Texas Is Back: Lone Star State’s Surge Reclaims Recruiting Dominance

Over the past couple of years, the state of Texas’ grip on producing recruits slipped slightly. But if there were any fears that Texas would relinquish its place at the top, the Class of 2025 should put those to rest. Texas once again led the nation in high school signees, surging to a whopping 368 high school players signing FBS letters of intent; that’s 36 more signees compared to 2024. In turn, the Lone Star State led all states in total signees as well, with 391. Florida once again finished second, signing 294 players all from high school; and Georgia held firm in third place with 257 signees, also all from the prep ranks. In total, recruiting volume saw another nice bounce in the Class of 2025 — 2,747 players signed to FBS teams in this class, roughly a 5% bump from last year. That increase was especially prevalent in the high school ranks, with 2,513 high school seniors signing, up from 2,364 the year before. Aside from Texas’ 36-player increase from 2024 to 2025, California (+26), Oklahoma (+17), Virginia (+15) and Utah (+15) saw substantial increases in their high school signing crop. On the other side of the coin, Pennsylvania (-13) saw the steepest decline in high school signees, followed by Arizona (-8), North Carolina (-7) and Mississippi (-7). In sum, the 131 FBS teams (not including the service academies, whose recruits do not sign letters of intent) signed players from 46 states and the District of Columbia, as well as consistent overseas talent producers England, Germany, Canada, Australia and American Samoa. The international surprise is Nigeria, as Vanderbilt signed three-star edge rusher Georgia Okorie out of the A.D.R.A.O International School. Punter Hayden Craig became Maine’s first player since 2019 to sign with an FBS team when he inked with Florida. Alaska, Montana, Rhode Island and Vermont were the only states to not sign a player; Vermont’s FBS signee drought is now two decades long.

Georgia Continues Its Per-Capita Reign as Texas Slips

It’s not all good news for the Lone Star State; Texas slipped to eighth in the nation in high school signees per capita, with 1.18 high school FBS signees per 100,000 population. The pound-for-pound leader in producing talent remains Georgia, at 2.3 signees per 100,000 — though that is a small drop for the Peach State in the metric compared to 2024. Alabama held on to its No. 2 spot in the ranking, followed by Mississippi. Hawaii and Utah round out the top five, signing 1.73 and 1.34 players, respectively.

Texas Talent Spreads Wider Than Ever, Reaching Nearly Every Region

The vast expanse of Texas certainly has its talent hotspots, but there has never been a wider spread of prospects in the Lone Star State. Of the 21 regions of the state as designated by DCTF, a staggering 19 of them produced at least one FBS signee in the Class of 2025. Familiar locations like Dallas-Fort Worth (153 signees) and Houston (118 signees) led the way, but in nearly every corner of the state, there’s talent. Aside from DFW and H-Town, Austin (27 signees, up from 24) and San Antonio (13 signees, up from 10) saw the largest increases. But it’s the newcomers that are the headline here — after produce no signees in 2024, the Concho Valley, Hill Country, Rio Grande Valley and Panhandle combined to put out five prospects in 2025. Only Wichita Falls and Laredo were shut out of the prospect party.

To Find Talent, Colleges Think Big…or Shop Mid-Size

Class 6A paced the pack as far as signing players to the FBS level — a staggering 207 signees came from the state’s largest classification, comprising 56% of all signees in the state. That’s the most in pure volume as well as per capita (2.79 signees per 10,000 students of enrollment). But it’s Class 3A Division I that ranks second in the rate metric in the Class of 2025, signing 12 players from one of the state’s mid-sized classifications — that’s 2.59 signees per 10,000 students, comfortably beating third place 5A Division II (2.35) and fourth place 4A Division II (2.18). Note: private school enrollments are not universally available, so the per-capita metric is not included for those schools.

Texas’ Offensive Footprint Widens

One of the most consistent trends in recruiting has been Texas’ prolific production of offensive talent, and the Class of 2025 bore that out in even more stark relief — 198 of the 368 FBS signees from the Lone Star State play on the offensive side, a whopping 53.8%. That’s a noticeable jump from last year’s 48.8 percent tilt to the offense. Defense made up 41.8 percent of the signees, while athletes and specialists made up the remaining 4.3 percent. It was an especially boffo year for the pass-catchers — 88 receivers and tight ends signed to the next level, compared to just 63 in the Class of 2024.

State Championship Contenders Lead The Charge in Wide Range of High Schools

A total of 204 different Texas high school football programs signed at least one player to an FBS letter of intent in the Class of 2025, led by North Crowley and Galena Park North Shore, each of whom signed a whopping eight players to the next level. Class 6A powers Duncanville, Alvin Shadow Creek and Coppell were close behind with seven signees, while perennial prospect factory DeSoto signed six FBS players. And at the risk of sounding obvious, teams with a bevy of FBS signees tend to be pretty good at football — the nine schools that signed at least five players to the FBS ranks went a combined 109-12 in the 2024 season. As far as pound-for-pound production, nobody did it like District 12-3A Division I, specifically Columbus and Hitchcock. Fresh off its first state championship, Columbus (enrollment: 537.5) signed four players to the FBS — quarterback Adam Schobel (TCU), edge-rusher John Schobel (TCU), running back Grayson Rigdon (Arizona State) and edge-rusher Anthony Shorter (Sam Houston) — for a remarkable rate of one signee per 134 students of enrollment. District rival Hitchcock (enrollment: 526) was not far behind, with three signees — quarterback Lloyd Jones III (Texas Tech), defensive lineman Malcolm Simpson (Nebraska) and receiver Kelshaun Johnson (Texas A&M) — and a rate of one signee per 175 students.

Recruiters Come to Texas for All Their Offensive Needs 

A glance at the position breakdown tells a clear tale about why colleges come to Texas: we got playmakers. The Lone Star State led all states in production at almost every offensive position — wide receivers (73), offensive tackles (35), running backs (34), interior offensive linemen (26), tight ends (19) and the more nebulous athletes (14). The exception is at quarterback, where California edged out Texas with 23 signees. Texas also showed out well on defense, leading the nation in safeties (37), defensive linemen (36) and linebackers (31), while Florida maintained its grip on the cornerback (42) and edge rusher (30) positions. But when it comes to position dominance, nobody does it like the Australians — seven of the 15 FBS signees at punter came from Down Under, by far the highest percentage of any state (or country) at any position.

Nobody Shops Local Like Texas State…

Maybe G.J. Kinne’s just a big Texas high school football fan. Maybe he doesn’t want to pay for flights. Whatever the case may be, Texas State is the only team in FBS to sign its entire high school class from within its home state — 18 high school signees for the Bobcats, all 18 of them from the state of Texas. Florida International came the closest to the feat, signing 19 of its 21 prep players from the Sunshine State, and Sam Houston nabbed third with nine of its 10 signees locally. Among Texas teams: UTEP, North Texas, TCU, Rice, Baylor and Houston all rank in the top 10 percent of shopping local, and every FBS team signed at least 45 percent of their class from the Lone Star State.

…But Many Others Import Their Players

The “shop local” mantra cannot be said for a variety of other programs across the nation. Four teams — Charlotte, Colorado State, Memphis and UConn — did not sign a single high school player from their home state. It’s especially baffling for Charlotte and Memphis, which hail from relatively talent-rich states, as 121 combined high schoolers from North Carolina and Tennessee signed in the Class of 2025. The entire state of Colorado did most of its talent acquisition from afar: between Deion Sanders’ Colorado and Jay Norvell’s Colorado State, just one player from the The Centennial State signed with an in-state FBS team — Loveland tight end Zayne DeSouza, who signed with the Buffaloes.