Texas Football: Impact of loss of 3-Star TE Landen King

The 2021 Texas football recruiting class enters the weekend on the wrong foot, with 3-Star Atascocita TE Landen King decommitting.

Detrimental news for the 2021 Texas football recruiting class arrived to kickoff the weekend on May 22. Texas figured out on Friday afternoon that it would lose the commitment of three-star Atascocita tight end Landen King. This is the second tight end to decommit from Texas’ 2021 recruiting class too.

The other tight end to decommit from the 2021 recruiting class of the Texas Longhorns football program is three-star Lake Travis product and Austin, TX, native Lake McRee. And the only other decommitment from the Longhorns 2021 recruiting class is four-star Skyline wide receiver Quaydarius Davis.

However, something feels different about losing the commitment of King. While he wasn’t even ranked as a top 500 2021 high school prospect in the nation, he does have a high ceiling and was the only tight end commit left in this class. Granted four-star Everman athlete and Fort Worth, TX, native Juan Davis can play at tight end for the Longhorns.

The 6-foot-5 and 210 pound tight end King announced his decommitment from Texas on his Twitter timeline on May 22. That comes less than one month after he originally committed to Texas, back on April 26.

King ranks as the nation’s No. 531 2021 high school prospect, No. 23 tight end, and No. 72 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). The Humble, TX, native holds offers from 28 different schools. And he is currently trending to the Auburn Tigers it seems.

The 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions have all four experts now picking him to commit to Auburn over the rest of the field. The other schools that highlight his lengthy offer sheet includes the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, Michigan State Spartans, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Ole Miss Rebels, Oregon Ducks, Penn State Nittany Lions, SMU Mustangs, South Carolina Gamecocks, Tennessee Volunteers, Texas A&M Aggies, Virginia Tech Hokies, and Washington Huskies.

The Rivals FutureCast also now has 60 percent of their analysts and publishers picking King to commit to Auburn over the competition.

Since Texas isn’t exceptionally deep at wide receiver on the current roster, and there’s no other future commits at the position in store, losing out on King does hurt. This was a solid underrated get for the Longhorns 2021 class. Maybe they can get the commitment of the hometown tight end McRee back, but he brings a different skill set to the table than King does.

King is a powerful tight end that has a lot of potential as a receiver and route runner is already an established blocker in pass and run protection. His gifted physical tools and solid frame would give him the potential to have an NFL future if he were to blossom as a receiving tight end in college.

According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the Longhorns 2021 recruiting class now ranks at No. 12 in the nation and remains in the top spot in the Big 12. It appears that head coach Tom Herman would be facing a major uphill battle to get the commitment of King back over the likes of Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn at this point.

Losing the commitment of King isn’t anything that is worth panicking over, but it doesn’t help the 2021 class for the Longhorns in any way. They need to restore the depth at tight end before the Early Signing Period arrives to shore up the depth at the position in future seasons.