Texas Football: 4-Star LB Clayton Smith picks OU over Longhorns, LSU

The 2021 Texas football recruiting class missed out on a commitment from 4-Star Texas High OLB Clayton Smith, as he picked OU on May 15.

A roller coaster ride of a day for the 2021 Texas football recruiting class between three key commitment announcements on May 15 at least ended on a high note. The lone bit of bad news entering the weekend came courtesy of four-star Texas High 6-foot-4 and 220 pound outside linebacker Clayton Smith.

Entering the afternoon of May 15, the Texas Longhorns football program was waiting on the commitment decision of Smith, along with three-star running back Jonathon Brooks and wide receiver Casey Cain. Smith didn’t give the Longhorns the news they were looking for. Instead of taking his talents to join head coach Tom Herman and recently hired defensive coordinator Chris Ash, he choose to go north of the Red River.

On Friday afternoon, Smith announced on his Twitter timeline that he would be taking his talents to join up with head coach Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners. Smith included his top six finalist schools in the video that surfaced on his Twitter post. His finalist schools included the Longhorns, Sooners, Oregon Ducks, Kentucky Wildcats, Florida State Seminoles, and LSU Tigers.

The video that Smith tweeted out counted down his finalist schools, until it got down to the Sooners. But he was trending to Oklahoma on the morning of May 15, so the writing was on the wall that he was going to choose the Sooners over the rest of the competition.

All nine expert 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions had Smith picking over the likes of Oklahoma over his other five finalist schools.

What he’s bringing to Oklahoma’s 2021 recruiting class is the nation’s No. 107 2021 high school prospect, No. 8 outside linebacker, and No. 17 prospect out of Texas. The Texarkana, TX, native also had offers from more than 20 other schools including the Penn State Nittany Lions, Baylor Bears, and Washington Huskies.

According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the commitment of Smith pushes Oklahoma’s 2021 recruiting class to the No. 24 slot in the nation and No. 3 in the Big 12. The two commitments that Texas landed for their 2021 recruiting class on May 15 pushed them inside the top 10 in the national class rankings and they remain in the top spot in the Big 12.