As Texas, Texas A&M battle for SEC glory, which team is winning the Dallas-Fort Worth recruiting war?

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save DALLAS Steve Sarkisian hasnt yet experienced everything that Texas century-long rivalry with Texas A&M has to offer.

Thatll happen Saturday, around 7:30 p.m.

ET, when his College Football Playoff No.

3 Texas Longhorns play the No.

15 Texas A&M Aggies for the first time since 2011 at College Stations Kyle Field.

But Sarkisian isnt uninitiated.

Texas head coach watched the two play on television as a young football fan and when he cracked into the coaching ranks in the Pac-12 with USC and Washington.

Hes heard stories about how it divides families since he arrived in Austin almost four years ago.

Hes experienced really cool recruiting battles with the Aggies too.

You win some, Sarkisian said of those wars Monday, you lose some.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, where some of the nations best football talent grows, Texas has won more often than not in comparison to Texas A&M.

The Longhorns signed 83 recruits out of D-FW to Texas A&Ms 55 since 2012 and have pulled ahead even further in the race since they hired Sarkisian.

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The Aggies, led by defensive lineman Shemar Turner (DeSoto), will have just 15.

Sarkisian doubled down on the Dallas-Fort Worth area in an effort to reinforce his roster for the SEC and found success because of it.

Texas A&M which signed some of D-FWs brightest stars during Kevin Sumlins tenure as head coach is now trying to catch up under first-year head coach Mike Elko.

He and his staff may not be far behind, either, and it could create a competitive pipeline battleground for the states two SEC schools and a pair of coaches whove made immense inroads in a short time.

Even though theyre recruiting nationally, Forney coach Jeff Fleener said.

If they dont have the respect of the people in Texas, they wont have respect anywhere.

I think both of those guys have done that at an extremely high level.

For Texas A&M, the Elko effect is real Fleener visited a Texas A&M spring practice this year with his junior four-star running back prospect Javian Osborne and they were invited into Elkos office.

Elko, then still just a few months on the job, just wanted 10-15 minutes to talk with Fleener and Osborne.

It was all very genuine, said Fleener.

He was most comfortable talking ball.

He wanted to talk to Javian about his family, but he loved talking ball.

He genuinely talked to me about, Hey, where are the other places youve coached? What have you done? Its all very genuine and not rushed.

Its a shared perception among D-FW coaches.

DeSoto coach Claude Mathis said that Elko has done a hell of a job building relationships with he, his staff and his players.

Denton Ryan coach Dave Henigan had a preexisting relationship with Elko (from when he was Texas A&Ms defensive coordinator and attempted to recruit Hill to College Station) and described himself as a very big fan of the Aggies first-year coach.

Hes kind of a blue collar-type guy, Henigan said.

And I think that resonates with a lot of people.

Maybe none more than Elko himself.

I think everybody appreciates when you talk with them, Elko said.

Nobody wants you to be talking at them.

I just think thats who I am.

Like, I dont get in a room of high school coaches and think like Im better than them.

Texas A&M has five D-FW recruits committed to its program in the class of 2025.

The Aggies havent signed more than four D-FW players in a single cycle since Jimbo Fishers second year on the job in 2019.

They signed just eight in their last three recruiting classes combined; Texas signed 26 during that same time.

It didnt used to be that lopsided.

The Aggies landed seismic recruiting punches in North Texas during Sumlins heyday and after their 11-win introduction to the SEC in 2012.

Texas A&M signed 12 recruits out of the D-FW area in 2013, four (including Arlington Martin five-star edge rusher Myles Garrett) in 2014 and six (including Allen five-star quarterback Kyle Murray) in 2015.

The Longhorns signed just 15 D-FW area recruits in that same time period.

Fleener who was Murrays offensive coordinator at Allen said that the eventual Heisman Trophy winner signed with Texas A&M because the Aggies' offense, run then by Kliff Kingsbury and Jake Spavital, meshed with his skillset better than Texas' pro style scheme.

The peripherals didnt hurt either.

It was the Swagcopter, the music at practice, Drake having a relationship with Johnny Manziel, Fleener said.

I think it was just Whos hot at the right time?' And really, at that time, Coach Sumlin and A&M, thats just where guys wanted to go." It sounds familiar.

Texas has the mojo and a plan North Forneys Marcus Shavers coached Longhorns defensive back Xavier Filsaime at McKinney last season.

Filsaime, a high school All-American, had been committed to Florida before he flipped to Texas, and according to Shavers, talked about going to the Texas pool parties, and having the Lamborghinis and the Corvettes on his recruiting trip to Austin.

The Longhorns with actor Matthew McConaughey on staff as the Minister of Culture, actor Glen Powell on the sideline, pop star Dua Lipa in a custom Texas jersey at Austin City Limits and lavish, sports car-laden visits now have immense curb appeal.

[Sark] is appealing to this younger generation more so than I even think that Mack [Brown] did back when I was in high school, said Shavers.

It was bad-ass to be a Longhorn because they were good [back then]; its actually cool to be a Longhorn now, and I think Sark has brought that level of swag.

Its a new draw for the Longhorns, but theres always been one when Texas is at its best.

Todd Dodge a former Texas quarterback and state title-winning coach at Southlake Carroll and Austin Westlake can confirm.

The Longhorns had an absolute foothold in Dallas when Fred Akers recruited Dodge in the early 1980s, and when he coached at Carroll in the early 2000s, if the University of Texas offered, thats where you were going.

They were not missing on anybody they wanted in the state of Texas for about a seven-year window, Dodge said of the Mack Brown era.

They were getting pretty much everybody they wanted.

And now, after a trip to the College Football Playoff last season, potentially another one this year and a successful first impression in the SEC? This is as close as them being back to that, said Dodge, because Sark understands what a Southeastern Conference football team looks like.

Thats no mistake.

The Longhorns had 20 D-FW natives on their roster in Tom Hermans last season as head coach and had signed just 12 total out of high school between the 2017-20 recruiting classes.

Sarkisian, who was hired in January 2021, assessed Texas roster, its rivals rosters and the rosters of the SECs best programs to best understand where the top talent came from.

We really felt like we didnt have enough of the marquee players coming out of the Dallas region, Sarkisian said.

We made a huge emphasis to go do that.

The Longhorns signed 33 high schoolers out of D-FW in Sarkisians first four recruiting classes and have six D-FW area natives including five-star wide receiver Kaliq Lockett of Sachse currently committed in the class of 2025.

Texas push coincided with South Dallas rise.

South Oak Cliff won its first of two consecutive state championships just 11 months after the Longhorns hired Sarkisian.

DeSoto and Duncanville each won back-to-back state championships in 2022-23 and certified themselves as national powerhouses.

The Longhorns landed key contributors from each, including Duncanville five-star defensive lineman Colin Simmons, DeSoto five-star wide receiver Johntay Cook II (no longer with the program) and South Oak Cliff four-star defensive back Malik Muhammad.

Weve been able to get really good players out of that region, Sarkisian said, Not just South Dallas, but Dallas in general.

The regions future Shavers was an All-American lineman at Allen in the mid 2000s.

The Longhorns didnt enter the mix until too late into his recruiting cycle.

The Aggies were his runner-up choice.

He signed with Arkansas because it provided something no in-state school could: a chance to play SEC football.

Thats no longer a concern for todays top prospects.

Thats big, man, Shavers said, and acknowledged that Texas and Texas A&M now both in the SEC will be less prone to schools like Alabama, LSU and Florida poaching their backyard talent.

It helps that both programs are contenders.

Texas has constructed back-to-back 10-win seasons under Sarkisian and is on the precipice of a second-straight CFP berth.

Texas A&M has already won five conference games its most since the 2020 season under Elko and is in a position to play its way into the SEC championship game on Saturday.

Neither school exactly lacks on the name, image and likeness front either.

It doesnt hurt, either, that Sarkisian and Elko have prioritized D-FW in ways that their predecessors didnt.

Tom Herman signed 12 D-FW natives in his four recruiting classes at Texas; Sarkisian signed 10 in his first full class alone.

The Aggies didnt sign a single D-FW recruit in the class of 2024 but are on pace to nearly match the Longhorns this season in that category.

As you went through the years with the other guys at both schools, it was just a different feel, Fleener said, and compared Sarkisians and Elkos makeup more closely to Brown than their respective predecessors.

I think theres a distinct difference between Coach Sark and Coach Elko, what theyre doing, and the guys that were there before them.

The results of that are in the recruits.

Its just something else for the two schools to fight over as the rivalry is renewed.

The University of Texas and Texas A&M, I think its a big deal that theyre playing again, Dodge said.

I think that will be a good recruiting tool for both of them.

This would never happen, but the two of them could get together and say, Lets take everything we want [in D-FW] and dont share with anybody else.

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