The SMU Mustangs look to be overtaking the 2021 Texas football recruiting class as the favorite to land 4-Star Duncanville OT Savion Byrd.
One of the most highly touted targets that the 2021 Texas football recruiting class had its eye on for over a year now is four-star Duncanville 6-foot-5 and 265 pound offensive tackle Savion Byrd. Texas offered Byrd way back on Jan. 30, 2019, and likely had their eye on him well before that point.
This Duncanville, TX, native now has offers from more than 20 schools. The most recent offer he received came from head coach Jimbo Fisher and the Texas A&M Aggies on Feb. 14 of this year. His most recent visit was an unofficial with head coach Sonny Dykes and the SMU Mustangs back on Feb. 6.
It appears that Byrd is really starting to take a liking to SMU, one of the schools that offered him so far that is closest to home for him as a Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex native. SMU was actually the second school to sent a scholarship offer Byrd’s way, coming back in December 2018. His first offer came from the Illinois Fighting Illini in September 2018.
Byrd ranks as the nation’s No. 33 2021 high school prospect, No. 5 offensive tackle, and No. 4 prospect out of Texas. He is one of multiple offensive linemen that Texas is pursuing for their 2021 recruiting class that is a highly touted four or five-star prospect.
Blessed to receive my 2nd offer as a sophomore from SMU #PonyUpDallas @Duncanville_Fb @DuncanvilleISD pic.twitter.com/appILRqplZ
— savion byrd (@byrd_savion) December 11, 2018
This is an offensive line class during the 2021 recruiting cycle that the Texas Longhorns football program has to get right. Head coach Tom Herman and offensive line coach Herb Hand might not have a more important class in the trenches to hit on than this one.
Very honored and blessed to receive an offer from university of Texas @Duncanville_Fb @Duncanville_TF #HOOKEM pic.twitter.com/7RFoprVEyg
— savion byrd (@byrd_savion) January 31, 2019
The bad news for the Longhorns at the moment is that Byrd is currently trending toward SMU by most accounts. The 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions now have six of seven experts picking him to commit to SMU over Texas. Just one of the seven predictions are going Texas’ way.
Even the Rivals FutureCast has 83 percent of the experts picking SMU to land Byrd’s commitment over Texas.
As far as 247Sports goes, even Texas and Oklahoma insiders are starting to pick SMU over the Longhorns in the Crystal Ball Predictions (including lead expert Mike Roach). Rivals is also starting to trend away from the Longhorns and toward SMU after the former was the favorite most of the way since last summer.
Texas is likely to still prioritize the likes of the Brockermeyer brothers ahead of Byrd for their 2021 recruiting class. Five-star All Saints Episcopal offensive tackle Tommy Brockermeyer ranks among the top four 2021 high school prospects in the nation. And his brother James is a four-star prospect and no slouch along the offensive line either.
In their 2021 recruiting class, Texas has yet to land a single commit along the offensive line. They need to get more traction soon or another in-state competing programs like SMU and the TCU Horned Frogs can start to jump in on these highly touted DFW prospects.
SMU has something real building in their 2021 recruiting class, already snatching up four-star Parish Episcopal School dual-threat quarterback Preston Stone from Texas.