Texas Football: Longhorns crack top 11 for 4-Star DE Shemar Turner

Good news dropped for the 2021 Texas football recruiting class on March 28, with the Horns landing in the top 11 finalists for 4-Star DE Shemar Turner.

A lot of finalist lists dropped lately in the midst of the novel coronavirus-mandated dead period for recruiting visits. And the 2021 Texas football recruiting class has come out looking good in a lot of those lists so far.

One recent blow to the 2021 recruiting class was losing out on the commitment of five-star Hopewell running back TreVeyon Henderson to the Ohio State Buckeyes earlier this week. But the Texas 2021 recruiting class did get some good news on March 28 from another key target, this time on the other side of the ball.

Texas got that good news from four-star DeSoto strong-side defensive end Shemar Turner, who included them in his top 11 finalist schools. The Texas Longhorns football program was on a top 11 list that mostly included schools from the Big 12.

The list that dropped on Turner’s Twitter timeline on Saturday included the Baylor Bears, Texas A&M Aggies, Ohio State, Florida Gators, Oregon Ducks, LSU Tigers, Oklahoma Sooners, Michigan Wolverines, Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, and the Longhorns. Four schools out of the Big 12 isn’t all that much of a surprise, though, since he’s a Texas native.

Turner ranks as the nation’s No. 190 2021 high school prospect, No. 12 strong-side defensive end, and No. 32 prospect out of Texas. The 6-foot-3.5 and 260 pound defensive end does rank outside of the top 200 on the 247Sports sole recruiting rankings.

There are nearly 40 schools on Turner’s lengthy offer sheet. Key schools he cut on the way to arriving with his top 11 finalists included the Auburn Tigers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Ole Miss Rebels, TCU Horned Frogs, and Washington Huskies.

The latest offers Turner received before announcing his finalist schools included the Texas State Bobcats and Kentucky Wildcats, which both were announced on March 26. He did have unofficial visits with Baylor back on March 1, and Oklahoma on March 10. His last unofficial visit was that with Oklahoma.

There is no forecast yet for a commitment decision from the Rivals FutureCast or 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions. It really doesn’t look like there is a clear known front runner to land him yet.