Texas Football: Elite 5-Star RB picks Ohio State over Longhorns

Facing a cycle where they don’t really need a running back commit, the 2021 Texas football recruiting class did take a hit by losing TreVeyon Henderson.

Although it never felt like they were a front runner to land his commitment, the 2021 Texas football recruiting class took a hit on March 27 as they lost out on the elite five-star Hopewell running back TreVeyon Henderson. The Ohio State Buckeyes wound up getting the pledge of Henderson earlier this week, which was an announcement that came sooner than anticipated.

In April, the Texas Longhorns football program was actually supposed to get one of the final visits from Henderson. This has to be a blow to head coach Tom Herman and recently hired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich. Especially since the last position Yurcich held was the passing game coordinator for Ohio State, landing Henderson certainly felt like a good possibility for the Longhorns.

Texas was supposed to get that aforementioned visit from Henderson on April 24. Head coach Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines were actually supposed to get a visit from Henderson on June 19. And the Oklahoma Sooners were slated for another scheduled official visit from him on April 17. He obviously doesn’t need to see out those visits now.

Ohio State did feel like the front runner to land Henderson’s commitment in the last couple of months.

All of the last minute 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions for Henderson went to Ohio State. There was a point in time in which Ohio State and Michigan were splitting the count for the Crystal Ball Predictions, but that all changed this week.

The announcement that Henderson was going to commit to Ohio State dropped on his Twitter timeline on March 27. Henderson is the second running back to commit to the Buckeyes 2021 recruiting class. He’ll join four-star William-Amos Hough product Evan Pryor as the two top 100 ranked running backs in the nation in this class.

Henderson individually ranks as the nation’s No. 17 2021 high school prospect and the No. 2 running back. He only ranks behind five-star Garland, TX, native Camar Wheaton among running backs in this cycle.

As a native of Hopewell, VA, the 5-foot-11 and 195 pound Henderson does stay closer to home by landing with Ohio State. He joined the nation’s No. 1 ranked 2021 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings. The Longhorns do still hold a top 10 spot in the national class rankings, though.

But Texas has yet to land a single running back commitment in their 2021 recruiting class. They can ride the wave of momentum from landing five-star Salpointe Catholic running back Bijan Robinson in their 2020 recruiting class for a bit of time. That won’t last forever.

It is not worth pressing the panic button because the Longhorns lost out on Henderson. They still have a shot at landing Wheaton’s commitment, and the running back depth on the Forty Acres is strong right now.

However, the other programs that sent Henderson a scholarship offer that he cut in the process of committing to Ohio State that wasn’t already mentioned here included the Alabama Crimson Tide, Clemson Tigers, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Tennessee Volunteers, Texas A&M Aggies, and USC Trojans. He had 40 schools in total on his lengthy offer sheet.

Other running back targets for Texas to pursue for their 2021 recruiting class from here on out other than Henderson and Wheaton includes four-star West Bloomfield product Donovan Edwards and underrated Hallettsville product Jonathon Brooks.