Looking at the game-changers Texas has added in the Steve Sarkisian era

Having a roster of top players doesn’t win championships. Having about eight game-changing players, yes. That’s why Texas is now winning at a level it hasn’t won in over a decade.

The Texas football program has long been known for recruiting good players. For years, outsiders have commented on the Longhorns’ failure to consistently win at a high level during the head coaching tenures of Charlie Strong and Tom Herman. These teams did not have enough players to take control of games. Sarkisian’s teams have that.

The watersheds changed the course of the program. Sarkisian’s first of many players was his only 2021 recruit, Xavier Worthy. As a freshman, Worthy had 62 receptions, 981 yards and 12 touchdowns. Alone, Worthy wasn’t enough to change game outcomes, but he made games interesting.

The following offseason, Texas added two five-star offensive linemen. One of them was left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., who went on to have a freshman All-American season in 2022. He’s on track to be selected in the first round of a future NFL draft, like Xavier Worthy was this offseason.

In the 2022 season, the Longhorns have cultivated or brought more changes to the game, but not enough to win the conference title. Linebacker Jaylan Ford and tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders have become players of that caliber, but it takes more than four players to take control of games.

In the 2023 offseason, Texas added a few more stars in wide receiver Adonai Mitchell and linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. Mitchell had 11 touchdown receptions, while Hill added 67 total tackles and five sacks in limited playing time. Edge rusher Ethan Burke added 5.5 sacks, while interior defensive linemen Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat became All-Americans and early draft picks. Game changes.

This offseason saw Texas add five players from the portal’s Top 50: wide receiver Isaiah Bond (Alabama), edge rusher Trey Moore (UTSA), three-year starting safety Andrew Mukuba (Clemson), tight end Amari Niblack (Alabama) and wide receiver Matthew Dourado (Houston).

Texas’ 2024 recruiting class added five-star wide receiver Ryan Wingo and a five-star edge rusher and two-time Texas state championship defensive MVP in Colin Simmons. More possible game changers.

We can point to moments when T’Vondre Sweat, Jonathon Brooks, Adonai Mitchell, Xavier Worthy, Ja’Tavion Sanders, wide receiver Jordan Whittington, defensive back Jahdae Barron and perhaps starting quarterback Quinn Ewers altered the course of games. It took every player who contributed to make the College Football Playoff.

A five-star or near-five-star pedigree certainly amplifies the game of great players. That’s what makes adding players like Anthony Hill Jr., Johntay Cook, Malik Muhammad, Colin Simmons, Ryan Wingo and potential future Longhorn Dakorien Moore so important. Muhammad is primed to break out this season.

Texas is gaining recruitment of five-star skill players it missed in the last two training regimes. Interestingly, five of the six above are prospects from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. That alone shows how much better recruiting has been since Sarkisian took over.

We haven’t yet mentioned the running backs where Texas has produced two consecutive NFL draft picks. The four running backs drafted included fourth-string running back Keilan Robinson, who was selected in the fifth round this offseason. One or both of five-star running back Cedric Baxter Jr. and home run threat Jaydon Blue could become household names, as Jonathon Brooks did last season.

Texas needs about eight players to prove capable of taking control of games in 2024 if it wants to compete for a national title. This group appears to have several players who can take control of games. We’ll start to find out how many they’ll have when the team kicks off against Colorado State on August 31st at 2:30pm CT on ESPN.

This story originally appeared on Longhorns Wire