Analyzing The Dallas Morning News’ Top 100 area football recruits for the Class of 2023

The Dallas Morning News’ complete top 100 recruits list for the class of 2023 has officially been unveiled.

The full list — which includes an interactive map and a position-by-position breakdown — can be found here. Below are five observations on the class of 2023 top 100, including a look at the most loaded position groups and historical trends.

Wide receivers dominate — again

The Dallas area may just be a pass-catcher’s world which everyone else is living in.

For the fourth straight year, there were more wide receivers (19) on The News’ top 100 than any other position. This year’s total is the second-most during that four year span, trailing only the 21 wide receiver ranked within the 2021 top 100.

DeSoto’s Johntay Cook II — a five star recruit who’s narrowed his three potential schools down to Texas, Michigan and Oregon — led the way at No. 3 overall. The 6-0 receiver has caught 29 touchdowns over the last two seasons, and figures to be one of the area’s most potent offensive threats this fall.

Here’s a position-by-position breakdown of the top 100:

South Oak Cliff leads top 100 with seven recruits

Not only will South Oak Cliff be among the favorites to win the 5A Div. II state championship this fall — potentially its second in a row — but it will also do so with more top 100 talent than any other Dallas-area program.

The reigning state champs boast an area-best seven recruits on The News’ top 100, led by four-star cornerback Malik Muhammad, who holds scholarship offers from Texas, Texas A&M and Alabama. South Oak Cliff has four recruits ranked within the top 50 alone: cornerback Jayvon Thomas (No. 11, Texas A&M pledge), defensive lineman Billy Walton (No. 34, Oklahoma State pledge) and offensive lineman Brione Brooks (No. 42 overall, TCU pledge).

It’s the most top 100 recruits any Dallas ISD program has had in one season since at least 2013. DeSoto, a likely contender for a state championship at the 6A level next fall, ranks second with six top 100 recruits.

Quarterback is top-heavy, but not as deep as past years

In comparing the class of 2023 top 100 list to last year’s, one thing sticks out: quarterback depth.

While both lists featured six quarterbacks, not all numbers are the same. The top quarterback in The News’ class of 2023 rankings — Denton Guyer five-star recruit Jackson Arnold (No. 6 overall, Oklahoma pledge) — would have also been the top passer in The News’ class of 2022 rankings as well.

But, things change after that. Using 247Sports.com’s composite ratings as a base, four quarterbacks in the class of 2022 rankings each have a higher rating than the class of 2023′s second-ranked quarterback (Northwest Eaton’s Jake Strong, Texas Tech pledge, No. 47 overall).

Strong, the nation’s 27th-ranked quarterback per 247, has a composite rating of 0.8769. In the class of 2022, Frisco Lone Star graduate Garrett Rangel (top-ranked quarterback), Rockwall graduate Braedyn Locke (second-ranked quarterback), Flower Mound graduate Nick Evers (fourth-ranked quarterback) and Sachse graduate Alex Orji (fifth-ranked quarterback) all had higher composite ratings.

2023′s top 100 is the first ranking since 2019 that included just two quarterbacks within the top 50.

An unusually strong year for safeties

Since The News started differentiating between safeties and cornerbacks in its class of 2020 rankings (previously, both positions were lumped together as defensive backs), the class of 2023 top 100 includes the most amount of safeties yet with 12.

Not only does that position include depth, but also top-end talent with four safeties ranked within the top 20. Denton Guyer four-star safety Peyton Bowen, a Notre Dame pledge, is the highest-ranked at No. 4 overall, while Duncanville’s Deldrick Madison ranks 14th.

Between safeties and cornerbacks, defensive backs make up 35 of the area’s top 100 recruits. Last year’s top 100 included just 20 defensive backs.

Stock watch

With a full season of football still left to play for all players ranked on the top 100, don’t be surprised to see some recruits out-play their rankings. Last season, for example, Parish Episcopal running back Andrew Paul began the year with few Division I scholarship offers and ranked No. 94 on The News’ top 100 recruits list for the class of 2022 — ninth out of ninth at his position.

By the end of the season, he’d scored over 40 touchdowns for the TAPPS Div. I state champions and signed with reigning national champion Georgia. Safe to say, No. 94 may have been a bit low for the future Bulldog.

Who could prove their position wrong this season?

Rockwall-Heath tight end Eli Finley (No. 99 overall) is a prime candidate to be a late bloomer. The 6-5, 245 tight end holds just three scholarships — two of which are from North Texas and Louisiana-Monroe — but has done enough to catch the attention of one of the nation’s premier programs. Oregon offered Finley a scholarship on May 20.

Finley caught just three passes in 2021, and with a top-25 program already interested in him (and, with his role likely to expand), he could be a senior-year riser.

Southlake Carroll quarterback Kaden Anderson (No. 70) was thrown into the starting role as a junior after uber-prospect Quinn Ewers skipped his senior season at Carroll and enrolled at Ohio State. Anderson, a 6-4 passer with offers from Bowling Green, Houston Baptist and Sam Houston State, impressed in year one with 41 total touchdowns to just eight interceptions.

With a full offseason as a starting quarterback now under his belt, Anderson could convince college evaluators that he has what it takes to be the next great quarterback out of Carroll.

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