30-Second Analysis: Caden Sterns flips to Texas

Cibolo-Steele Rivals100 defensive back Caden Sterns made the weekend’s biggest headline when he announced his flip from LSU to Texas. In doing so, he became the Longhorns’ eighth commitment in 2018 and its fourth four-star prospect. Texas also raised eyebrows with its high-profile flip of former Oklahoma quarterback commit Cameron Rising last month.

Sterns has a great blend of size and speed with strong natural instincts in pass coverage. He’s bound to be a play-making safety that will immediately improve and bring toughness to the Longhorns' run defense. This spring he’s continued to show his versatility defending the pass and he creates a lot of options as a defender that can be asked to do anything playing up closer to the line.

“Nobody really knew he was going to do that to be honest,” one of Sterns’ Steele teammates said. Perhaps not the most intriguing response, but Sterns was on campus at UT for a visit on Saturday, and must not have made much of things prior.

Shortly before his commitment to TCU, Rivals250 safety Atanza Vongor was in Austin for a Longhorns junior day event, as were fellow Rivals250 safeties Leon O’Neal and B.J. Foster, who have both also been big targets for Texas.

While Sterns is a huge pickup for head coach Tom Herman and defensive coordinator Todd Orlando, this could lead to dominoes tipping elsewhere, probably more so for O’Neal, who seems to have compelling reasons to look at a few others in his collection of top offers. It should be fascinating to see if Sterns' decision is a sign of things to come with more premier in-state prospects choosing Texas over teams like LSU or Oklahoma, as Herman’s staff is picking up a lot of recruiting momentum as of late.

Also noteworthy: Texas also hosted Sterns’ teammate Juan Henry earlier this spring at the aforementioned junior day event. Steele cornerback JayVeon Cardwell has been a popular name as well, picking up recent offers from Colorado, Houston, Kansas, Ole Miss and Texas Tech offers over the last few weeks. Fellow Steele safety J.T. Woods also recently committed to Baylor.