When Kaliq Lockett showed the college football world Chris Jackson's face on his FaceTime, the entirety of the Texas Longhorns coaching staff and fan base took a sigh of relief.
Lockett's commitment to Texas marked the first five-star of the 2025 cycle, and potentially the first domino falling into place.
Lockett has been a target of the Longhorns for a while and became an increasingly more important signing after losing Dakorien Moore to Oregon. Lockett is a 6'1 receiver from Sachse High School, where Texas legend Devin Duvernay also attended. No matter what site you look on, Lockett is seen as a true blue chip receiver, ranked inside the top 25 players, top four receivers, and top six players in the state on all three major recruiting sites.
Shortly after Lockett's commitment Texas rose to 12th in recruiting rankings in the nation, a respectable spot to be at, but lower than many fans outside of the recruiting space would expect. For people who really only look at the final rankings of each class, they'd be surprised to see that a team fresh off of a College Football Playoff appearance would be ranked far lower than the three classes prior, where Texas has been top five in since 2022.
But the low ranking is simply a virtue of timing, and some speed bumps along the way. As of August 8, the Longhorns are one of only two teams in the top 12 with less than 20 recruits, with Oregon holding the No. 7 class with just 15 recruits. Texas' average player ranking, according to 247Sports, is actually higher than the four teams ahead of them, meaning Texas is already set up to have a top-eight class when more players commit.
The lack of commitments comes down to two factors. Firstly, the Longhorns have struggled to close on some of its top targets. Texas failed to keep Moore in state, one of the most disappointing recruiting losses in recent memory, and failed in recruiting battles for players like top-five linebacker Riley Pettijohn and two four-star defensive linemen, Myron Charles and recently committed DJ Sanders.
It's no secret that Texas has had trouble recruiting the trenches for 2025, and the Horns are losing an odd amount of in-state talent to the West Coast, with Oregon also taking the states second best cornerback, Dorian Brew.
Secondly, and most importantly, Texas' main targets haven't committed yet. Texas has received crystal ball predictions for 22 players in the 2025 class; 14/17 of committed players are coming to Austin, while three of the final five predictions have Texas signing a top 30 player in the nation.
Texas has its sights set on No. 3 offensive tackle Michael Fasusi, No. 4 wide receiver Jamie Ffrench, and No. 1 athlete Michael Terry III. On top of those three stars, Texas is slowly making ground on Jonah Williams, a top 10 player in the class who plays both baseball and football at a high level. Texas is still in the running for top 100 recruits WR Andrew Marsh and LB Madden Faraimo, though 247 expects them to commit elsewhere.
It would be impossible to expect the Longhorns to get all of the names mentioned above, but Sarkisian and the rest of his staff are likely confident in landing 2-3 of these legitimate blue-chip talents. Fasusi, Ffrench, Williams, and Marsh have all announced that they will be committing between August 20th and 30th, meaning Texas' 2025 class will be greatly impacted in the next three weeks.
If the Longhorns truly hit the jackpot and land three of these top players, the 2025 class would instantly shoot up rankings boards. If Texas added three five-stars, they would be tied for the second most in the nation, with Alabama at five and Ohio State at four, potentially alongside the Horns. Texas would easily jump ahead of Auburn and settle nicely into the No. 5 spot in the 2025 team rankings, only behind the aforementioned teams, LSU and Georgia, fantastic company in your first year in the SEC.
The Horns are lucky to have such an early commitment from Lockett, as he is now able to aid Jackson, the wide receiver coach, in bringing in the top pass-catching targets of Ffrench and Terry. Both pass catchers seem to be narrowed down to two schools, with Ffrench having received the kitchen sink from Mario Cristobal at Miami, and Terry having become very close with the staff at Nebraska.
For Fasusi, who lives just 30 minutes from Lockett in Lewisville, the Longhorns have reportedly lost some ground to rivals Oklahoma, with both major sites still favoring Texas. Williams is an odd case, as the safety/linebacker hybrid has made major movements in his recruiting status in the last month.
Texas seemed to be out of the Williams sweepstakes until he recently stated how important it was for him to play both sports at a high level. Texas immediately jumps to mind after the hiring of baseball head coach Jim Schlossnagle, and the history that comes with the program. Oregon seemed to have taken another Texas recruit out of the state, but with a lackluster baseball program, it may become tougher on the Ducks. Texas would be greatly in the mix alongside top-tier baseball programs USC, LSU, and Texas A&M.
Texas has a long way to go to get back to the top-five-class status it has made fans used to in the past three seasons, but it may be time for Texas fans to get their hopes up after the fantastic Lockett signing.
Will Lockett be the first domino to fall, or is this the start of a poor cycle of recruiting for the Horns?
