UTRGV Football’s first-ever recruiting class became official as this year’s National Signing Day kicked off yesterday. By the day’s end, UTRGV signed a total of 51 student-athletes to be a part of their inaugural season, 10 of which had already signed their letter of intent during the early signing period in December.
Here is a look at UTRGV’s current roster.
| Name | POS | HT | WT | YR | Hometown | Last School |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jorge Alvarado | DE | 6-2 | 220 | Fr. | Laredo, Texas | John B. Alexander HS |
| Ja'Marcus Anderson | DE | 6-2 | 240 | Fr. | Houston, Texas | Dickinson HS |
| Sergio Aparicio | QB | 5-10 | 165 | Fr. | Pharr, Texas | PSJA North HS |
| Caleb Blocker | RB | 5-9 | 190 | Fr. | Katy, Texas | Katy Tompkins HS |
| Mehkhi Blue | OL | 6-6 | 275 | Fr. | Harlingen, Texas | Marine Military Academy |
| Ian Box | OLB | 6-3 | 230 | R-So. | Seguin, Texas | Lamar University |
| Trey Bright | LB | 6-2 | 225 | Fr. | Mont Belvieu, Texas | Barbers Hill HS |
| Zion Brown | QB | 6-0 | 181 | Fr. | Atascocita, Texas | Atascocita HS |
| Brennan Carroll | RB | 5-8 | 170 | Fr. | San Antonio, Texas | Roosevelt HS |
| Atzel Chavez Jr. | QB | 6-1 | 170 | Fr. | Laredo, Texas | United HS |
| Tristan Compton | LS | 6-1 | 235 | Fr. | Hutto, Texas | Hutto HS |
| Kayden Cooper | DB | 6-1 | 185 | Fr. | Houston, Texas | New Caney HS |
| TJ Dement | RB | 5-8 | 180 | Fr. | Boerne, Texas | Boerne HS |
| Tony Diaz | WR | 5-11 | 175 | Fr. | San Marcos, Texas | San Marcos HS |
| Danny Garcia | DL | 6-1 | 275 | Fr. | Pharr, Texas | PSJA North HS |
| Dante Garcia | OL | 6-2 | 280 | Fr. | Pharr, Texas | PSJA North HS |
| Landen Gaskamp | LB | 6-0 | 215 | Fr. | Mont Belvieu, Texas | Barbers Hill HS |
| Cameron Glenn | WR | 6-2 | 170 | Fr. | Humble, Texas | Atascocita HS |
| Jose Gonzalez-Vargas | OL | 6-2 | 260 | Fr. | Laredo, Texas | United HS |
| Mateo Grajeda | TE | 6-4 | 235 | Fr. | El Paso, Texas | Coronado HS |
| Jaiden Haygood | LB | 6-0 | 195 | Fr. | Converse, Texas | Judson HS |
| Roman Hernandez | OL | 6-7 | 275 | Fr. | El Paso, Texas | Eastlake HS |
| Nick Hughes | OL | 6-4 | 275 | Fr. | San Antonio, Texas | Central Catholic HS |
| Aidan Jakobsohn | QB | 6-0 | 150 | Fr. | Ingleside, Texas | Ingleside HS |
| Brenden Jones | OL | 6-6 | 300 | Fr. | San Marcos, Texas | San Marcos HS |
| Jaylan Jones | DL | 6-1 | 265 | Fr. | Cibolo, Texas | Byron P. Steele II HS |
| Nathan Luschen | TE | 6-4 | 220 | Fr. | Cuero, Texas | Cuero HS |
| Jaxson Maynard | LB | 6-2 | 230 | Fr. | Bulverde, Texas | Smithson Valley HS |
| Dakories Moment | DB | 5-10 | 170 | Fr. | Fort Worth, Texas | Brewer HS |
| Gunner Naivar | WR | 6-0 | 165 | Fr. | Converse, Texas | Prestonwood Christian Academy |
| Oscar Nnanna | DB | 6-10 | 170 | Fr. | Cypress, Texas | Bridgeland HS |
| Boone Partee | K | 5-11 | 165 | Fr. | New Braunfels, Texas | New Braunfels HS |
| Nicholas Peace | DB | 5-11 | 170 | Fr. | Texas City, Texas | Dickinson HS |
| Jamal Polley | RB | 5-8 | 170 | Fr. | Edinburg, Texas | Robert Vela HS |
| Alijah Prosser | DB | 5-10 | 160 | Fr. | Manor, Texas | Manor HS |
| William Rogalinski | P | 5-11 | 220 | Fr. | San Antonio, Texas | Sandra Day O'Connor HS |
| Jaxson Shupe | ATH | 6-2 | 190 | Fr. | Edinburg, Texas | Robert Vela HS |
| Aidan Smith | LB | 6-2 | 215 | Fr. | New Braunfels, Texas | Canyon HS |
| Tyler Staton | DN | 6-4 | 220 | Fr. | Lockhart, Texas | Lockhart HS |
| Juan'Yae Taylor | ATH | 5-10 | 175 | Fr. | San Antonio, Texas | Wagner HS |
| DaCorien Thompson | DN | 6-1 | 250 | Fr. | Crowley, Texas | North Crowley HS |
| Luke Valdez | WR | 6-2 | 190 | Fr. | San Antonio, Texas | Sandra Day O'Connor HS |
| Joe Derek Vecchio | OL | 6-2 | 284 | Fr. | Pharr, Texas | PSJA North HS |
| Jayven Villasenor | DB | 5-11 | 175 | Fr. | Laredo, Texas | United HS |
| Cah'lil Ward | DB | 5-10 | 175 | Fr. | League City, Texas | Clear Creek HS |
| Caleb Warren | LB | 6-3 | 235 | Fr. | Lake Jackson, Texas | Brazoswood HS |
| Shane Werner | DB | 5-11 | 170 | Fr. | Round Rock, Texas | Stony Point HS |
| Nolan White | DB | 6-0 | 180 | Fr. | Port Arthur, Texas | Port Arthur Memorial HS |
| Jarius Williams | DB | 6-3 | 190 | Fr. | League City, Texas | Clear Springs HS |
| Jaden Wincher | DE | 6-3 | 240 | Fr. | Pearland, Texas | Pearland HS |
| Blake Zeller | OL | 6-5 | 280 | Fr. | New Braunfels, Texas | Canyon HS |
If you’ll notice, there are only 7 players on their roster from the Rio Grande Valley, or, approximately 13.7%. Although many might tell you that the Valley should be grateful to have 7 players signed onto ANY roster, signing only 7 players from the area sure feels like a far cry from what UTRGV Head Coach Travis Bush alluded to back when he was first hired. Also, consider that schools such as UTEP and UTSA both have rosters with a significantly higher local student-athlete percentage with 20.4% and 17.6% respectively.
But after pausing to look at this roster and spurring from having literally nothing better to do, I decided to take a deeper dive into UTRGV’s athletics program as a whole to see just how much representation is UTRGV providing for local student-athletes.
Here’s what I found:
Men’s UTRGV Athletics
Sport – # of RGV Athletes / # of Total Athletes = % of RGV Athletes
Football – 7 / 51 = 13.7%
Baseball – 7 / 44 = 15.9%
Basketball – 0 / 16 = 0%
Cross Country – 6 / 10 = 60%
Golf – 1 / 10 = 10%
Soccer – 3 / 28 = 10.7%
Tennis – 1 / 8 = 12.5%
Track and Field – 11 / 30 = 36.6%
Total Men’s Athletics – 36 / 197 = 18.2%
Women’s UTRGV Athletics
Sport – # of RGV Athletes / # of Total Athletes = % of RGV Athletes
Basketball – 0 / 15 = 0%
Cross Country – 5 / 7 = 71.4%
Golf – 1 / 9 = 11.1%
Tennis – 1 / 7 = 14.2%
Cross Country 12 / 38 = 31.5%
Soccer – 2 / 23 = 8.6%
Volleyball – 3 / 13 = 23%
Total Women’s Athletics – 24 / 112 = 21.4%
Total UTRGV Athletics – 60 / 309 = 19.4%
A few observations:
- Incredibly, despite being on the of better high school soccer regions in the state, UTRGV men’s soccer fields only 3 on their entire roster.
- The sport with the highest RGV representation is Women’s Cross Country with a whopping 71.4% of the roster being made up of local student-athletes. Men’s cross country comes in 2nd with 60% of the roster calling the RGV home.
- Basketball RGV representation is entirely non-existent for both men’s and women’s athletics.
In all, about 1 out of every 5 student-athletes hails from the Valley, which is surprisingly higher than I thought it would be.
But, honestly, 7 recruits is still peanuts compared to where UTRGV football should be, and there’s no reason for the men’s soccer team to have less than 5 on their squad. Also, having zero basketball recruits in either men’s or women’s is absolutely abysmal.
I can already hear people in my comments, crying “BUT iF wE WAnT To WiN, WeEE NEED To RECrUit OutSIDE of The VAlleY!!!!”
Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ; UTRGV’s athletics programs are already losing and the football team is probably gonna go winless its first year, anyway, so, what the fuck is the difference?
