As evident at Big 12 media days, Austin making capital gains on football recruiting trail
ARLINGTON — As Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks made the rounds at Big 12 media days at AT&T Stadium on Thursday, he stopped to chat with a reporter from his hometown newspaper.
Brooks, a Manor High School graduate, joined several players from the Austin area picked to represent their college programs at the two-day, all-things-football fest that unofficially kicks off the 2023 season. Connally graduate Jahdae Barron was one of the five Texas players at the event, drawing a smile from Brooks.
“Oh, that’s my dog,” Brooks said.
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When told that the Baylor contingent included Cedar Park graduate Josh Cameron, a gleeful Brooks got even more excited.
“That’s my other dog!” he said, breaking into a big grin.
Brooks’ enthusiasm about a pair of players from rival collegiate programs speaks to the support system that has formed among recruits from the Austin area. There’s almost an us-against-the-world mentality for the FBS-level high school players in Central Texas.
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Or at least an us-against-Dallas-or-Houston mindset.
“I think Austin is on the rise, and I feel like we get overlooked compared to some of the other areas,” said Brooks, a 5-foot-10, 230-pound junior who’s expected to carry a heavy load for the Red Raiders’ ground game this season. “Any athlete from the Austin area, I probably played against them or played with them in seven-on-seven or something. I’m proud of being one of those (Austin) players. It's a blessing, and it's fun just to see those guys from here doing well at whatever school they’re at.
“And hopefully, we all got dreams of going to the next level. So I just wish those guys the best.”
Capitol gains on the recruiting trail
While the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas remain the most fertile recruiting fields for colleges in Texas, Austin has emerged as a regular stop for college scouts over the past decade. Take away Dallas, Houston and its suburbs, and the Austin area ranks ahead of every other region in the state when it comes to producing elite football players.
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine has traced recruiting patterns for decades. Based on its reporting, Austin has ranked third in the state for FBS recruits behind Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston in each of the past 10 years. And those recent recruits include some with the highest of profiles; current New York Jets receiver Garrett Wilson starred at Lake Travis before a stellar career at Ohio State, and former Lake Travis quarterback Baker Mayfield won the Heisman Trophy before his selection as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft.
This spring, Cedar Ridge graduate Deuce Vaughn (Kansas State) and Bowie product Elijah Higgins (Stanford) were drafted.
“I believe that the talent for Austin has basically kind of always been there,” said Cameron, a former walk-on who’s now a scholarship receiver for Baylor. “I think we're definitely starting to put more people on the map and let it be known that there's definitely a whole lot of talent coming out of the 512. It’s not just in the Dallas and Houston areas.”
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Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire, a former high school coach at Cedar Hill, south of Dallas, didn’t take long to make the Austin area a regular stop on his staff’s recruiting route. In his second season at Tech, McGuire already has anointed Brooks as a team leader and signed one of Brooks’ former Manor teammates, defensive tackle Jayden Cofield, as part of his 2023 recruiting class. That class also includes Round Rock graduate Ansel Nedore, another defensive lineman.
“There’s really good football in Austin,” McGuire said. “I mean, you can of course name some powerhouses when you're talking about Westlake and Lake Travis, and Vandegrift has done such a great job. If you look just not to Austin, but Central Texas, man, there's some really good football being played.”
Hooking the local talent
But no one has mined the Austin area more than the hometown program. Texas has eight players from the area on scholarship, including five who have been signed by third-year head coach Steve Sarkisian. The talent level in the area admittedly came as a bit of a surprise to Sarkisian, who recruited nationally during his time as an assistant at Alabama and as the head coach at Washington and USC.
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“When I first came into the (Texas) program, I don't know if I valued it as much,” Sarkisian said. “Now that I'm here and I'm in the middle of it, we spend a lot of time and we dedicate days just truly for Central Texas for our entire staff.”
The talent might not be as condensed as in regions including the Houston suburbs and the schools south of Dallas such as Duncanville, DeSoto and Cedar Hill, Sarkisian said, but the sweat equity on the Austin recruiting trail often pays off.
“It takes time, but doing the work and doing your due diligence is rewarding,” Sarkisian said. “There’s just a lot of quality players in Central Texas.”
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Those players include Barron, a senior defensive back who was already part of the Texas program when Sarkisian arrived in 2021. Barron played multiple positions at Connally, a struggling football program in the Pflugerville school district that lacks the high profile of a program like Lake Travis or Westlake. That may have contributed to a quiet recruiting rundown; besides Texas, Barron’s top offers came from Baylor, Mississippi State, Washington State and Virginia Tech.
But the fourth-year defensive back has emerged as one of the top players in the Big 12. His success, he says, testifies to the talent in the Austin area.
“We're trying to put Austin on the map,” Barron said. “I still feel like we're still overlooked and passed by too much, but at the end of the day, if any (scouts) come to the Austin area, we're here and we're working. We're working all the time.”
Local Longhorns
Eight scholarship players from the Austin area are on Texas' 2023 roster. Four come from Westlake, which isn’t too surprising considering the Chaps won three consecutive Class 6A championships in 2019-21. Of these eight players, all but three — Jahdae Barron, Alfred Collins and Charles Wright — were signed by current head coach Steve Sarkisian.
∙ Jahdae Barron, senior DB, Connally
∙ Ethan Burke, sophomore DL, Westlake
∙ Alfred Collins, senior DL, Cedar Creek
∙ Connor Robertson, redshirt freshman OL, Westlake
∙ Will Stone, sophomore K, Regents
∙ Michael Taaffee, sophomore DB, Westlake
∙ Colton Vasek, freshman DL, Westlake
∙ Charles Wright, sophomore QB, Austin High
Recruiting the state
For years, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine has tracked the source of every FBS recruit in the state. The Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas have dominated recruiting for generations, but Austin has surpassed East Texas, San Antonio and every other region in the state when it comes to producing blue-chip recruits. Here’s a glance at a decade’s worth of the state's top areas for FBS recruits, as compiled by the Texas Football staff.
∙ 2023 — (1) DFW 145, (2) Houston 89, (3) Austin 28
∙ 2022 — (1) DFW 118, (2) Houston 79, (3) Austin 12
∙ 2021 — (1) DFW 153, (2) Houston 84, (3) Austin 14
∙ 2020 — (1) DFW 96, (2) Houston 94, (3) Austin 18
∙ 2019 — (1) DFW 112, (2) Houston 85, (3) Austin 15
∙ 2018 — (1) DFW 134, (2) Houston 119, (3) Austin 18
∙ 2017 — (1) DFW 129, (2) Houston 105, (3) Austin 24
∙ 2016 — (1) DFW 134, (2) Houston 122, (3) Austin 17
∙ 2014 — (1) DFW 156, (2) Houston 110, (3) Austin 26
∙ 2013 — (1) DFW 145, Houston 97, Austin 25
Note: 2015 numbers were not available
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin making gains on Big 12, college football recruiting trail
