Texas Football: 5 biggest recruiting busts of the Charlie Strong era

Ryan Newsome, WR

Recruiting Class: 2015 (No. 220 in 247Sports Composite)

Texas’ passing game was pretty lackluster during the Strong era on the Forty Acres, which largely came due to the run-heavy offensive style that the Longhorns played throughout most of his tenure with the program.

Thus, the wide receiver production for the Longhorns in the mid-2010s ceased to amaze throughout.

And one of the casualties of the lackluster production from the passing game for Texas during Strong’s tenure as the head coach was the former talented blue-chip recruit out of Aledo High School Ryan Newsome. The 5-foot-9 and 180-pound slot wideout was a talented recruit from a little bit west of Fort Worth.

Newsome was a huge get for the Longhorns in the 2015 class at the time. Texas was able to flip his commitment from the UCLA Bruins on signing day 2015, which gave the Longhorns one of its two blue-chip wideouts in that class.

Yet, Newsome was never able to make much of a dent in terms of his production on the field during his limited time at Texas. Newsome only played one season at Texas, which saw him haul in four catches for 23 yards and no touchdown catches in 2015. He only played four games that season, getting targets in two of them.

After spending one year at Texas, Newsome transferred to Arizona State to play out the rest of his collegiate career. Newsome also made limited contributions during his four years at Arizona State, reeling in 15 catches for a little under 200 receiving yards and no touchdowns. Newsome also got some work on special teams during his time at Arizona State, including more than a dozen punt and kick returns for the Sun Devils from 2017-2019.