Texas player makes ESPN’s projection of ‘top 10 freshmen’ for 2025
By Mark Kern
Published:
Stock for Texas freshman defensive back Graceson Littleton appears to be on the rise.
Littleton was included on ESPN’s projection of the top 10 true freshmen for the 2025 season, which published on Monday morning. Littleton clocked in at No. 10 and was one of three SEC players who made the cut.
Here’s some analysis on Littleton’s bright future from ESPN’s Billy Tucker:
If you were ranking off spring and fall camp performance, Littleton might be at the top of this list as opposed to the bottom. He was the ninth-highest-rated recruit in the Longhorns’ top-ranked class of 2025, but recruiting is not an exact science. Though he ran a verified 4.51 at 6 feet, 175 pounds, athletes such as Justus Terry or Jonah Williams headlined the class and were the talk of the offseason in terms of impactful defensive newcomers. Littleton is playing fast, physical and opportunistic football, which he did during his high school career at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Tampa, Florida. Littleton could lock down the starting nickel position to open the season or at least be in the rotation.
A lot of these players were on the list due to their status as a 5-star recruit coming out of high school, but that wasn’t quite the case for Littleton. He was the ninth best player in the Texas recruiting class, but was the No. 65 player in the class according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.
However, he has done a lot in the offseason that has caught the eyes of the Steve Sarkisian and the Texas coaching staff. He has a legitimate shot of winning a starting role on a team that has legit All-SEC players like Michael Taaffe and Malik Muhammad in the secondary.
He is contention for winning the starting nickel spot for the preseason No. 1 team in the country, but he will definitely be earning snaps for the Longhorns in the opener against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Kickoff from that game will be at 12 p.m. ET on Aug. 30, with the game airing on FOX.
