Texas Football Recruiting: Program-changing QB Preston Stone favors Horns early?

Can the 2021 Texas football recruiting class do enough to hang onto the interest of the elite talent five-star dual-threat quarterback Preston Stone?

The 2021 cycle for Texas football recruiting is hard to foresee with no commits yet coming to that class. Once National Signing Day arrives so that the 2019 Texas football recruiting class is all locked down and signed, the 2020 and 2021 cycles will get more attention. While most of the attention will fall to the 2020 cycle after National Signing Day, the 2021 Texas football recruiting class then becomes more important too.

If the 2021 Texas football recruiting class is to maximize its haul, potentially the most significant commitment would come from the top-rated high school dual-threat quarterback in the nation, five-star Preston Stone. This is a rare sighting to get a top dual-threat high school quarterback in the nation also rated as a top six overall prospect.

This is still way too early to tell if the Texas Longhorns will be the ultimate landing spot for Stone. But, he is a Dallas, TX, native that seems to be favoring the 2021 Texas football recruiting class a bit early on in his recruitment. Stone already holds an emphatic number of offers for a recruit that is just about to go into his junior year of high school, at Parish Episcopal School.

Moreover, the draw that landing Stone would have for the 2021 Texas football recruiting class would have an absolutely massive impact. Landing someone as talented as highly touted as Stone is right now could draw a number of other four and five-star prospects to that 2021 class for the Horns.

There’s only six programs nationally that have at least one commit for the 2021 class thus far. The Florida Gators lead the way in that regard, with the top ranked class in the nation. The only in-state Division 1 program that has a 2021 commit is surprisingly enough the SMU Mustangs.

However, the early signs are there for the Horns to continue to sway Stone’s interest toward coming to the Forty Acres. The 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions that are in for Stone so far all favor him landing with the Horns. Rivals FutureFanCast also favors Stone to land with the Horns.

The offer sheet for Stone is growing, and a large hurdle head coach Tom Herman will have to overcome. Of the more than 35 offers Stone holds, a good portion of them came from some of the nation’s top blue blood programs. The highlights of his offer sheet outside of Texas include the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State Buckeyes, Tennessee Volunteers, and Texas A&M Aggies.

While this looks to be another recruit that Herman will have to battle head coach Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies for, Stone could fall in the Horns favor when it’s all said and done. Per 247Sports Longhorns writer E.J. Holland, Stone was building a relationship with the Texas coaching staff since the summer of 2018. His offer from the 2021 Texas football recruiting class originally came in May 2018.

There are multiple sources that are indicating that the bond forming between the Horns and Stone is strong and could play in the program’s favor in his recruitment down the line. He is such an important talent for this 2021 class.

According to the 247Sports Player Composite Rankings, Stone is the nation’s highest rated 2021 high school quarterback prospect in general. The next highest-rated 2021 high school quarterback recruit is a commit of the Washington Huskies, five-star Kennedy Catholic pro-style quarterback Sam Huard, but he’s the No. 13 overall prospect in the nation.

As part of a massive weekend for Texas football recruiting these past few days, Stone was absent on the Forty Acres. But, his growing interest in the Horns has be something that could sway key targets for the 2020 and 2021 Texas football recruiting classes that were on campus this weekend, like five-star Texas A&M commit wideout Demond Demas.