Texas Football: 3-Star 2021 Lake Travis TE Lake McRee decommits

A notable loss for the 2021 Texas football recruiting class dropped on Feb. 11 with the decommitment of 3-Star Lake Travis TE Lake McRee.

A key piece to the 2021 Texas football recruiting class rescinded his commitment on Feb. 11. Three-star Lake Travis tight end Lake McRee announced on his Twitter timeline on Tuesday afternoon that he would be re-opening his recruitment after discussions with his family.

All of the coaching staff turnover that occurred under the direction of head coach Tom Herman entering the 2020 offseason didn’t carry as much of an impact on the 2021 recruiting class as it did on 2020. But there’s a multitude of factors that could’ve gone into the decision of McRee to decommitting from the 2021 recruiting class of the Texas Longhorns football program.

The top three signs that showed of late as to why McRee could’ve decommitted from Texas is other offers he received, the Longhorns coaching turnover, and other offers they sent out of late. McRee received scholarship offers from the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers out of the SEC West late in the month of January.

Texas also recently sent an offer to three-star Atascocita tight end Landen King on Feb. 1, which could mean they were moving further in his direction instead of McRee. Given the recent hire of the former Ohio State Buckeyes passing game coordinator Mike Yurcich to replace Tim Beck as the next Texas offensive coordinator, it’s not too overwhelming that McRee re-opened his recruitment.

When McRee originally announced his commitment to Texas, he told Burnt Orange Nation that he might still take his time to confirm where he would be taking his talents in college. That usually doesn’t mean that Texas got the most first commitment in the world.

Just because McRee re-opened his recruitment doesn’t mean that he will shy away from the Longhorns completely from here on out. He might just want to take his time to think out his commitment decision now since he had a season-ending injury with Lake Travis in 2019.

The more significant of the nearly 20 schools that McRee holds on his offer sheet outside of the aforementioned programs are the Arkansas Razorbacks, Baylor Bears, North Carolina Tar Heels, Texas A&M Aggies, TCU Horned Frogs, SMU Mustangs, and USC Trojans. He has any number of options to consider at this point in time.

What Texas is losing with the decommitment of McRee is the nation’s No. 360 2021 high school prospect and the No. 14 tight end. He also ranks as the No. 53 prospect out of the state of Texas. Two other offers he received last month that could be worth watching came from the Colorado Buffaloes and Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Texas still has one tight end committed in their 2021 recruiting class with three-star 6-foot-4 Everman product Juan Davis. This 2021 class is now down to six commits, but still ranks among the top six recruiting classes in the nation (per 247Sports Team Composite Rankings).