Texas Football: 3 5-Star 2021 prospects Longhorns missed on

For all intents and purposes, the Longhorns 2021 recruiting class has missed out on the pursuit of the elite five-star Terrebonne defensive tackle Maason Smith. This towering 6-foot-5 and 315 pound defensive line anchor has essentially eliminated recently hired defensive coordinator Chris Ash and the Longhorns from the running to land his commitment at this point in time.

Smith is the only prospect on this list that received a Texas offer that hasn’t committed anywhere yet, or at least that remains pledge somewhere. Texas is one of the 30 schools that offered Smith, as of the evening of June 5.

The highlights of the schools that offered him thus far includes the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Texas A&M Aggies, Auburn Tigers, Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, Michigan Wolverines, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oklahoma, Oregon Ducks, Tennessee Volunteers, and USC Trojans. The schools listed as “warm” in the pursuit of Smith on his 247Sports recruiting profile includes Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Florida, and Texas A&M.

This one does sting since Texas A&M made it through for the Louisiana native and the Longhorns didn’t. But the SEC program that is trending to land the commitment of Smith is the defending National Champion LSU.

The 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions do favor LSU in an overwhelming majority to land the commitment of Smith over the rest of the field. The Rivals FutureCast does also have 100 percent of their analysts and publishers picking Smith to commit to LSU too.

Moreover, Smith ranks as the nation’s No. 20 2021 high school prospect, No. 2 defensive tackle, and top overall prospect out of Louisiana (247Sports Composite). He is about the best shot that Texas realistically had at one point to get a five-star defensive tackle in their 2021 class.