Texas Football: 4-Star 2021 LB Aaron Willis has Longhorns in top 7
A highly touted 4-Star Maryland native outside linebacker Aaron Willis just received his offer for the 2021 Texas football recruiting class.
Offers keep rolling out for the 2021 and 2022 Texas football recruiting classes of late. On April 4 one of the targets of the 2021 Texas recruiting class that received a scholarship offer was four-star St. Frances Academy 6-foot and 200 pound outside linebacker Aaron Willis. In the same span of 24 hours that Willis received his Texas offer, he included them in his latest round of finalist school cuts.
Considering the Texas Longhorns football program was fairly late to act on the offering of the talented four-star Baltimore, MD, product, this is good news for head coach Tom Herman and defensive coordinator Chris Ash. Texas could use help at linebacker for their 2021 recruiting class, and Willis sits among the more highly touted of the uncommitted prospects at the position that they’ve offered up to this point.
On his Twitter timeline on April 4, Willis announced the Longhorns as one of his seven finalist schools. The other six programs that Willis had among his seven finalists were the Michigan Wolverines, LSU Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, Tennessee Volunteers, Arizona State Sun Devils, and Maryland Terrapins.
Texas was the only Big 12 school to make this round of cuts for Willis. Most of his finalist schools were out of the Big Ten or SEC. But he did have one from the PAC-12, with head coach Herm Edwards and Arizona State being the surprising school to make the top seven.
And Maryland was the only school from Willis’ native state, or any bordering states, to make this round of finalists. Geographic proximity to home doesn’t seem to make too much of a difference to Willis, which bodes well for Texas since the campus is halfway across the country.
There are now more than 20 schools that have sent Willis a scholarship offer, including Texas. The more significant of the schools that he cut includes the Baylor Bears, Virginia Tech Hokies, Clemson Tigers, Georgia Bulldogs, Florida Gators, Texas A&M Aggies, and Virginia Cavaliers.
The last two visits that Willis took were unofficials with Michigan (Feb. 21) and Maryland (Feb. 1).
Moreover, Willis ranks as the nation’s No. 110 2021 high school prospect, No. 9 outside linebacker, and No. 4 prospect out of Maryland. The sole 247Sports Crystal Ball Prediction in for Willis at the moment falls in favor of Alabama.
There is no prediction in yet from the Rivals FutureCast, but the FanFutureCast lists Alabama as the favorite. Granted the FanFutureCast doesn’t have much credible backing to it.
Texas should continue to prioritize Willis for their 2021 recruiting class and stay in contact, even during the NCAA recruiting in-person dead period that goes through May 31.