Baylor added its fifteenth commitment on Thursday morning when Waller, Texas, three-star defensive lineman Gabriel Hall. One of the state's biggest stars in the spring, Hall racked up a number of offers from programs across the country, but mostly kept a relatively low profile when it came to his recruiting preferences. Baylor and TCU were among the favorite teams in-state, but Ole Miss had made him a priority since offering him in May as well.

Hall is one of the most explosive and versatile defensive tackles in the state and he’ll add some intensity to the Bears’ front line as soon as he’s ready for action. As a natural pass-rushing defensive tackle, he’s an ideal player to defend against opposing Big 12 offenses and he’s powerful enough to be a disruptive run-stopper. Although he checks-in at nearly 6-4 and 285-pounds, he’s so quick off the line and nimble that he doesn’t have to be pigeonholed exclusively as an interior lineman. The group of players that Baylor is assembling as front-seven personnel is a fascinating one in that many of them can be moved around and effectively lined up in a variety of roles, but the common bond between all of them is their top-end pass-rushing ability and aggressive style of play. For a defense that allowed nearly five yards-per-carry on the ground and only 22 sacks, adding talent like Hall’s is a top priority.

Nebraska was also among the teams that seemed like an interesting possibility for Hall and likely would have hoped for his commitment as the Huskers have been aggressive in offering interior linemen in Scott Frost’s first class as head coach. Nebraska does have one defensive tackle commitment in Arizona prospect Tony Fair, but Hall is a different sort of player than him and would have been a nice compliment. Hall was a target for TCU, even though it didn’t seem clear if his potential role with the Horned Frogs would be on offense or defense. Gary Patterson’s numbers at defensive tackle could probably use a boost and TCU has been collecting offensive linemen left-and-right since last year’s class, but with too many unknowns, the sound decision was to choose the Bears.

Baylor continues to impress with its recruiting efforts despite the turmoil that has surrounded the program for the past few years on-and-off the field. The Bears are keeping pace with - or outdoing - most of the other teams in the Big 12 and are 35th overall in the country following Hall’s commitment. Although Waller doesn’t present a very deep well of talent outside of Hall, his commitment gives Baylor another player that could find reps early and show future recruits the opportunity that still exists within the program.