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

There was a time when the Longhorns had a very realistic chance to win over some of the interests of the uber-talented five-star Episcopal offensive guard Donovan Jackson over the other out-of-state programs that were going after his commitment. But the Longhorns wound up fading behind the scenes after a while as the likes of Alabama and Ohio State started to emerge as front runners.

Ohio State wound up landing the commitment of Jackson over the rest of the competition, back on Jan. 8, 2020. He picked head coach Ryan Day and the Buckeyes over offers from more than 30 other schools, including Texas. Other offers he held came from the Baylor Bears, Duke Blue Devils, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas A&M.

Jackson ranks as the nation’s No. 21 2021 high school prospect, top overall offensive guard, and No. 3 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). This is a highly coveted cycle of offensive line talent, but Jackson was the true top guard. He would’ve been a massive get for the Longhorns, but his interests were expanded to Power Five schools all over the country.

Even though he was already committed to Ohio State, Jackson had planned visits to Columbus in the middle of June. But the novel coronavirus pandemic cancelled out all in-person recruiting contact through the end of July. The last non-Ohio State visit that he took was an unofficial with head coach Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M back in September 2019.