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Published Sep 4, 2017
Take Two: Will Texas' loss to Maryland impact recruiting?
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Adam Gorney  •  Rivals.com
National Recruiting Director
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@adamgorney

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

MORE TAKE TWO: Justin Fields | Lane Kiffin | Clemson | Ohio State | Harbaugh

STORYLINE

There was so much promise and possibility for Texas. A new, successful head coach. A fresh start. A lower-level Big Ten team coming to Austin to start the season, a chance to start the renewal of the Texas football program.

Instead, it was Maryland 51, Texas 41 on Saturday and it left coach Tom Herman and many Longhorn faithful scratching their heads. Things looked so promising – and recruiting has been going so well – how could this have happened?

Herman, an uber-talented coach, cannot fix everything overnight. And there are lots of problems, that much is clear.

The reality now is that Texas is now 0-1 and part of this massive rebuilding effort is to once again convince the state’s top players to stay home and play for the Longhorns.

Herman and his staff have had tremendous success so far doing that as three of the top four players in the state are already committed. Last recruiting cycle, none of the top 16 players in the state signed to Texas.

Is one bad loss enough to concern a lot of the state’s top prospects that the Herman turnaround is much farther off than hoped? Is this going to become a major recruiting issue or do Texas’ top players see the Maryland loss as an even bigger opportunity to get on the field early in Austin?

First take: JASON SUCHOMEL, ORANGEBLOODS.COM

“It's probably a little too early to accurately tell how Saturday's stunning loss will impact the Longhorns' recruiting efforts, but it certainly won't help. Some of the top remaining players on Texas' board - guys like Anthony Cook and Mustapha Muhammad - have been pretty open about wanting to see progress from Texas this year and wanting to play for championships. I don't expect any recruit to write Texas off after one week, but the Longhorns could very well lose some of the recruiting momentum they've built up if they don't find a way to turn this around quickly.”

Second take: MIKE FARRELL, RIVALS.COM

“It makes (recruiting) tougher. To lose as three-touchdown favorites at home with the defense looking worse than it did last year. It does give kids some pause and maybe stand back and let this play out. A lot of people were expecting the Longhorns to beat Maryland handily and then see how they stacked up against USC, but they couldn’t even handle Maryland. I can’t see them being competitive against USC at this point. If the season goes worse than the ones Charlie Strong had, then it could really hurt recruiting.”

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