Recruiting Snapshot: Texas Longhorns
While most of college football has been put on hold, recruiting marches on. The class of 2021 has seen a wave of commitments since the start of April, and the team rankings have adjusted to reflect growing classes. We are taking a snapshot of each class in their order of the Rivals Team Rankings and continue with Texas at No. 14.
MORE: How top signees from 2018 are faring at each Big 12 school
CLASS OF 2021 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
CLASS OF 2022: Top 100
TEXAS
Current rank: No. 14
Number of commits: 8
Top commits: Four-star ATH Billy Bowman Jr. (No. 32 overall); four-star DE Ja'Tavion Sanders (No. 42); four-star QB Jalen Milroe (No. 75); four-star OLB Derrick Harris Jr. (No. 147); four-star OT Hayden Conner (No. 240)
Top targets: Five-star RB Camar Wheaton (No. 7); five-star OG Bryce Foster (No. 9); five-star OT Tommy Brockermeyer (No. 10); four-star RB LJ Johnson (No. 67); four-star OT Savion Byrd (No. 77)
LOCAL REACTION
"This has been a very interesting and unpredictable recruiting cycle for Texas, and it could be more of the same in the future. The Longhorns got off to a ridiculously fast start last summer and reeled in a bunch of commitments in about a two-month span that at one time had Texas atop the team rankings. Things have been really quiet for Texas for a long while, but the team did pick up its seventh and eighth commitment in the class recently and UT now sits 14th in the team rankings.
"Looking forward, the Longhorns are in a position to potentially land some top-end talent, including 5-star guys like Brockermeyer, Foster and Wheaton, but it’s not going to be easy and Texas didn’t help its chances with a subpar 2019 season on the field. Changing the majority of the assistant coaching staff is another hurdle Texas is having to navigate. If the coaches can convince some of those highly-ranked guys that the staff has things heading in the right direction, this class could finish with a bang and move up the rankings quite a bit.
"The best option for Texas would seem to be to have some of those guys wait things out so UT can try to gain some momentum whenever the season starts up. If Texas isn’t able to sell some of those top targets on the direction of the program, it probably won’t be the type of class everyone thought it would be last summer. It’s an ultra-competitive recruiting landscape in the state of Texas with schools like LSU, Oklahoma and Texas A&M all jockeying for position, so the Texas staff will have its work cut out for it." – Jason Suchomel, OrangeBloods.com
NATIONAL REACTION
"Tom Herman and co. currently have a stranglehold on the top recruiting haul among Lone Star State teams, which is important to recognize after Texas A&M signed multiple in-state five-stars in 2020. This No. 14-ranked recruiting class got going last summer when Bowman, the nation's No. 1 athlete, and Milroe, the state's top dual-threat, pledged to the Longhorns. That momentum continued into September when Bowman's teammate and top-50 prospect Ja'Tavion Sanders jumped aboard.
"Much like the 2020 cycle, there are plenty of five-stars still on the board, which tends to sway momentum back and forth. Additionally, several of the Longhorns' top in-state targets have committed out-of-state like Donovan Jackson (Ohio State) and Landon Jackson (LSU).
"All of the eyes in Texas will not be on Wheaton or Foster, but the Brockermeyer Brothers -- Texas legacies -- who are deciding between staying home or pursuing opportunities out-of-state in the SEC. Whether Tommy and James follow in their father's footsteps or not has the potential to make a statement for Herman's program regardless of what the team's record is on the field. – Sam Spiegelman, South Central recruiting analyst