Texas Longhorns Trio Lands High On Top-100 List

The Texas Longhorns had a trio of players ranked highly in a new top-100 players list for 2025

Jan 10, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns linebacker Colin Simmons (11) celebrates after a pass break up during the third quarter of the College Football Playoff semifinal against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-Imagn Images | Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

The Texas Longhorns continue to garner pre-season awards and recognition, including headlining a new list of college football's top-100 players for the 2025 season from On3 Sports.

Seven players landed on the list, and one of the three teams had at least two players in the top-10. However, they are the only team to have three players in that range, and their highest-rated player is only a sophomore. While the 2025 season looks bright, the future might be even brighter in the Forty Acres with the talent on the list.

Where did the seven Longhorns land, and who was the trio to land in the top-10?

Best Trio In The Country

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The three Longhorns named to the top-ten players in the country were edge defender Colin Simmons, linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., and quarterback Arch Manning. Simmons was the highest rated of the trio, named the fourth best player in the country for 2025, and was the second-ranked edge defender behind Dylan Stewart of South Carolina.

Simmons had a 17.6 percent impact rate on the Longhorns' defense in 2024 as a true freshman, and now, with the game slowing down after one season in college football, he could be even better.

Hill is the first linebacker to be on the top-100 players list and the second Longhorn, coming in at the ninth spot. In two seasons in Austin, he has totaled 99 tackles, 24.5 tackles for loss, 13 sacks, one interception, two passes deflected, and five forced fumbles. Four of those forced fumbles and eight of those sacks came in 2024, showing signs of improvement. He now enters the 2025 season as the expected leader of the defense.

Perhaps the most shocking of the three Longhorns in the top 10 was quarterback Arch Manning, who just made the cut at number 10 on the list. As the third quarterback on the list behind Sam Leavitt (5) and LaNoris Sellers (8), he comes in with the least experience of the ones named in front of him and behind him.

While Manning's talent is there, so will be the eyeballs and pressure, as well as one of the most anticipated quarterback debuts college football has seen. He has drawn comparisons to Tim Tebow and been named the future Heisman by analysts. Now, after two seasons learning Steve Sarkisian's offense under Quinn Ewers, he gets his shot to prove the list right.

Four other Longhorns made the list, including Malik Muhammad (42), Ryan Wingo (45), Michael Taaffee (92), and Trevor Goosby (93).