SOTC Update: Texas Longhorns

The Longhorns had a largely successful 2024 season. How can they, with so much talent leaving, stay amongst the elite for 2025. This is the State of the Chart update for the Texas Longhorns...

Feb 14, 2025

State of the Chart™ Recap Edition

Live All-In Ranking: 4th
Offense: 9th
Defense: 3rd
2024 Results: 13-3 (7-1 in SEC)

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|||||| STATE OF THE CHART™ SUMMARY

Texas is officially back amongst college football’s elite. They are accumulating talent and turning it into wins. That said, they still need to get over the hump and win the ‘big games’ against the other elite squads. They lost twice to Georgia and once to eventual national champion Ohio State. That’s nothing to be ashamed of — but the next step is winning those games and reigning supreme. Their head coach is dedicated and committed, having shunned the NFL to stick around and see this through. They go from a very good quarterback to a transition to a new next-level quarterback to lead the offense. The defense was simply elite and only had a few let downs throughout the season. They snuck out what ended up being a close quarter final matchup against Arizona State, showing they had the stones to step up when it was needed most. They remain a recruit and develop-minded squad and they have accumulated a ton of young high school talent. They hit the portal to supplement on the defensive line and with so many youngsters chomping at the bit to get more in the rotation, that defensive unit should remain elite. They are losing a lot to the NFL on offense, but, again, it’s just ‘next man up’ from an array of talented players already on the roster. The goal now becomes to go from one of the elite — to the true elite — by winning a National Championship.

|||||| HEAD COACH AND COACHING STAFF

Steve Sarkisian has officially resurrected this program back to the top of the college football world. Sure, they didn’t win a National Title, but this roster continues to be loaded with talent and he is committed to seeing it through after turning down NFL interview opportunities to stay in Austin. The next logical step is to get over the hump and win the College Football Playoff.

Coaching Staff Notes/Changes:

Safeties coach Blake Gideon is moving up the ladder as he takes the offensive coordinator job at Georgia Tech. He was with the Longhorns from 2021 through this last season and now gets a shot to call plays for the Yellow Jackets. Sark moved quickly to find his replacement as they hired Rutgers’ CB coach Mark Orphey.
Running backs coach Tashard Choice has moved to the NFL’s Detroit Lions. He is reunited with Jahmyr Gibbs, whom he coached while with Georgia Tech, before Gibbs moved to Alabama for his final collegiate season. This creates an opening at the running back spot for the Longhorns.
The other move made this off-season was hiring Ohio State graduate assistant LaAllan Clark to coach the outside linebackers.

Update (2/25): Safeties coach and passing game coordinator Terry Joseph is leaving the program, accepting a position the NFL’s New Orleans Saints.

Note: This is a “dynamic” article; meaning we will update any information that comes in this “off-season” and post a note when impactful moves are made or news breaks.

|||||| 2024 SCHEDULE / RESULTS ANALYSIS

When looking back at the 2024 season, one things stands out. They lost to only two teams. One of which was the eventual National Champion (Ohio State). The other was another national power who won two in the past four years (Georgia). It just so happens, the Longhorns fell to Kirby Smart and company twice, including in the SEC Championship game. That loss forced them into a first round game against Clemson, the only other active head coach with a National Title (Dabo Swinney). They handled the Tigers with relative ease and then looked to be cruising to an easy victory against upstart Arizona State in the second round. They needed to convert a fourth-and-long play in overtime to extend that one and ended up winning by eight (slightly mis-leading final score). They ran out of gas against the Buckeyes to bring this season to a close. They handled their business against Michigan (in Ann Arbor) and in a big rivalry renewal game at Texas A&M. Those were their most impressive wins of the season. Our ‘deserved Wins’ (dWIN) metric has them at 12.7 meaning they did deserve the wins they got. Unfortunately, they were just not up to snuff against the best of the best and came up short.

||||||| POSITION GROUP CHECK-INS

OFFENSE: As was fully expected, this was one of the most potent attacks in all of football. Led by a massive offensive line that protected prized quarterback Quinn Ewers beautifully all season long and led to a passing offense ranked towards the top in efficiency across the board. Had the run game held up their end of the bargain, this could have been historic. Instead, they managed just 158.7 yards/game (ranked: 74th). They were, at times, one dimensional and Ewers, while very good, did make some mistakes as teams sat back and read his eyes. They were explosive (again, in the pass game) with some playmakers at wide receiver, managing 54 plays of over 30+ yards through the air. Sark continues to call plays and is a master of the scripted drive to start games and coming out of the break. There will be a changing of the guard at quarterback in 2025 and the much anticipated debut as the full-time starter for Arch Manning.

||| QB

Quinn Ewers ended up being ‘as advertised’ after coming over from his original commitment to Ohio State. He now ends his collegiate career and gives way to the most obvious heir apparent in the game today, one Arch Manning. Manning will have plenty of weapons and support to succeed right away. He’ll have three years of eligibility remaining, but would be eligible to enter the NFL Draft after the 2025 season. Something to keep an eye on. Trey Owens looks set to return as the primary backup.

||| RB

It’s easy to forget that this room took a big shot when CJ Baxter, the expected returning starter, suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first full pads practice of pre-season. Quintrevion Wisner, Jaydon Blue and Jerrick Gibson all contributed and had their moments. Wisner wound up really showing well despite a bit of inconsistency when facing the top run defenses. He and Baxter likely form a top 1-2 combo in 2025 as Blue heads to the NFL.

||| WR

This room is/was not just talented, but deep. There were waves of players who could step up an make a big play or have a big game for the offense. Matthew Golden (former Houston) led the way with DeAndre Moore Jr. making his presence known from the slot. Isaiah Bond and true freshman Ryan Wingo were the next wave and Silas Bolden also make an appearance with 23 catches after coming over from Oregon State. Golden and Bond are headed to the NFL. This room will have plenty of options for Manning in 2025.

||| TE

Gunnar Helm was a huge part of this offense and really never came off the field. He ended up leading the team in receptions and showed well in pass protection. It's little surprise he will leave early to play on Sundays. Backup Juan Davis is out of eligibility and former Alabama Amari Niblack hits the portal. So, we're looking at sophomores Spencer Shannon and Jordan Washington getting a chance to show what they can do. It would not surprise if a portal add was made here to replace Helm.

||| OL

This is one of the best offensive line groups in the nation. They dealt with some injuries in the playoff run and didn’t seem to miss a beat. They were particularly adept in pass protection. They were only outplayed in instances against other ‘big boys’ up front (like Georgia 2x and Ohio State). They will be losing 4/5 starters here and need to rebuild this up. Frankly, the backups would have made up an SEC-caliber unit and they may have to in 2025. It will be interesting to see if they hit the portal to supplement or handle it all in-house.

DEFENSE: It’s almost shocking to say that this defense outshone the offense on most occasions this season. They were down right smothering. Here are some fun numbers for you. 15.3 points per game (4th in FBS), 283.4 yards per game (3rd), 46 sacks (15th) and 112 tackles for loss (5th). They were just relentless in the front seven, camping out in opposing backfields. They also had the secondary (and scheme) to shut down even the most dominant playmakers in our game (see: Jeremiah Smith in the semi-final). Even when teams did eventually make their way into the red zone, the Longhorns snuffed them out most of the time (46% touchdown rate allowed; ranked 7th). They dominated on third down, allowing just a 31.4% conversion rate (9th) and we just couldn’t find any major flaws or achilles heels — other than, well, Georgia’s offense. And, maybe losing focus a bit against Arizona State in the second round playoff game. Overall, this was a wrecking ball in 2024.

||| DL

This is where it all starts for the Longhorns. In the trenches. This group caused all kinds of havoc and went nine deep in the rotation to keep guys fresh. Barryn Sorrell finished up his career with a nine sack campaign. Colin Simmons, a five-star true freshman established himself as a top threat right away, getting nine sacks himself. With five rotation members (including Sorrell) moving on, this group still returns a lot and it is the one area they have dedicated resources to in the portal. Cole Brevard is a nice pickup from Purdue.

||| LB

Another solid (and deep) group of linebackers to team up for a super talented front seven. Anthony Hill Jr. has lived up to his 5-star hype. Fellow sophomore Liona Lefau also chipped in nicely. David Gbenda was really good in his final year of eligbility. Morice Blackwell Jr. was a part-time player while true freshman Ty’Anthony Smith got some much needed experience in a limited role. They landed a really good transfer from Arkansas as Brad Spence will head over after a really solid year for the Razorbacks. This unit will be just as good in 2025.

||| DB

This secondary was littered with impact players up-and-down the rotation. The combination of Jahdae Barron, Michael Taaffe and Andrew Mukuba was about as good as it gets. The collective stepped up and convinced Taaffe to stick around for this final year. Malik Muhammad was a top cover corner and he returns as well. Barron and Mukuba are headed out, but that just means ‘next man up’ for this talented group and the will end up a strength once again.

SPECIAL TEAMS: If there was one area that lagged behind a bit it may have been in the specialists. Kicker Bert Auburn was pretty good (for the most part), but did miss a big kick against Arizona State that could have put that one away. Punter Michael Kern was not great when he was asked to perform. They addressed that this off-season already with the signing of Jack Boumeester (Utah) via the portal. The return combo of “Golden and Bolden” were just okay, though Bolden did have a 75-yard touchdown return against Arizona State that appeared to have put things away.

Reader feedback is requested and encouraged! Who knows these teams better than their passionate fan bases? We don’t pretend to know it all and would love your feedback. We will update/edit based (and credit) for anything that is brought to our attention. Let’s do this together…

|||||| TRANSFER PORTAL TRACKER

With a talent-laden roster like the Longhorns have, they are sure to lose some talented players to the portal. In this case, the bigger impact comes in those players we’ve mentioned that are heading to play in the NFL early. Sure, there are some losses here, but nothing mission critical or too damning. They clearly focus on a talent infusion for the defensive line on the other end, where they get some commitments. This roster also has a lot of depth and young talent looking for an opportunity. So, that double red arrow down and a poor ranking isn’t going to impact the eventual rotational talent level, which is certain to remain at the very top of the SEC.

Below is a screen shot of the full, live Transfer Portal Tracker over at CFBDepth.com. Click the image or the button below to view it in its entirety…

Live, Texas Portal Tracker >

|||||| 2025 RECRUITING CLASS

Once again, the Longhorns bring in what appears to be a sure-fire top five class. They have commitments from three 5-star players and rank first at running back, defensive line and defensive back across all 136 FBS schools. High school recruiting clearly remains a focus for this regime and they will continue to develop players internally. The only position group that appears to be lacking (currently) is the offensive line, getting just two lower level recruits.

Here is a snapshot of the 2025 Recruiting Class+ with a link to the live page with updates throughout the cycle:

Live, Texas 2025 Recruiting Class+ >

|||||| 2025 SCHEDULE LOOK AHEAD

This opening week matchup against the defending National Champions and a re-match of their semi-finals matchup will be the talk of the pre-season. Both squads will look to get off to good starts and this one just so happens to be in Columbus, an added hurdle that Sark and company must overcome. Following that, they get some cake walks and an early bye before traveling to the Swamp to take on Florida. That is another game that could cause problems. Even if they drop the Ohio State game and one of the SEC battles that they should not (maybe Red River?), they will have a shot to be included in the playoff if they can find a way in the final gauntlet that features a trip to Athens, with revenge on the brain. They then host A&M in the final week to secure their spot, as long as they can avoid three slip-ups to that point. It’s certainly not easy with the addition of the best team in the country, on the road, in week one.

There is a lot of movement and decisions to be made throughout the off-season, including more portal moves, winter workouts and spring ball. Get all caught up with the full-on State of the Chart Magazine coming in July. If you missed the ad before, get more information and give us your e-mail to stay in the loop on everything SOTC!

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