Texas Football: 5 biggest recruiting busts of the Charlie Strong era
Derick Roberson, DE
Recruiting Class: 2014 (No. 66 in 247Sports Composite)
The highest-rated recruit that Strong and the Longhorns signed in the 2014 class was the high-four-star out of San Antonio (TX) Brennan High School, strong-side defensive end Derick Roberson. The 6-foot-4 and 235-pound defensive end/edge rusher had the makings of a future star for the Longhorns when he arrived on campus in 2014.
Roberson had a lot of hype as an incredibly quick defensive end with violent hands and a lot of bend. The plays he was thought to make at the collegiate level as a pass rusher and to blow up the ball carrier in the opposing team’s backfields were mind-boggling.
Yet, Roberson is another case of a player that showed flashes on the field in limited reps for one year. Roberson registered five combined tackles, four defensive stops, eight quarterback pressures, two sacks, and one forced fumble in a little more than 100 defensive snaps during his second year as a Longhorn in 2015.
Roberson definitely showed flashes of becoming a dominant force off the edge as a pass rusher. But he didn’t have the time or the snap load to do it on a consistent basis at Texas. And before he could realize any long-term potential at Texas, Roberson transferred to Sam Houston State after his sophomore campaign in 2016.
A while back, when Roberson first transferred from Texas to Sam Houston State during the 2016 offseason, Jeff Howe of Horns247 characterized him as the “team’s biggest bust from that class”.
It’s worth noting that these are some of the other prospects that ranked among the 10 best out of the state of Texas in the 2014 class alongside Roberson.
- Myles Garrett, DE
- Jamal Adams, S
- KD Cannon, WR
- Solomon Thomas, DL
The class of 2014 was pretty loaded in Texas.
And Roberson did eventually live up to the hype. He just did so during the final year of his collegiate career at Sam Houston State. Roberson was an FCS First-Team All-American for Sam Houston State in 2018 as he registered a whopping 20.5 tackles for loss, 15 sacks, 68 combined tackles, five forced fumbles, and two pass deflections.
Next. 5 biggest recruiting busts of the Tom Herman era. dark
After Roberson’s stellar senior campaign at Sam Houston State in 2018, he signed with the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent during the 2019 offseason. He played 16 games so far during his pro career with the Titans (from 2019-2021), registering 26 combined tackles, six tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, one forced fumble, and nine QB hits.