2025 4-star DL Ethan Utley earns coveted Texas offer
Nashville (Tenn.) Ensworth 2025 four-star defensive lineman Ethan Utley had a feeling he might pick up an offer from Texas during his first trip to Austin. Texas safeties coach Blake Gideon had met with Utley before and told him he should come down at some point soon for a visit giving Utley a good feeling.
The 6-foot-3.5, 275-pounder camped at Texas on Saturday. Prior to that camp though, he met with Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, defensive line coach Bo Davis getting to know each on a better level.
That meeting went well as Sarkisian extended the sophomore an offer, giving close to 40 offers now.
“I had a feeling they were going to offer but it was still up in the air,” Utley told On3. “When coach Sark offered me it was a great feeling to have an offer from a university like Texas.”
While the photoshoot prior to the camp was nice and the camp itself was a highlight of the trip for Utley, getting the chance to talk with Sarkisian and Davis in particular made the trip that much more of a standout for Utley.
Utley called Sarkisian an up-front guy and said he appreciated how he treated every recruit he interacted with. On top of that, Sarkisian’s knowledge of the game was immediate from the jump and what he had to say to Utley left an impact.
“He let me know that the progression that I’m making is on a constant upslope and that he doesn’t see me declining in any way or peaking out,” said Utley, the No. 160 player in the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking. “He thinks I’ll continue to get older, grow into my body and mature. The more I play the game, he thinks I’ll become one of the best players in the country.
“The aspects of being a player for him and actually learning the game of football from him and becoming a better person, he marks off all of those boxes.”
Davis gives Texas an advantage over other schools
While hearing what Sarkisian had to say helped Texas in Utley’s eyes, it was learning from Davis that really helped the Longhorns in their pursuit of him.
Utley called Davis a ‘real old-school’ coach and that he pointed out things to him in that one camp that other coaches before never saw.
He also appreciated how much Davis cared about what he was teaching and that he would openly call out players and get on them if they weren’t paying attention or slacking during drills.
“At the end of the day it’s all love but if you’re slacking off he’ll let you know about it,” Utley said. “I really appreciate that because he’s not a that will let you slack around and just go through the motions. Coach Davis expects perfection out of you every single time and if he teaches you something, he expects you re-image it and do it in the drill exactly like he taught you.
“Knowing the schools that I’ve been to and things that I’ve seen, Texas did some things that kind of separated themselves from other schools I’ve been to. Getting a feeling how Coach Davis is as a coach really separated them from other coaches I’ve been around. Seeing that and knowing that’s how he coaches his players in college, I could see myself playing for him in the future.”
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