Texas Football: Longhorns 2021 recruiting class cracks top 12 in the nation

With two big recent additions to the 2021 Texas football recruiting class, head coach Tom Herman has cracked the top 12 groups in the nation again.

The 2021 Texas football recruiting class got a big boost on May 2 by landing the commitment of four-star Memorial weak-side defensive end Jordon Thomas. This was the second commitment that Texas nabbed in a matter of seven days. The other came from three-star Atascocita tight end Landing King on April 26.

Landing the commitment of Thomas for the 2021 recruiting class of the Texas Longhorns football program was significant really for two reasons. One is it keep the strong pipeline of talent rolling onto the Forty Acres. And the second reason is that it gives a continued edge and momentum to head coach Tom Herman over head coach Jimbo Fisher and the Texas A&M Aggies.

The last two schools that Thomas announced that he was down to before making his commitment over the weekend were the Lone Star Showdown rivals, Texas and Texas A&M.

With the two commitments from King and Thomas over the course of the last seven days, Herman and the Longhorns are finally seeing a big push upward in the national class rankings. According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, Texas is up to No. 12 in the nation and still in the top spot in the Big 12.

The Longhorns are also very close to overtaking the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Michigan Wolverines to crack the top 10 in the national class rankings. Texas would be one slight recruiting ranking adjustment away from overtaking Notre Dame and one four-star commit away from getting past Michigan.

Texas does have a higher average commit ranking in their 2021 recruiting class than a whopping eight of the programs inside the top 10. Quality over quantity could eventually win out for the Longhorns in the national class rankings.

The top five in the 2021 national class rankings (as of May 3) in order includes the Ohio State Buckeyes, North Carolina Tar Heels, Tennessee Volunteers, Florida Gators, and Clemson Tigers. The next best team out of the Big 12, behind Texas, in the national rankings is the Baylor Bears, who have landed five commitments from the month of April alone. Baylor sits at No. 21 in the nation.

Five-star Denton-Ryan athlete Ja’Tavion Sanders is the highest ranked commitment in Texas’ 2021 recruiting class. His teammate, and four-star athlete Billy Bowman Jr., is the second highest rated commit. Bowman is one slight rankings bump from getting that coveted fifth-star. He currently ranks inside the top 35 2021 high school prospects in the nation.

Texas has eight commits in total in their 2021 recruiting class. Only two of them pledged to Texas since October 2019. But the Longhorns have a ton of momentum on the recruiting trail right now, having landed two transfers and two commits in the last 10 days.

The two transfers that the Longhorns nabbed of late were former Baylor four-star cornerback commit Jahdae Barron. Essentially a retroactive addition to the 2020 signing class, Barron was a huge get last week. The other transfer addition for the Longhorns was former Michigan Wolverines rising senior wide receiver Tarik Black, who arrived late last month out of the NCAA Transfer Portal.