Florida, Texas and California are regarded as the Holy Trinity of where NFL players come from and that’s again the case when analyzing the numbers at the upcoming scouting combine.

But one state has leapfrogged the two others and really made a statement this season when it comes to where the invitees played their high school football.

It’s not California. And it’s not Florida.

Texas leads by a surprisingly wide margin with 47 invites of guys who played their high school football in that state. California is next with 32, Florida is third with 28, Georgia has 23 and then the numbers fall off precipitously for the other states.

Today’s Ask Farrell is all about the state of Texas though and a deeper dive into those 47 invitees and what it could mean for the state’s Power Five programs moving forward.

Something to worry the in-state schools: Twenty-four players, so a little more than half, left the state of Texas after high school to play their college football and that list includes quarterback Jalen Hurts, running back Eno Benjamin, wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and Laviska Shenault, linebackers K’Lavon Chaisson and Kenneth Murray and defensive backs Jeffrey Okudah and Antoine Winfield, Jr. among others. That's a massive amount of talent going elsewhere.

But it’s not all bad news, at least for some schools, as Baylor and TCU did an especially strong job keeping local talent home and then developing them for a shot in the NFL. Texas A&M also did a decent job with defensive linemen Justin Madubuike and receivers Quartney Davis and Kendrick Rogers being in-state kids.

However, Texas has as many in-state kids (two) going to the combine as SMU and Texas Tech has one more than the Longhorns.

The invasion of out-of-state programs into Texas remained an issue in the 2020 class as Texas A&M did well at the top but out of the top 10 kids in the state, more than half are leaving and if five-star Zachary Evans goes to Ole Miss, Florida or Tennessee it would end up being 70 percent.

The combine numbers prove many things, one of them being there is a ton of elite high school talent in Texas, many of whom stay home, but that too many of them head elsewhere and then shine on the college stage.

We ask Rivals National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell two things: Is he surprised that invitees who played high school football in the state of Texas make up such a big portion of people at the combine and secondly, can the in-state Power Five schools keep more local talent home or will Oklahoma, Alabama and others keep coming in and poaching them?

“I’m a bit surprised at the disparity between Texas and the other big two this year at the combine but I think that’s a good sign for the in-state schools. It will be hard for Texas and Texas A&M to keep all the players in state, especially if they don’t start winning more, but more depth in Texas is always good. I think Alabama, Ohio State, LSU and Oklahoma are a real problem for the Longhorns and Aggies and this will make them step up their recruiting games.”