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Longhorns Hook Another Great Class

Will the Longhorns latest recruiting class put them back on top?

Mack Brown isn't called "Mr. February" for no reason, but this may be one of his best classes ever. I would still rank the Vince Young class as the best in Brown's tenure, but this class is right up there. The star of this group is obviously the record-setting (205 career TD) RB Johnathan Gray out of Aledo, Texas. Gray was the number 1 player at his position and number 5 overall in the nation, but he's not the only 5-star prospect Texas brought in. Joining Gray is 5-star Brenham DT Malcolm Brown. Rivals compares Brown to Warren Sapp; if he's even 75% of that, Mack Brown will take it. Gray and Brown are no doubt the stars of this class, but 2 players don't make a great class,

This class has great depth and that's what is most impressive to me. Texas got commitments from 17 five and four star recruits according to Rivals, and had 9 players among ESPN's top 150 list. Depending on which site you look at, Texas ranks either 2nd or 3rd overall behind Alabama, and I think it was the late flexibility they had that got them that ranking. Typically Mack finishes up his class well in advance, usually by the early fall. This year however they held on to a few scholarships and it paid off with them landing four high-level prospects over the last 2-3 days. They convinced 4-star LB Toshiro Davis to switch from LSU, 4-star athlete Daje Johnson to switch from TCU, 3-star DE Bryce Cottrell to switch from Oregon, and 3-star LB Dalton Santos to switch from Tennessee.

This isn't the first time Mack has brought in a stellar class so they'll have to prove their ranking on the field. Texas has a lot of work to do coming off back to back losing seasons in Big 12 conference play and an overall record of 13-12 over the last two seasons. They lost of a lot of players coming off the National Championship loss to Alabama and ended up playing 18 of their 22 true freshman last year. However with 17 starters returning and another great group of freshman coming in, the future looks bright. If you watched any Texas football over the last two years though, you know most of the attention will be paid to the QB position. I'm not sold on McCoy or Ash; hopefully incoming freshman, 4-star QB Connor Brewer out of Arizona will play well enough to win this job in the spring. He's already enrolled in school, can't wait to see the team back on the field.

Images by eflon used in background images under a Creative Commons license. Thank you.