Athletics Pavilion on the Edinburg campus.
Angel Ballesteros/THE RIDER
The UTRGV Football Team welcomed its 2025 recruiting class on National Signing Day, which consists of mostly transfer portal additions from other programs, Athletics announced Wednesday.
National Signing Day is the first day that high school seniors can sign a letter of intent to join an NCAA Division I or II program. Although every sport has a signing day, Wednesday was for collegiate football.
Vaqueros head coach Travis Bush said he’s “fired up” to add talent to UTRGV’s roster, emphasizing recruiting players at or above the level they currently have.
“We’re excited to get them all in there,” Bush said. “High school, seniors, junior college. We got grad transfers, all of them. We’re just excited to get them out there and see who’s the best on the field.”
This new slate of additions to the program includes 14 freshmen, all of whom originate from Texas high schools. Bush said he is “excited” to see what the incoming freshman class can bring.
“[We have] another good, young [and] talented freshman class of high school guys coming in here,” he said. “[We are] excited about seeing where they fit in.”
Outside of the freshman class, Bush emphasized adding veterans who had previous experience in college football. He said it was a “goal” to add more upperclassmen to the team.
“[We] definitely needed to add some maturity,” he said. “That will continue to be our goal as we add more to the roster in the next few months moving into this first season.”
This includes three redshirt sophomores, with wide receiver Braden Baize from Oklahoma State University (Big 12), tight end Ismael Smith Flores from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (B1G) and defensive lineman Nicholas Fernandez from the University of Arizona (Big 12) transferring from Power 5 schools.
The Vaqueros will also include Rio Grande Valley-native senior quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He announced his intention to join UTRGV earlier this year and brings with him Division I experience, according to Sports Illustrated.
Transferring from UTSA, Marburger became a household name in high school football in the Valley during his four years under center for Sharyland Pioneer.
For a complete list of the student-athletes that joined the UTRGV Football Team on signing day, visit utrgvrider.com.
The Vaqueros are not done adding players to the program as the spring transfer portal will open in April, and the team will be hosting tryouts on Feb. 19, looking for walk-on additions.
They currently have about 102 players on the roster, not counting incoming student-athletes yet to arrive on campus. The maximum roster size allowed in college football, set by the NCAA, is 105.
The team will look to the portal and to walk-on additions to fill out its remaining needs, and should have a complete roster ahead of summer practice before the season begins.
The Vaqueros will open the 2025 football season on Aug. 30 against the Sul Ross University Lobos (3-8, 2-7 LSC) at the Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium in Edinburg.
