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AUSTIN – Remember when one of the nation’s top recruits in 2017 made a few headlines by asking “Who Texas?” (Yes, trying to figure out who Texas was.)

Well, it looks like the Longhorns are quite getting that reaction anymore. Speaking to reporters after Tuesday’s practice, Texas running backs coach and associated head coach Stan Drayton was asked how national recruits view the Longhorns when he travels the country. They take notice, he said.



“They like Texas, they know what Texas is,” Drayton said. “That’s the beauty when you go out of state and you do wear the burnt orange, they have an immediate respect for the program.”



It’s been almost 10 years since Texas last had a 10-win season and appeared in a national title game. It’s been 12 years since it won a national championship. As Tom Herman has pointed out in the past, many high school recruits at the moment never saw the Longhorns of the past.



They’ve just seen the 46-42 record the program has recorded since the 2009 national title game, including three straight losing seasons.



“So the Texas that they know is a lot different than the Texas that people in my generation know,” Herman said at Big 12 Media Days last month.



But in his experiences, Drayton has started to see a difference. Since of having to educate recruits of the Vince Youngs, Colt McCoys and Brian Orakpos of Texas. He sees a knowledge of that Texas already there. And it probably also helps to have one of the top locker rooms in the country, which the recruits were the first to see at the "Stars at Night Showcase" last month.



“They have an understanding of the history, which was very surprising to me,” Drayton said. “This young generation of kids really don’t care so much about tradition anymore. They’re all about living in the now. I get that. But when I went out across the country looking at these backs, they had an understand of our tradition here, which was very exciting for me.”



Texas currently has one running back committed in its 2018 class in four-star prospect Keaontay Ingram. He’s a Texas native, but in all the Longhorns have five out-of-state commitments in the class.

