Texas Football: SMU lands 2021 4-Star QB target Preston Stone

A prior target of the 2021 Texas football recruiting class, four-star Parish Episcopal QB Preston Stone, committed to SMU on Jan. 4.

The 2021 Texas football recruiting class is starting to take shape pretty early on, as the 2019 offseason saw a lot of movement for that group. But any momentum head coach Tom the  and his 2021 recruiting class had from the 2019 offseason died out heading into this past regular season.

A big time target that the 2021 recruiting class of the Texas Longhorns football program starting prior to the 2019 offseason is four-star Parish Episcopal dual-threat quarterback Preston Stone. The 6-foot-2 and 205 pound Dallas, TX, native announced his commitment decision fairly early on in his recruitment.

Stone announced his commitment on Jan. 4, which came as a bit of a surprise. He elected to stay home and play for head coach Sonny Dykes and the SMU Mustangs. His commitment came during all the festivities for the Under-Armour All-American Bowl, as a lot of decisions were coming through for 2020 recruits.

SMU had a big 2019 season under the direction of former Texas transfer quarterback Shane Buechele. The redshirt junior Buechele got SMU to a 10-win season, and they were even the subject of the set of ESPN’s College GameDay in one week during the regular season. College GameDay was on campus in Tennessee for the showdown between SMU and the Memphis Tigers.

https://twitter.com/_prestonstone/status/1213565239591100416

Stone announced his commitment decision on his Twitter timeline, which came to the elated reaction of fans on the Hilltop throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Dykes and the Mustangs just landed the nation’s No. 58 2021 high school prospect and the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback.

This is a very big deal for a Group of Five program like SMU to land a prospect as highly touted as Stone. He is by far their highest rated commitment in their 2020 or 2021 recruiting classes. In fact, he’s only the second commitment in SMU’s 2021 recruiting class at this point.

The offer sheet for Stone when he committed to SMU included more than 45 schools. The most significant of his offers came from the Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, Michigan Wolverines, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Ohio State Buckeyes, Tennessee Volunteers, Texas A&M Aggies, and USC Trojans.

Texas was also one of those more than 45 programs that sent a scholarship offer Stone’s way. With the momentum that the Longhorns started to pick up in the Metroplex on the recruiting trail last offseason, it looked like Herman might be able to win over the interests of Stone without too much trouble.

Since the Longhorns landed four-star Tompkins dual-threat quarterback Jalen Milroe back on July 21, landing Stone might not have been prioritized as much as it once was. Milroe was as the nation’s No. 3 2021 dual-threat quarterback, just one spot behind Stone.