I’ve been following Texas recruiting for forty years. Which means nothing, because this environment is different from what we’ve seen before and Sark’s recruiting approach is different from any Texas coach we’ve seen before.
For example- Mack Brown used recruiting to get talent into the program, and he was good at it. For Sark, recruiting is just the first step of amassing talent. The next steps- the conditioning, the coaching, the drill work- Brown never had it like this. He is Saban-like in how he recruits guys that have the potential to be NFL guys, and are willing to work to be NFL players.
The funny thing is g about recruiting is how many blue chips miss. Nationwide, about half the five stars (the “sure things”) make the NFL (and at Texas, from about 2009-2020, it was a lot less than half), about 1/4 of the four stars, and so on. Sark is outperforming those percentages.
Some of you know more about what’s going on inside the program. I wonder if the long period between summer and NSD is an evaluation time for Texas? Is Sark using that time to figure out who is serious about doing the work to develop their potential (and is worth setting a market for), and who (like so many blue chips Brown, Strong and Herman signed) just wants to parlay athletic potential into a fun college experience? I think it’s very telling that, unlike Mack’s most talented teams (the “family environment”), and like Saban’s, Sark’s guys leave for the draft as soon as they can (too much work at Texas to do for Anything less than the best pay you can get). The players like it here, but a big part of the sell is that Texas will work you hard, but it’s worth it because Texas will get you to the league.
Texas wants to sign the best, and some blue chips are worth setting a market for, and others aren’t, and I don’t think Sark is in a rush to figure out which are which.