Four Longhorns dominate PFF's top player rankings. Discover which rising stars and established talents made the elite top 101 list.
The college football season concluded with Fernando Mendoza and the Indiana Hoosiers bested the Miami Hurricanes in the national championship.
That means that PFF has come out with their annual ranking of who they believe are the 101 best players from this past season. And in their ranking, the Texas Longhorns were tied for the most players with four.
Safety Michael Taaffee was the highest ranked Longhorn on the list at No. 48, and that came as a result of his versatility.
He was able to wrap up ball carriers with 70 tackles over the course of the season, and that led him to be tied for fourth in the SEC in tackles per game with seven.
But he also showed his ball hawk skills with a pair of interceptions, and all of this combined has allowed him to declare for the NFL Draft as one of the better safeties in the class.
The next Texas player on the list was just two down from Taaffe, and it was budding star quarterback Arch Manning.
He might not have had the season in his first year as a starter that he would have wanted, but he still showed the reason why he is so highly touted.
Manning finished the 2025 season with 3163 passing yards and 26 touchdowns, and he did so with just seven picks. He was also able to show his running ability with 400 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground.
Some people viewed Arch as a disappointment in 2025 due to how much he was hyped up going into the season. But he is going into the 2026 season as one of the frontrunners for the Heisman.
The third player the team has on the list is edge rusher Colin Simmons at No. 65, who is a huge part of the team's success.
He racked up 12 sacks in 2025, which was enough to lead the whole SEC conference, and be tied for fifth in all of college football. Simmons also wrapped up ball carriers with 43 total tackles, as well as forcing three fumbles.
And the final player on the list for the Longhorns was offensive tackle Trevor Goosby just a couple spots down from Simmons at No. 68.
Texas had one of, if not the best tackle in the nation last season in Kelvin Banks Jr. who was drafted ninth overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. So needless to say, Goosby had some pretty big shoes to fill.
But he was able to do it very well, as he helped the Longhorns' offensive line keep Manning's jersey fairly clean over the course of the season. Goosby will go into 2026 as one of the best tackles in the nation.
Texas is in such a good spot right now to contend this coming season, and these four players will no doubt be a big part of what the team aspires to do.