Recruits not swayed much by rivalry

The winner of Saturday's rivalry game between No. 15 Texas and No. 13 Oklahoma will enjoy bragging rights for a year, but victory doesn't always mean getting the best recruits. 

Longhorns coach Mack Brown doesn't think the winner of the game gains an advantage in recruiting over the loser. 

"I don't think it makes any difference in recruiting," said Brown, who is 6-8 against OU since coming to Texas in 1998. "Usually the kids pick the school they want to go to and if you get beat they say, 'We'll get them next year.' That kind of stuff. It's just different and now we have juniors [in high school] looking at where they're going to go to school."

Longhorns freshman tailback and former Aledo High School star Johnathan Gray attended the game twice as a top prospect. 
 
"Mainly, we just watched the first half and talked with the recruits, seeing which direction we were going as far as the universities," Gray said. "We kind of watched the game and said, 'OU made some great plays here, Texas made some great plays here,' just to see how the feel of the game is. We couldn't wait to play for one of the teams." 

Gray saw Texas lose both times, but still chose the Longhorns over the Sooners.

“Wins and losses happen. You can’t base your teams off that," Gray said. "You have to really see what that schools are about and how hard they work and what the coaches like and things along that line." 

While the result of the game might not be a deciding factor for most recruits, Brown still sees some recruiting benefits from the historic rivalry. 

"I do think the fact that they're all at this game is one of the reasons they choose the two schools. I think this game helps both schools in recruiting," Brown said. 

By Austin Laymance/Special to the Star-Telegram