Texas Football: 5-Star OT target Savion Byrd trending to OU

It looks like the 5-Star Duncanville OT target of the 2021 Texas football recruiting class Savion Byrd is getting further and further away from them.

Absolutely massive news came about for the 2022 Texas football recruiting class on Aug. 14 with the announcement of the commitment of the elite five-star Southlake Carroll pro-style quarterback Quinn Ewers. Landing the nation’s top ranked 2022 prospect in Ewers is about the biggest news that the Longhorns have received on the recruiting trail under the direction of fourth-year head coach Tom Herman thus far.

But Texas needs to keep their attention still on rounding out the 2021 recruiting class the right way. Texas currently holds 17 commits in their 2021 class, with the latest coming from the underrated three-star 5-foot-11 and 185 pound Monarch wide receiver Jaden Alexis. According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the 2021 Texas recruiting class ranks at No. 13 in the nation and remains ahead of the rival Oklahoma Sooners for the top spot in the Big 12.

What we can’t forget about for the rest of this cycle, despite the great news that surfaced heading into the weekend with the commitment of Ewers to the 2022 class, is the fact that the Longhorns missed out on two huge offensive line targets last month. The Alabama Crimson Tide landed the highly coveted Brockermeyer brothers over the Longhorns last month, which really sent offensive line coach/co-offensive coordinator Herb Hand looking for answers.

While Hand and Herman did good work to seek out and land the commitment of three-star Bishop Kenny center Michael Myslinski, to replace the lost four-star center James Brockermeyer. But Texas still needs to find a headlining offensive line commit to anchor down the 2021 class.

At this point, about the best option that the Longhorns have out there is the highly touted five-star (or four-star depending on the recruiting service you look at) Duncanville offensive tackle Savion Byrd. As one of the highest rated uncommitted offensive line offers that is still out there for Texas, the coaching staff should now be doing all they can to win over the interests of Byrd.

Any efforts that the coaching staff has put in to win over the interests of Byrd don’t appear to be working too well at this point in time. The 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions do give the edge now to head coach Sonny Dykes and the SMU Mustangs to land the commitment of Byrd. But Oklahoma is starting to trend heavier for Byrd, as they gain on the Mustangs.

The Rivals FutureCast also still gives the edge to SMU to land the commitment of Byrd over the rest of the field, but some of their analysts and publishers are also starting to trend more toward the Sooners. This looks like a recruiting battle that actually could boil down to Oklahoma and SMU.

Byrd ranks as the nation’s No. 39 2021 high school prospect, No. 6 offensive tackle, and No. 6 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). He stands at 6-foot-5 and 265 pounds and is one of the best offensive line prospects still out there.

As of the evening of Aug. 15, Byrd held offers from more than 20 different schools. Outside of the aforementioned schools here, the highlighting programs on Byrd’s offer sheet includes the LSU Tigers, Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, Baylor Bears, Florida State Seminoles, Georgia Bulldogs, Miami Hurricanes, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Oregon Ducks, TCU Horned Frogs, and Texas A&M Aggies.