By Steve Habel
Senior Contributing Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — If you are looking for bang for your buck, the Texas football team’s 16-member haul on the first day of the 2020 early signing period lived up to its expectations.
But if you’re a purveyor of class rankings, then the Longhorns’ spot in the team listings of signees either just inside or just outside the top 20 might be alarming.
Texas announced a [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]small, but according to head coach Tom Herman, talented and fitting class Wednesday on a day with few surprises amid a group of signees that stuck to its early guns about playing football on the 40 Acres.
According to rivals.com, the Longhorns’ class includes one five-star player, record-setting running back Bijan Robinson of Tucson’s Salpointe Catholic High School, and 10 four-star players, headed by Austin (Lake Travis) quarterback Hudson Card.
“I’m really excited about another great class,” Tom Herman said. “We knew, though, that this was going to be a small class because we had only 10 scholarship seniors, and that it would be about quality, not quantity.”
In addition to Robinson, the class includes quarterbacks Card and Duncanville (Texas) signal caller Ja’Quinden Jackson, Longview (Texas) defensive end Sawyer Goram-Welch, Hutto (Texas) wide receiver DaJon Harrison, Fort Bend (Austin) receiver Troy Omeire, Pearland (Texas) defensive back Xavion Alford, Lufkin (Texas) DB Jerrin Thompson, Tyler (John Tyler) defensive back Kitan Crawford, Southlake (Carroll) offensive lineman Andrej Karic, offensive lineman Jaylen Garth of Port Neches-Groves, Prosper (Texas) center Jake Majors, Helotes (Texas) O’Connor offensive lineman Logan Parr, Houston (Cypress Ridge) defensive tackle Vernon Broughton, Highland Park (Texas) linebacker Prince Dorbah; and Dallas (Timberview) athlete Jaden Hillary.
“All those guys committed pretty early and waited ’til the summer,” Herman said. “They’re all no-nonsense. That really helped that we didn’t really have to worry about this class.”
Goram-Welch, Harrison, Hullaby, Garth and Parr are ranked as three-star recruits.
Alford, Broughton, Card, Goram-Welch, Majors, Omeire, Parr and Thompson are all early enrollees, meaning they will be with the Longhorns in spring drills. “We’ll get to start working with those guys in January,” Herman said.
Robinson is the only one of the 16 players who came from outside Texas, and is considered a huge catch for the Longhorns.
“There’s not enough adjectives in the book to describe Bijon,” Herman said. “He’s a dynamic playmaker, and I know that this phrase or whatever gets used quite a bit: he’s an even better person and young man than he is a player.
“He’s the most humble …guy you’ll meet. The guy’s (the Arizona) Gatorade Player of the Year, first player in Arizona high school football history to twice win state Player of the Year, Arizona’s career all-time leading touchdown maker and leading rusher and the first running back in Arizona history to top 2,000 yards in three consecutive seasons … and this guy would drive the bus and take out the trash if you ask him to.”
Texas corralled the solid class despite working without either an offensive or defensive coordinator on the staff after Tim Beck and Todd Orlando were dismissed at the end of the regular season.
“But these 16 guys literally all stayed with their decision without a coordinator on either side of the ball and then certainly at receiver without a position coach,” Herman said, “and I think that speaks to the level of trust that they have in me that that we’re going to get this coaching search right, and in their level of commitment to not just an individual but to Texas.”
The Longhorns are likely to sign at least four more players in the February signing period, a group that likely will include at least one defensive tackle and a linebacker.
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