Class Autopsy

Texas 2023 — what happened to every signee.

Texas’s 2023 class brought in 26 signees, including 4 five-stars. 3 reached the NFL.

26
signees, National Signing Day 2023
4
five-star signees
3
reached the NFL.

The promise

4 five-star signees, ranked nationally — what the hype looked like before a single snap.

No.1National
No.18National
No.23National
No.30National

The journey stack

One row per signee, ranked by signing-day national rank. Each chit is a stop; the line between them is a transfer. Open a row for the season-by-season record.

Arch Manning
No.1 national · QB
texasTEX
StayedNever transferred
Texas — 2023: 35.0, 2024: 41.0, 2025: 70.0
Anthony Hill Jr.
No.18 national · LB
texasTEX
R2 · #60Tennessee
Texas — 2023: 77.0, 2024: 94.0, 2025: 80.0
Tennessee · 2026 draft — No. 60 overall, round 2.
CJ Baxter
No.23 national · RB
texasTEX
StayedNever transferred
Texas — 2023: 53.0, 2024: unscored, 2025: 31.0
Johntay Cook II
No.30 national · WR
texasTEX
StayedNever transferred
Texas — 2023: 25.0, 2024: 24.0, 2025: 54.0
Malik Muhammad
No.46 national · CB
texasTEX
R4 · #124Chicago
Texas — 2023: 32.0, 2024: 32.0, 2025: 74.0
Chicago · 2026 draft — No. 124 overall, round 4.
Derek Williams Jr.
No.49 national · S
texasTEX
StayedNever transferred
Texas — 2023: 30.0, 2024: 36.0, 2025: 19.0
Ryan Niblett
No.65 national · WR
texasTEX
StayedNever transferred
Texas — 2023: unscored, 2024: 0.0, 2025: 0.0
Jelani McDonald
No.70 national · ATH
texasTEX
StayedNever transferred
Texas — 2023: 10.0, 2024: 37.0, 2025: 78.0
Trey Moore
No.102 national · WR
texasTEXtexasTEX
R4 · #130Miami
Texas — 2023: 96.0
Texas — 2024: 69.0, 2025: 61.0
Miami · 2026 draft — No. 130 overall, round 4.
Colton Vasek
No.108 national · EDGE
texasTEX
StayedNever transferred
Texas — 2023: unscored, 2024: 22.0, 2025: 0.0
Derion Gullette
No.122 national · EDGE
texasTEXmississippi-stateMSST
1 transferMississippi State
Texas — 2023: unscored, 2024: 0.0
Mississippi State — 2025: 39.0
Tausili Akana
No.124 national · LB
texasTEXbyuBYU
1 transferBYU
Texas — 2023: unscored, 2024: 0.0
BYU — 2025: 5.0
Showing 12 of 26

The receipts

No recruiting service wrote a word here. The national rank was the promise; what happened next is the whole story.

Never made the league

“The No. 1 player in America.”

signed Texas → never drafted

Peak grade of 70 on our 0–100 scale.

The report card

Star power and cohesion are graded against all 297 qualifying classes, 2021–2023. NFL production and on-field value are graded against just the 107 other 2023 classes — a 2023 signee simply hasn’t had as many draft-eligible years as a 2021 signee, so those two dimensions compare like-for-like instead of penalizing recency. Overall GPA still ranks across all 297.

A
Star power
24 recruiting points
A
Cohesion
77% never transferred
A
NFL production
3 drafted, vs. 2023 peers
A
On-field value
mean peak grade 40.8, vs. 2023 peers

The class the draft ignored

NFL production, 2023 signing classes in Texas’s conference

Texas’s 3 draft picks against every other qualifying class its conference signed the same year.

drafted: 100%
3
Texas
drafted: 100%
3
drafted: 67%remaining: 33%
2
drafted: 33%remaining: 67%
1
drafted: 33%remaining: 67%
1
remaining: 100%
0
remaining: 100%
0
remaining: 100%
0
remaining: 100%
0
remaining: 100%
0
Source CFB Index · player_recruiting_profiles + player_nfl_draft

The fine print

Other ways to read the same class.

Star-weighted retention
78%
Of the class’s combined star rating, this much stuck around.
Fed the conference
2
Transfers that landed at another program in Texas’s current conference.
Dropped a level
0
Signees whose portal move landed below FBS.
The quiet middle
6
Never transferred, never drafted, 3-star or below. The class nobody writes about.