The votes are in and tallied, with the results official: Texas has the top recruiting class in the country, according to Scout.com.
Why does that matter? For one thing, it's a pretty good indicator of future success. Eight classes since 2002 have spent at least three seasons on campus. Of those eight No. 1 classes, five went on to win BCS National Titles. Two others won BCS bowls. And the other team just won 10 games in a season.
That success rate already has been seen in Austin: the only other Texas class to get No. 1 status was the 2002 group that, headlined by Vince Young, steered the 2005 title to the 40 Acres.
The 2012 crop may not have a Vince Young, but it does have three things in abundance: beef along both lines, speed and balance.
"We filled every position but tight end, and I think there are some guys we can look at that are athletic enough in those positions," said Texas coach Mack Brown. "We filled positions of need, and I feel like we took a huge step toward where we want to get with this class."
Brown mentioned that the Longhorns wanted to get better, and stronger, on both lines, a strategy shown by the fact that of the Longhorns' 28 signees, 11 — four offensive and seven defensive — are linemen.
"I am really impressed with [offensive line coach] Stacy [Searels] and [defensive tackles coach] Bo [Davis] and what they are doing to help our lines of scrimmage," Brown said. "We needed to get better. You have to be good up the middle."
Texas certainly did that with the four offensive linemen, ranking among the best classes in the country for the position group. The Longhorns won arguably the best junior college offensive tackle in the country in Donald Hawkins (6-5, 320), who is in for the spring and should help immediately. Camrhon Hughes (6-foot-7 320 and also in for the spring) and Kennedy Estelle (6-7, 300) are both ranked among the top 10 high school tackles in the country by Scout.com. And guard Curtis Riser (6-4, 285) is also among the best at his position in the country.
Defensively, the Longhorns had an even bigger haul, including the latest addition to the Texas class in defensive end Torshiro Davis (6-3, 220) of Woodlawn (La.) High School. An athletic freak who ran a 4.56 40-yard dash and vertically jumped 34.2 inches at a Nike camp called The Opening, Davis picked the Longhorns on Wednesday over the same LSU team he had been committed to since before last year's Signing Day.
"He had three schools in his mind, and I think he is excited about his ability to pass rush in this league," Brown said. "I think that is what made the difference. Since our league is known as a passing league, he thinks that gives him a chance to show his abilities more like a [former Longhorn and current Washington Redskin] Brian Orakpo."
Davis is the fourth of four defensive ends, along with fellow late addition Bryce Cottrell (6-3, 235), Hassan Ridgeway (6-4, 255) and Caleb Bluiett (6-3, 238).
The defensive tackle group is even more stout, boasting a top JUCO transfer in Brandon Moore (6-5, 335), who played at Alabama before transferring to East Mississippi Community College, and the top high school tackle in Brenham's Malcom Brown (6-3, 285). Paul Boyette (6-4, 295) and Alex Norman (6-4, 275) were also among the state's best at their positions.
"If you can't run the ball and you can't stop the run, then you are probably not going to win all the games, because you are depending on one guy every week to be very good and very healthy," Brown said.
The Longhorns also landed their top target at the "one guy" position, bringing in quarterback Connor Brewer (6-2, 200) from Scottsdale (Ariz.) Chapparal. An accurate pocket passer, Brewer won three straight state titles. Later in the process, Texas added Jalen Overstreet (6-2, 212), an athletic dual-threat quarterback to the mix.
Whoever wins the quarterback job will have plenty of weapons surrounding him, including Scout.com five-star running back Johnathan Gray (5-11, 202) and five-star wide receiver Cayleb Jones (6-3, 198) from Austin High. Gray set the national record for career touchdowns scored, finding the end zone 206 times in his Aledo career.
Joining both players could be Daje Johnson (5-10, 175), a late switch from TCU. Johnson has been clocked in the 4.3-range in the 40-yard dash and will play both running back and wide receiver, Brown said.
Marcus Johnson (6-1, 185) and Kendall Sanders (6-0 175) round out the wide receiver group by adding plenty more speed. Sanders could also be a top cornerback.
Speaking of top cornerbacks, Texas brought in the state's top performer at the position in feisty Bryson Echols (5-10 165), an Under Armour All-American. Orlando "Duke" Thomas (5-11, 170), a cat-quick athlete from Copperas Cove, and tough Kevin Vaccaro (5-10, 182), the brother of current Longhorn Kenny, will join him. Adrian Colbert (6-2, 191), one of the state's top track athletes, will provide a much-needed influx of speed into the safety corps.
And Texas massively upgraded its linebacking group, thanks to mashing middle linebacker Dalton Santos (6-3, 250), speedster Peter Jinkens (6-1, 200) and versatile, heady players in Timothy Cole (6-2, 230) and Alex De La Torre (6-1, 230).
The Longhorns hope to continue their recent tradition of strong clutch kicking with Coppell's Nick Jordan (6-1, 175).
"This year, I am excited about the kids," Brown said. "There wasn't much drama with them. They pretty much wanted to come. Overall they were very honest with us. I like classes that don't worry about who is there. I have always felt like if someone is asking about the depth chart all the time, they are probably very insecure. If you are worried about whether you can play, I'm not sure that is what I am looking for."
The class marked the third time in as many years that the Longhorns inked a top-three class nationally, the first time that has been done on Scout.com. But Texas did it in a different way than normal: raiding other recruiting classes, bringing in four out-of-state prospects and picking up two junior college players.
To compare, the Longhorns landed eight prospects Wednesday who, at some point, were committed to other schools. In last year's class, Texas had none. The Longhorns picked up four players from out-of-state, including two from Mississippi junior colleges, one from Louisiana and one from Arizona. In 2011, there was one, cornerback Josh Turner, from Oklahoma. The two junior college transfers double the number of JUCO transfers the Longhorns have had under Brown … two in the previous 14 years.
And finally, Texas kept spots open — some also opened through attrition — and recruited later into the process. The Longhorns gained commitments from 11 prospects from Halloween on, including Davis on Wednesday. In last year's class, the last player to commit was running back Malcolm Brown. He pledged to the Longhorns on Aug. 18.
"What happened was, we had more numbers after the season than we had going into the season," Brown said. "Our coaches did the best job, I think since we've been here, of keeping relationships with kids and saying, 'If someone does transfer, if someone does graduate early and we have an opening, then we like you and you have been approved. We may come back."
Those relationships turned into commitments, and those commitments turned into the country's top class. But if that top class is going to turn into the country's top team, more work will be required from both players and coaches, Brown said.
"Everybody has a good recruiting class," Brown said. "It never changes. The truth is, what will it look like in four years? What will it look like in five years? If you go back and study, that's our job. That's the young man's job.
"This is a starting point. This isn't the finishing. We need to make sure that we do a great job of bringing these guys along, making them productive players and hoping that their experience is good at the University of Texas and that they can win a lot of football games."
