Texas Breakdown: Five predictions for 2018 class heading into spring

The 2018 recruiting class has become the full focus heading into the important offseason filled with camps, 7-on-7 tournaments and plenty of school visits. Here are five Texas predictions heading into this crucial stretch.

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The quartet of Al’Vonte Woodard, Anthony Cook, Josh Landry and Ta’Zhawn Henry have all attended a couple of junior day events together this spring - most recently to Texas. Naturally, questions persist about the possibility of any or all of them looking to continue playing on with each other in college.

“We were talking about it leading up to (Texas) junior day, so we’re going to talk about it after,” Cook said following their visit to Austin. “We’re always talking about it would be good if we play together but, I don’t know, we’ll see.”

Woodard also gave credence to the notion.

“The Lamar group is real tight,” he said. “We talk about schools we could possibly just end up going to together - it’s very tight.”

The reality is the number of schools that have offered all four of them doesn’t include a few of the ones that are most likely at the top of Cook’s and Woodard’s list - namely Ohio State and Texas. If any of that group all shows up on one campus as a package deal, it would likely be those two players to one of those two schools.

The offer lists held by Landry and Henry - not to mention their other four-star teammate, D’Shawn Jamison - are very respectable but, despite the lip-service, the bond between the group doesn’t come across as so strong that they will all commit to the same program just for the sake of remaining teammates in college.

This isn’t meant to be a slight at the Cougars, and it could be very wrong if Major Applewhite continues to add-on to what Tom Herman built at Houston. Realistically, it’s likely going to be a three-horse race between North Texas, SMU and UTEP to not fall into that last spot, which probably isn’t a surprise to anyone. What is surprising, however, is the early success the Mustangs have had getting prospects into their 2018 class. If Houston doesn't pick things up on the recruiting trail, it could find itself in the middle of that bottom group.

Right now, several recruits - particularly from the Houston area - have described themselves as being in a sort of wait-and-see pattern when it comes to forming their opinions on both the Longhorns and Cougars. That could prove to work against both programs if things don’t break their way on the field this season, but the reviews on Applewhite as a recruiter - though positive - have not characterized him to be particularly aggressive in securing commitments, either.

In a reverse hedging of the previous bet, it still seems as though Texas should finish with the top recruiting class in the state this year. Barring some sort of catastrophic meltdown, the energy around the program is at a different level than it was when Charlie Strong was hired. Regardless of the previous point about some recruits waiting to see if Herman’s success will transfer to Texas, his staff should still be able to hit on enough other top prospects just based on their personality and reputation alone with the Texas brand behind them.

Even though Texas A&M has gotten itself off to a solid start recruiting, Kevin Sumlin won’t be given the same benefit of the doubt that Herman will for anything less than showing the Aggies can produce on a higher level than they did last season when they fizzled to an 8-5 record after a 6-0 start. Texas Tech continues to be more judicious with its big swings at high-level recruits, but Baylor is certainly a threat to take the state title, considering the job Matt Rhule and company did in piecing together a last-minute class at the end of last year.

TCU could be considered the ‘dark horse’ in this discussion and has another great opportunity to capitalize on a successful season again this year if the Bears, Longhorns and Red Raiders don’t get things sorted out the way they hope.

Brennan Eagles and B.J. Foster are the obvious candidates. Eagles’ name was brought up during the last rankings update, but he could finally make good on things this spring. Foster is a more interesting option as he has still not been able to return to action following a pretty significant MCL injury that took him off the field for most of last season. If he shows once he’s back to have the same ability to react in coverage with the same poise and explosiveness, he’ll continue to trend upwards.

This spring could be the proving ground for fellow safeties Caden Sterns and Leon O’Neal need to push further up the rankings as well. O’Neal in particular will likely give some guys a run for their money in the pecking order, but there is a long way to go in the 2018 recruiting cycle. The pool of Texas prospects is filled with players that should climb with ample opportunity for evaluation over the course of the spring, and an easy case could be made that there are a number of three-star prospects in the state are on the radar for joining the discussion as well before the fall.

If you include Kellen Mond, four Texas quarterbacks were essentially mainstays in the 2017 Rivals250. At this point, Sachse dual-threat standout Jalen Mayden is the only in-state 2018 signal caller with a four-star ranking. The state is not devoid of talent, but there hasn’t an abundance of buzz around many of the names in the state, and the majority of recent offers at the position have gone to 2019 recruits Grant Gunnell and Roschon Johnson.

The trio of Spencer Sanders, Tanner Mordecai and Zadock Dinkelmann seems most likely to step up with Mayden, with Clayton Tune, John Holcombe and Chance Aime on the next tier of passers with a shot at crossing the four-star threshold. A few other names, such as Aaron Allen and Alan Bowman, could help flesh-out the position a little more going forward, but the spring will play a major role in seeing precisely who steps up - and how much.