Texas Football: 3-Star ATH Jaylin Smith worth prying from USC

An offer sent out from the 2021 Texas football recruiting class went to 3-Star ATH Jaylin Smith, who’s early interests seem to be to USC.

There’s the potential to take the 2021 Texas football recruiting class to new heights in terms of versatility and overall fit with head coach Tom Herman. The latest set of position changes and roster reshuffling for Herman continued to prove that he values players that are multiple. Herman moved around more than three key pieces of the 2018 and 2019 recruiting classes prior to the start of spring camp to fill other positional voids on the depth chart.

What to watch for in spring camp for the Texas Longhorns football program is how those aforementioned position changes translate immediately. That could dictate how future recruits classified as “athletes” look at landing with Herman and the Longhorns. Texas is in a position to land a lot of talented athletes in the 2021 recruiting class, though.

Texas already has a pair of four-star athletes in the 2021 recruiting class, including Denton-Ryan products Ja’Tavion Sanders and Billy Bowman. They also have three-star Everman High School product Juan Davis pledged to the 2021 recruiting class. All three of those athlete commits hail from around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

If the Longhorns want to go out-of-state to land a potential fourth athlete prospect in their 2021 class, a great place to look is Mission Hills, CA. Texas already sent a scholarship offer to three-star Bishop Alemany athlete Jaylin Smith, but there’s a number of other schools lining up to win over his services.

Smith received that offer from Texas on Feb. 11. Texas is the most recent school to offer Smith, as he now has nine total in his offer sheet. According to a report from 247Sports, two of the most recent schools to offer Smith (Texas and the Clemson Tigers) have his interest to at least take a visit.

The Longhorns need to take advantage of the possibility of getting Smith to campus if he’s willing to come during spring camp. Texas has a lot of young talent on campus right now, and nearly half of their 2020 signing class enrolled early. There would be a lot of excitement and hype surrounding the program after beating the Utah Utes in the Alamo Bowl.

The momentum of beating one of the PAC-12’s best teams in bowl season last year could help get Smith to notice the Longhorns to a greater degree. Texas will need that momentum since the USC Trojans seem to be the early favorite to land this California kid. And four-star 2022 Bishop Alemany linebacker Niuafe Tuihalamaka (a teammate of Smith’s) is already committed to head coach Clay Helton and the Trojans.

USC was also the first program to send a scholarship offer to Smith, which came back in October 2019.

The 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions give a slight early edge to USC to land the commitment of Smith. Rivals FutureCast doesn’t have a pick for Smith’s commitment yet, but the FutureFanCast has a split betwweent USC and the Kansas Jayhawks.

Smith ranks as the nation’s No. 339 2021 high school prospect and the No. 32 athlete. He also ranks as a top 30 prospect out of California. Smith stands at 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds and also holds offers from the Colorado Buffaloes, Oregon Ducks, Arizona State Sun Devils, and Washington Huskies.