Sark Picks SEC Player Personnel Director For Longhorns

Steve Sarkisian's Texas Longhorns staff continued to take shape on Sunday, as he named a new player personnel director

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has been hard at work building his new staff since taking over for Tom Herman on January 2. On Sunday afternoon, that staff reportedly took another step towards completion as Sark picks South Carolina's Drew Hughes as his player personnel director. 

Sources: Steve Sarkisian hiring key SEC recruiting staffer at Texas https://t.co/k56WN0Kehw

— FootballScoop (@FootballScoop) January 17, 2021

Hughes, who was named the director of player personnel for the Gamecocks on Valentine's Day of last year, rejoined Will Muschamp in Columbia after working under him with the Florida Gators from 2014-2017. 

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Before arriving in South Carolina, Hughes spent the previous two seasons with the Tennessee Volunteers where he was responsible for the management of recruiting, in particular high school relations, both on and off-campus recruiting, and talent evaluation.

With Hughes in that position, the Volunteers finished with their first top-10 recruiting class since the 2015 college season. In his previous position under Muschamp at Florida, he assisted the Gators in landing three consecutive top-12 recruiting classes.

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Hughes also spent time working at Central Florida, North Carolina State, and at Alabama under coach Nick Saban from 2007-2011.

Per the South Carolina team website, gamecocksonline.com, Hughes has also helped recruit 30 NFL draft picks to his various teams since 2012, including 12 in 2018 alone. 

Hughes takes over for former Texas Longhorns director of player personnel Derek Chang, who was not retained by the university after Sarkisian took over as the head coach.