Texas Football: 3 most painful Charlie Strong recruiting misses

Turn the clock way back to early 2014, and the Longhorns are going all out to pursue the former five-star Coppell strong-side defensive end Solomon Thomas. As one of the finalist schools in the pursuit of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex native Thomas, Texas was looking to get a big boost to their defensive line in the 2014 recruiting class.

But the nation’s No. 26 ranked 2014 high school prospect, No. 2 strong-side defensive end, and No. 3 prospect out of Texas (also a top 500 prospect of all-time), wound up take his talents to join head coach David Shaw and the Stanford Cardinal.

Other key offers that Thomas received came from the Arkansas Razorbacks, Alabama Crimson Tide, Clemson Tigers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Ohio State Buckeyes, LSU Tigers, Oklahoma Sooners, and Texas A&M Aggies.

It seemed like the two schools that boiled down to the final decision for Thomas were Stanford and Arkansas. Two interesting choices for such a highly touted DFW high school prospect.

During his two-year playing career in Palo Alto, CA, with Stanford, Thomas registered 98 total tackles, 24.5 tackles for loss, 12.0 sacks, one forced fumble, four fumble recoveries (two of which were returned for touchdowns).

In the 2017 NFL Draft, the San Francisco 49ers kept Thomas around close to where he played his college ball, with the third overall pick in the first round.