Texas Football: UF 4-Star DT target Bear Alexander could be first ’22 commit?

Getting the first commitment in store for the 2022 Texas football recruiting class could be accomplished by winning over 4-Star Skyline DT Bear Alexander.

Although he got a really early jump to building up the 2021 Texas football recruiting class, head coach Tom Herman didn’t have as much luck thus far for 2022. But Texas does have a handful of potential pledges in sight for their 2022 recruiting class in the midst of the 2020 football offseason. Where could Texas expect that first commitment to come from this offseason?

A good place to look for the Texas Longhorns football program to kickoff their 2022 recruiting class could be with a local product out of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. That recruiting target is four-star Skyline defensive tackle Bear Alexander. The towering 6-foot-4 and 333 pound defensive line anchor is a product of Dallas, TX, and will be entering his junior season of high school football next fall.

Picking up a ton of offers last month, Alexander is seeing his stock skyrocket on the recruiting trail since the turn of the calendar year. He had a big sophomore season with the Skyline High School football program after transferring from Terrell, where he was an All-District nose guard with the varsity team as a freshman.

Moreover, just in the month of January alone Alexander picked up offers from the USC Trojans, Auburn Tigers, Michigan Wolverines, and Mizzou Tigers. That bevy of scholarship offers last month brought Alexander up past two dozen schools on his offer sheet at the moment.

Other significant offers that Alexander received thus far came from the Alabama Crimson Tide, Texas A&M Aggies, LSU Tigers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Ohio State Buckeyes, Oklahoma Sooners, Oklahoma State Cowboys, and TCU Horned Frogs.

But the five programs that the 247Sports recruiting profile listed as “warm” in the pursuit of Alexander included the Baylor Bears, Florida Gators, Ole Miss Rebels, Texas, and Texas A&M. That doesn’t mean much over the long haul, but that could show that Texas has an inside track if Alexander announces his commitment before the end of this calendar year.

Alexander was on campus for a visit during the Texas-LSU game at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium last fall. Head coach Ed Orgeron and his LSU team got the best of Texas by the final score of 45-38, but Alexander reportedly came away impressed with what he saw while he was visiting the Forty Acres.

And Alexander was recently on campus with head coach Jimbo Fisher in College Station when the Aggies hosted a Super Bowl party with their top 2021 and 2022 recruiting targets earlier this month. Texas and Texas A&M could take this momentum from recent visits with Alexander and turn themselves into front runners a ways down the road.

Texas should do their best to get Alexander on campus while spring camp is happening in March and April. Maybe getting him on campus for an official visit during the week of the spring football game could be advantageous to winning over his interest.

Alexander ranks as the nation’s No. 96 2022 high school prospect and the No. 6 defensive tackle. He also ranks as a top 10 prospect coming out of the state of Texas.

Hitting the DFW Metroplex hard could really pay off for Herman and the Longhorns if they can make a target of A&M, Florida, Baylor, etc. their first pledge of the 2022 recruiting class.