Texas Football: 5 big recruits the Longhorns landed over Jimbo Fisher

In the past decade, the Texas football program remained one of the most formidable of any on the recruiting trail among all Power Five conference schools. As the success in the win column did wane a bit for Texas over the past decade, their success on the recruiting trail really did not. Outside of a few coaching regime transitions, Texas held steady as a contender to boast top-five ranked recruiting classes each passing cycle throughout the 2010s and early 2020s.

Now under the direction of newly hired head coach Steve Sarkisian, it looks like the Longhorns should keep their status as one of the premier recruiting schools in the entire country throughout the next decade. No signs linger that the Longhorns are going to lose their edge on the recruiting trail anytime soon. This program just has too many resources to fail in that regard.

Can someone like Jimbo Fisher challenge Texas football recruiting?

Texas is once again looking to have a top-five ranked recruiting class in the nation for the 2022 cycle. According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the 2022 Texas recruiting class now ranks at No. 8 in the nation and in the second spot in the Big 12 behind the Oklahoma Sooners. There’s still a long way to go for this cycle, but the Longhorns have a bright outlook.

A constant impediment to the Longhorns’ success on the recruiting trail is rival programs like the Sooners and Texas A&M Aggies. The likes of Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley and Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher can eat away at some of the success that the Longhorns get on the trail.

But if Sark is to continue the pedigree of success that the Longhorns found on the recruiting trail in the past two decades, he’ll have to beat out one or both head coaches.

With that in mind, here’s a look back at five times the Longhorns beat out Jimbo for key targets on the recruiting trail in the past five cycles.