Texas Football: Bijan Robinson passes Zach Evans as top 2020 RB

After the “Final247” prospect rankings release, the 2020 Texas football recruiting class had the nation’s top running back Bijan Robinson.

By far the highest ranked commit/signee in the 2020 Texas football recruiting class is five-star Salpointe Catholic and Tuscon, AZ, native running back Bijan Robinson. He’s the sole five-star commit/signee for head coach Tom Herman in his 2020 recruiting class.

Prior to the “Final247” recruiting rankings that were released by 247Sports on Jan. 28, the Texas Longhorns football program held the second highest ranked running back in their 2020 class. Robinson was ranked behind the five-star North Shore and Houston, TX, native running back Zachary Evans for most of the recruiting cycle at this position.

But the recent confusing recruiting saga of Evans likely caused part of the drop in his ranking. Evans apparently was committed to and signed his National Letter of Intent to play for head coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia granted the release of his letter of intent earlier this month, which re-opened Evans’ recruitment.

It will be interesting to see where Evans ultimately commits to ahead of National Signing Day. Feb. 5 will mark National Signing Day 2020, so that gives Evans less than two weeks before he has to announce his final commitment decision.

Robinson won’t have the same difficult since he was committed to Texas prior to the Early Signing Period. He was one of the most important prospects that signed his letter of intent with the Longhorns last month on the first day of the Early Signing Period.

However, Evans was a key recruiting target of the Longhorns at one point. But that quickly dropped off when he cut the Longhorns when he announced his five finalist schools late last year. When he was granted his release from Georgia, the Longhorns didn’t pursue him either.

Three three schools that are listed as “warm” in the pursuit of Evans on 247Sports are the Texas A&M Aggies, Ole Miss Rebels, and Tennessee Volunteers. That puts him squarely in the sights of landing in the SEC. Head coach Ed Orgeron and the LSU Tigers could still be a program to watch in his recruitment too.

The Longhorns wound up landing the nation’s top 2020 high school running back prospect with by signing Robinson. He still ranks as the nation’s No. 15 2020 high school prospect. But Evans dropped to the nation’s No. 16 ranked high school prospect.

Five-star IMG Academy cornerback Elias Ricks (LSU signee and early enrollee) is one of the few that was able to jump Robinson in the final set of rankings from 247Sports.

Robinson is one of 17 signees in the 2020 Longhorns recruiting class. He didn’t enroll early, but did sign with Texas last month.

Evans, meanwhile, should be one of the more highly anticipated commitment decisions heading into National Signing Day.