Texas Football: 4-Star QB Sawyer Robertson picks Miss. St over Longhorns

The 2021 Texas football recruiting class did have another loss in the form of 4-Star QB Sawyer Robertson committing to Mississippi State.

Two of the bigger targets of the 2021 Texas football recruiting class decided to take their talents elsewhere in big commitment decisions in the last seven days. Last week, it was elite five-star Hopewell running back TreVeyon Henderson that elected to take his talents to join head coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes. And on March 31, four-star Lubbock-Coronado pro-style quarterback Sawyer Robertson choose head coach Mike Leach and the Mississippi State Bulldogs over the rest of the field.

Henderson choosing Ohio State over the likes of the Texas Longhorns football program, among others, wasn’t as surprising as Robertson choosing to go to Starkville. But similar to how the forecasting of the commitment of Henderson to Ohio State went in the days preceding his announcement, a lot of the 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions started falling in Mississippi State’s favor in the final days of March.

All eight expert Crystal Ball Predictions went to Mississippi State by the arrival of the morning of March 31. That would lead directly into a less surprising commitment decision later on Tuesday evening. But Mississippi State still didn’t look to be sticking out too far ahead from the rest of the presumed finalists for Robertson prior to him actually announcing his decision.

It appeared that three programs did stick out above the rest recently in Robertson’s recruitment. He took unofficial visits with Texas, Mississippi State, and with the USC Trojans prior to committing to the Bulldogs. The Washington State Cougars were also pursuing Robertson hard while Leach was still the head coach in Pullman.

But Wazzu started laying off once Leach left for Starkville.

Other significant offers that Robertson held prior to committing to Mississippi State came from the Florida State Seminoles, SMU Mustangs, TCU Horned Frogs, Arkansas Razorbacks, and Wisconsin Badgers. Robertson did only hold offers from 16 schools, which was rather low given his talent level.

He ranks as the nation’s No. 163 2021 high school prospect, No. 9 pro-style quarterback, and No. 28 prospect out of Texas. He stands at 6-foot-3.5 and 190 pounds. And the last two unofficial visits he took before committing were with Mississippi State and Florida State.

Texas does already have a quarterback commit in the 2021 recruiting class, from four-star dual-threat Jalen Milroe. Losing out on Robertson does mean that recently hired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich doesn’t get one of the quarterbacks he recruited directly.

Losing out on Robertson definitely isn’t a reason to panic for the Longhorns. They still have plenty of quarterback talent on the Forty Acres, and a strong pipeline with Milroe committed in the 2021 recruiting class.