Texas Football: 4 most surprising commits the Horns stole from OU

Ta’Quon Graham, DE

Texas got a lot of value out of the former senior standout defensive end Ta’Quon Graham in the latter years of his career on the Forty Acres. As one of the bigger parts of the first signing class for former Texas head coach Tom Herman back during the 2017 recruiting cycle, Graham looked like he would make an early impact with this program.

The former four-star recruit and Temple High School product (TX) showed promise early in his career with the Longhorns. But it took a bit more time for the production to round out on the field for Graham. The most productive seasons for Graham came during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Between those two campaigns, Graham registered 18 tackles for loss, five sacks, one pass breakup, and one fumble recovery, in just over 20 games played.

Graham was a force setting the edge for the Longhorns. He was definitely one of the bigger bodies to play as a defensive end for Texas under former defensive coordinators Chris Ash and Todd Orlando too. At 6-foot-3 and 295 pounds, Graham was a hard defensive end to move off of the line of scrimmage.

Texas did well to land Graham over competing schools like Oklahoma and the TCU Horned Frogs.

It was former Texas defensive line coach Oscar Giles that was the primary recruiter after Graham during the 2017 cycle. Despite some late pushes from Oklahoma and TCU to get visits in with Graham prior to National Signing Day 2017, Texas was able to hang onto his commitment. And it was well worth it for this program.

Graham was picked up by the Atlanta Falcons in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft, and he’s about to take part in his rookie campaign at the next level this fall.