Texas faces competition for blue chip Texans from Texas A&M. Also, Oklahoma signed Dane Webb a year ago, Baylor even got Jordan Rux five years ago, and SEC schools try to recruit in Texas whenever they can, albeit without a ton of success. Shoot, Georgia even recruits players from the University of Texas.
In order to have the kind of program that Texas aspires to have, they need to sign about two blue chip or very-near-blue chip players every year, to have an 8-man roster, and 2-3 of those guys need to be elite Top 5 blue chips. That would put Texas in contention for national titles if the singles/doubles talent mix and chemistry work out right.
So, how successful would Texas have to be in-state? (I mention in-state because it is foolish to think they would lure more top out of state players than they would lose from Texas; are California and Florida and Georgia and M-i-d-w-e-s-t-ern and Mid-Atlantic blue chips coming to Texas?)
In this year's college senior class, the top Texas juniors four years ago were Isamu Tachibana and Alberto Bautista, a pair of 5-stars. Tachibana made his decision on academics, choosing Rice over Harvard and Princeton. Bautista chose Texas A&M and has been a decent bottom of the lineup player. National titles are not built on these two players even if you could get them.
In this year's college junior class, the top Texas juniors three years ago were Ben Chen (#18 among blue chips, went to Texas) and almost-blue-chips Max Stevens (#26, went to TCU) and Daniel Whitehead (#28, went to Texas). Texas also got David Holiner to enroll early, in January, moving him from the next recruiting class into this one. Should Texas have done better than this?
In this year's college sophomore class, the top Texas juniors two years ago were blue chips Blake Davis (went to FSU) and Harry Fowler (went to Ole Miss a semester early in January, played one semester and transferred to Rice). 5-stars were Ben Guthrie (went to William and Mary) and Russell Bader (went to Penn State). Only Blake Davis has seemed like someone Texas could really use and wanted to have.
In this year's freshman class, the top Texas juniors last year were blue chip Dane Webb (went to Oklahoma) and near-blue-chips Chase Curry (Texas Tech commit who had the terrible car accident) and Jeffey Offerdahl (went to Vanderbilt).
If Texas dominated in-state recruiting, they could have their top players be Chen, Whitehead, Holiner, Camillone, Blake Davis, and Dane Webb. (I am assuming they don't want Harry Fowler, although that is board gossip.) That top six looks weaker than their current top six, even with the very good additions of Davis and Webb. Without foreign recruits, they would be a lesser team than they are even if Oklahoma and Texas A&M swear off recruiting in the state of Texas.
So, if a foreign player is signed but does not set the college tennis world on fire, then Texas fans should get ticked off and stop supporting the team. Makes sense to me.