UTRGV Football adds 32 on 2025 National Signing Day

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EDINBURG — UTRGV Football dropped its inaugural season schedule Tuesday, and Wednesday, head coach Travis Bush announced the addition of 32 players to the Vaqueros’ roster on National Signing Day. Six players were previously announced to the UTRGV roster during the early signing period in December.

Bush said the focus of UTRGV’s 2025 signing class, the second in program history, was to bring in players with college football experience who can come in, compete for starting spots and help the Vaqueros right out of the gate when kickoff arrives on Aug. 30, 2025 against Sul Ross.

“It’s been a fun 24 hours,” Bush said during a news conference Wednesday. “We’re fired up. Added another 38 total on the list — 28 of those guys are on campus already and there will be 10 more joining us in the summer moving into the fall semester. 25 of those are transfers and the other 13 of the high school class are all from Texas. We definitely needed to add some maturity, add some upperclassmen. That was the goal here and that will continue to be our goal as we add more to the roster here in the next few months moving into this first season.”

Among the 38 signees in this year’s class are four players who spent time in the Big 10 and Big 12 in redshirt sophomore receiver Braden Baize (Oklahoma State), redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Nicholas Fernandez (Arizona), redshirt sophomore tight end Ismael Smith Flores (Nebraska), and redshirt junior punter Nathaniel Wallace-Dilling (Ohio State/Connecticut).

The class also includes transfers from programs such as Air Force, North Texas and Tulsa.

“These guys have played in some big games and played at different levels,” Bush said. “Really for us, the first round of this goes back to our staff and what they did, the connections they built and the pleasant surprise to get those kinds of guys here now. Now we know we can get those kinds of guys here, so now that kind of opens up some new doors, so credit to our coaching staff and the job they’ve done. And also this place and the facilities — you’ve got guys coming in here from Power 4 schools saying our practice field is better than theirs and things like that, so that is what the plan that’s been in place here with our administration and athletic director has been all along. Now we’re seeing how that can benefit us recruiting these guys from bigger schools.”

A pair of Rio Grande Valley high school football products are also part of UTRGV’s 2025 signing class in transfers Eddie Lee Marburger and Thomas Domian.

Marburger, who was a record-setting quarterback during his days at Sharyland Pioneer, joins the program from UTSA.

The redshirt senior, listed at 6’1 and 215 pounds, joins a UTRGV quarterback room that currently includes three redshirt freshmen and one true freshman, all who are yet to play a down of college football.

Marburger was rated a 3-star prospect coming out of high school. In his four years at UTSA, Marburger appeared in 18 games, started two, and completed 65-of-120 passes for 777 yards and seven touchdowns.

“(He brings) that experience and he’s played college games, which is different than any other quarterback we have in our room right now,” Bush said of Marburger. “Especially at that position, there’s no substitute for experience, being in those games, being in those situations against the caliber of defenses he’s gone against. Even just being in our first meeting yesterday, that maturity, that confidence, he’s been there, he’s experienced things that can help mold these young quarterbacks along the way. We’re excited. He’s done it. We have expectations for him but he’s going to have to come in, learn the system and compete with these guys for that job.”

The McAllen Memorial alumnus and Blinn College transfer Domian is a 6’3, 300-pound offensive lineman with the ability to play multiple positions up front. The junior helped Blinn rush for an average of 225 and 230 yards during his two years with the team.

UTRGV also signed five players from the Coastal Bend area in Corpus Christi Miller receiver Corey Holmes and running back Broderick Taylor, Flour Bluff quarterback Jayden Paluseo, Bishop tight end Brendon Ray, and redshirt freshman receiver Christian Sabsook, who played high school football at Corpus Christi Veterans before spending last year on the Air Force football team.

Paluseo is currently enrolled at UTRGV and competing for a roster spot with the Vaqueros baseball team after signing with UTRGV as a multi-sport athlete out of Flour Bluff.

“Those were all good young men and had the chance to see them all in person, coached against one of them when I was coaching at Canyon,” Bush said. “We’ll always hit that area. We’ll start here and move up, so we were able to find those guys. Coach (Marco) Regalado did a good job in that area of finding those guys and then keeping them engaged in the recruiting process and getting them down here. We’re excited — a lot of speed in that group.”

The UTRGV roster is now up to 102 players following National Signing Day. Bush and the UTRGV coaching staff are also likely to add some players through walk-on tryouts later this month and during the spring transfer portal window from April 16-25.

Come kickoff on Aug. 30, 2025, the UTRGV roster must be at 105, the NCAA limit.

“We’re pleasantly surprised. We talked last year at this time about the number of high school guys we were able to get in this first class, the majority of those guys walking on and choosing to come here,” Bush said. “Now, seeing the caliber of guys we got in now, that just fires us up for this next go round and next recruiting cycle here in the next couple months.”

Click here to see the Vaqueros complete signing class.

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