Longhorns Named 'Best Offensive Class' in 2023 Recruiting Cycle

The Texas Longhorns 2023 offensive class was arguably the best in college football, and its easy to see why

Matt Galatzan | Feb 2, 2023

The Texas Longhorns finished 2023 National Signing Day on Wednesday in quiet fashion, with the program waiting on the final decisions of tight end Duce Robinson and defensive back, Warren Roberson.

However, despite the uneventful finish, the Longhorns still ended the cycle with a top-three recruiting class, just behind the historical Alabama Crimson Tide class, and the defending national champion, Georgia Bulldogs.

And the strength of that class certainly lies on the offensive side of the football, where the Horns wrapped up the signatures for No. 1 quarterback and top overall recruit Arch Manning, No. 1 running back Cedric Baxter, and No. 3 wideout Johntay Cook - all of which ended the cycle as five-star recruits.

And according to On3, those signatures, in conjunction with the rest of the haul on that side of the ball, were good enough to give the Longhorns the best offensive unit in the 2023 recruiting cycle.

While picking the best defensive class was a relatively easy choice, that wasn’t the case on the offensive side. The five-star group this cycle leans a little more heavily to defense, and the top playmakers on offense spread out to more teams than their defensive counterparts. USC, Alabama and a few others made strong cases, but the class heading to Austin to play for Steve Sarkisian won out.

The Longhorns are the only program with three five-star offensie signees: Five-Star Plus+ QB Arch Manning, running back Cedric Baxter and wide receiver Johntay Cook. Add in electric wideout Ryan Niblett, there’s some serious firepower there to work with. All four could potentially see the field in year one.

And Should the Longhorns indeed land the aforementioned Robinson, it could get even better.

But for now, Longhorns fans should be plenty happy with the direction that the offense is heading regardless.

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Published Feb 2, 2023

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.