Texas Football: Vince Young ranked among top QB recruits of all-time

Recruiting success is something that the Texas football program really became accustomed to since the turn of the century. Despite inconsistent results on the field in the last 20 years, success on the recruiting trail seems to be something of a given for this program. One of the position groups that Texas recruited particularly well at times in the last two decades was at quarterback.

About the best quarterback recruit in program history for the Longhorns (even preceding the age of online recruiting rankings) was the legendary dual-threat Vince Young. The signal caller that led the Longhorns and former head coach Mack Brown to win a National Championship by beating the USC Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl was a special player that will live on in the lore of this program’s history.

Moreover, the highest-rated quarterback recruits in the modern era of prospect rankings were released this week in a piece from 247Sports. Young actually wound up as the top-rated quarterback recruit in the modern era of college football recruiting rankings from 247Sports.

Former Texas football QB Vince Young was an elite recruit

The modern era of recruiting rankings really only existed since the turn of the century. And this list organized the top-rated signal callers as recruits since 2000. Here’s more on what this piece from 247Sports had to say about placing Young at the top of the list.

"Young is one of five players to receive a perfect grade from the composite. Back when Mack Brown was the king of recruiting in the state of Texas, there was never really a doubt where the state’s and nation’s best recruit in 2002 would attend. Young, blessed with size and athleticism that can best be described as “silky smooth,” was the talk of Houston as a high school senior, leading inner-city Madison to the 5A state semifinals."

Young had a tremendous career on the Forty Acres where he registered more than 6,000 passing yards, 44 passing touchdowns, 28 interceptions, more than 3,100 rushing yards, and 37 rushing touchdowns. He was about as electric as it got for quarterbacks around the college football landscape at the time.

And to say that VY was a highly touted recruit doesn’t describe it well enough. He is one of less than 10 perfect-rated recruits in 247Sports Composite and Top247 history. Young also ranked as the top overall high school prospect during the 2002 recruiting cycle.

Really the only two quarterbacks that came close since the turn of the century to matching the recruiting ranking of VY were Clemson Tigers’ star Trevor Lawrence and former Georgia signee Justin Fields. Texas also didn’t have any other quarterback recruits that came close to posting a perfect composite rankings in the last 20 years.

The latest five-star quarterback commit that the Longhorns reeled in came in their 2022 recruiting class, with the elite Junipero Serra product Maalik Murphy. He is part of a building 2022 class for the Longhorns that could be one of the best since the turn of the century.