Texas finishes 2020 with another top-10 class

In his third full recruiting cycle with the Texas Longhorns, head coach Tom Herman and his staff had secured yet another top-10 recruiting class, while landing some of the top talent in the state of Texas.

Heading into the February signing period, the Longhorns sat just outside of of the 247Sports Composite team rankings for the top 10 classes, but still had plenty of talent left on the board. With the additions of defensive end Alfred Collins and athlete Kelvontay Dixon, Texas managed to jump ahead of Oklahoma to seemingly cinch up Herman’s third consecutive top-10 finish. Additionally, passing the Sooners gives the Longhorns the best recruiting class in the conference, again a staple since Herman’s transition class.

Texas pulled off a top-10 class with just 19 players committed, for an average player rating of 91.90, the fifth-best in the country. According to David Allen, Texas has the second-highest blue chip ratio in the country, following the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Why does the blue-chip ratio matter? It’s the key ingredient in winning championships in the modern recruiting era.

“Generally, teams whose signees have been fewer than 50% blue-chips over the previous four years can’t be considered national title contenders,” Bud Elliott writes at Banner Society.

The Longhorns also managed to land three of the top 10 players in the state of Texas, with Collins joining quarterbacks Hudson Card and Ja’Quinden Jackson in that group, arguably the best in the country at that position. The Horns also kept its streak alive of landing the top running back in the Big 12, with No. 1 running back Bijan Robinson joining Keaontay Ingram and Derrian Brown from the last two cycles.

With the relatively small class, Texas will likely look to the transfer portal and the junior college ranks to bolster some of the thinner spots in this class, presumably wide receiver, offensive guard, and linebacker.