Texas Football: Xavier Worthy is a superstar in the making

In a weekend where so many negatives emerged in such a short period of time for No. 21 ranked Texas football and new head coach Steve Sarkisian, there was one player that rose up above the rest for this team. Texas saw true freshman breakthrough wide receiver and former Michigan Wolverines commit Xavier Worthy come up huge for the offense in the Red River Rivalry game on Oct. 10 against the Oklahoma Sooners.

In a tragic second-half collapse for the Longhorns in Red River this weekend against head coach Lincoln Riley and the Sooners, Worthy came up with a gem performance on offense for his team. Outside of a special teams gaffe where Worthy fumbled the ball at a bad time in the fourth quarter, leading to an Oklahoma touchdown, this was a great game for an emerging talent for Sark.

Texas saw Worthy have a career outing where he registered 261 receiving yards on nine catches (good for around 29 yards per catch) and two touchdown catches. The game started off with a bang for Worthy, where he came up with a 75-yard touchdown catch where he took a screen pass to the house.

Worthy got Texas off and running in a hurry, and he also came up with a huge play late. You couldn’t ask for much more of an immediate response from a true freshman late in the game after his fumble on the kickoff return in the fourth quarter than the catch Worthy made in the dying minutes. Worthy came up with a huge touchdown catch to tie the game up for Texas late in the fourth quarter.

Unfortunately, the Texas defense couldn’t hold on Oklahoma’s final drive. Standout Oklahoma running back Kennedy Brooks went for a touchdown run of more than 30 yards with less than 10 seconds to go in the game.

Yet, Texas has to view this performance from Worthy as a positive point in an otherwise bad weekend in the midst of a terrible and historic collapse in Red River.

Worthy now has 25 catches for 531 receiving yards (21.2 yards per catch) and six touchdown catches. He tops the Big 12 in receiving yards, yards per catch, and receiving touchdowns so far this season. And his production thus far is good for top 15 in all three of those receiving stat categories.

But those are just the numbers that you see on the surface for Worthy. He ranked in the top five in receiving grade and offensive grade among wide receivers in Week 6. He ranks in the top 10 among receivers with at least 30 targets in the passing game this season in yards after the catch (254 YAC), and in the top five in yards after catch per reception (10.6).

Texas football has a bright future ahead with star frosh WR Xavier Worthy

Worthy has more than 250 yards after the catch on the season, which is good for best on the team by a good margin. And he has nine missed tackles forced and 17 first downs. He leads the Big 12 in missed tackles forced and ranks in the top four in first downs among wide receivers.

All of these numbers just highlight the importance of Worthy to what the Longhorns are doing through the air this fall. While redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jordan Whittington and redshirt junior Joshua Moore are important to what Texas does through the air, Worthy looks like he is the future of this passing attack.

If Texas can land a commitment from someone like the elite five-star Frisco-Liberty wide receiver Evan Stewart in the 2022 recruiting class, the future of this receiving corps is going to be insanely bright. A top trio in the receiving corps that includes Worthy, Whittington, and Stewart is mind-boggling for Texas fans.

Worthy is the prototypical lanky and explosive wide receiver that Sark loves to scheme open in space. Whittington and Moore both have bits and pieces of what Sark likes to have out of a prototypical standout wide receiver in his offensive scheme, but Worthy really fits the mold.

But for now, fans on the Forty Acres should be very excited about what’s to come for Worthy. He is the most productive true freshman wideout in the country this fall, and it’s not even close. The next best looks to be one of a group that includes Oklahoma’s Mario Williams and/or LSU’s Jack Bech, among others. But no other true freshman wideout even has even three-quarters the amount of receiving yards or receiving touchdowns compared to Worthy.

Worthy is going to make some real noise for Texas from here on out. It is not out of the question to expect that Worthy is going to join the 1,000-receiving yard club for the Longhorns this fall. And there is a lot more to come from him in his time left on the Forty Acres.

Following the 55-48 loss to Oklahoma in Red River this weekend, Worthy and the Longhorns carry a record of 4-2 (2-1 Big 12). It will be critical for the Longhorns to bounce back next weekend as they take on the No. 12 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys at home on Oct. 16.