Ranking the contenders: Marques Caldwell's Top 3

High three-star defensive back Marques Caldwell made the next move in his recruitment just before the weekend dropping a new Top 3. The finalists now include: Ole Miss, TCU and Texas – also of note is his exclusion of Oregon, where he had previously been committed. Now the countdown begins for his next decision, here is a look at what appears to be the pecking order for him.

Since the Longhorns offered Caldwell, many following his recruitment have thought it’s not been a matter of if but when as far as him making the move to UT. Although Texas is the latest of the three to have offered him, he’s not shied away from expressing his interest in the Longhorns. Recently, he tweeted a picture of him in the Longhorns uniform from a previous visit and after signing such a vaunted defensive back class in 2018, the Texas staff is surely impressing on him that they’re looking to be more selective with fewer secondary takes in this class. The 2019 defensive back class in-state is much thinner at the top than it was last year, and even though Caldwell might not currently have the same kind of ranking that some of the top prospects in the state did in 2018, he has the sort of measurables that programs from all over have been searching for.

For what it’s worth, Cadwell’s twitter banner when he dropped his Top 3 was a picture of him in a TCU uniform from another previous visit. The Horned Frogs really only signed one true cornerback in 2018 in ArDarius Washington and only have one committed so far in 2019 with Mansfield-Summit prospect William Jones. Neither bring the kind of size or physicality that Caldwell does, and with some of the bigger receivers that have been committing and signing to other teams in the conference over the past few classes, Caldwell would be a critical addition for the Frogs defense. He’s been one of the staff’s priority players at the position and simply don’t have many other uncommitted players left on their board at the moment.

Even though Caldwell de-committed from the Ducks, his relationship with former Oregon coach and current Rebels assistant Charles Clark is a heavy motivator here. Earlier in the spring, he pointed to the efforts of graduate assistant Josh Snow as another crucial personal relationship in the program. Ole Miss has shown capable of recruiting Texas with some measure of success under new head coach Matt Luke, but Caldwell hasn’t visited Oxford as he has his other options and even though they’re in his Top 3, the Rebels might have the most work to do in getting him to jump on board.