43 tackles for loss, nine pass breakups, three forced fumbles, two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.
On the offensive side of the ball, Sanders registered 2,297 receiving yards and 28 touchdown catches in the last three years combined for Denton-Ryan.
It’s clear that Sark could have Sanders make a huge impact whether he plays on either side of the ball. Texas was able to sign the nation’s No. 12 2021 high school prospect, top overall athlete, and No. 2 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite) in Sanders. And the Top247 ranked him as the nation’s No. 29 high school prospect, top overall athlete, and No. 3 prospect out of Texas.
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Under the direction of now former fourth-year head coach Tom Herman, the Longhorns finished up with a record of 7-3 (5-3 Big 12) last season. Herman was replaced by Sark as head coach largely due to the lack of consistent results on the field and/or on the recruiting trail.