Impact of Texas football landing 4-Star 2022 CB Jaylon Guilbeau

A really big addition to the 2022 Texas football recruiting class arrived on Sep. 19 for head coach Tom Herman, with 4-Star CB Jaylon Guilbeau.

What could be a really big weekend for head coach Tom Herman with the 2021 and 2022 Texas football recruiting classes in terms of landing defensive back targets got underway on the afternoon Sep. 19. In the midst of the first bye week of the season for Texas, the coaching staff was getting good news on the recruiting trail, at least initially for the 2022 class.

The first defensive back target that the Longhorns were able to get a commitment from this weekend was four-star Memorial (TX) cornerback Jaylon Guilbeau. This highly touted 2022 high school prospect, hailing out of Port Arthur, TX, is just the third commit in total to that class for the Longhorns.

Guilbeau announced his decision to take his talents to the Forty Acres on his Twitter timeline on Saturday afternoon (Sep. 19). This 5-foot-11.5 and 175 pound defensive back picked Texas over offers from 15 other schools.

https://twitter.com/jaylonguilbeau1/status/1307409230094196736

The other highlighting schools on Guilbeau’s offer sheet included the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Oregon Ducks, Penn State Nittany Lions, SMU Mustangs, Tennessee Volunteers, Texas A&M Aggies, USC Trojans, and Utah Utes. He truly had offers coming from schools all over the country geographically.

What the 2022 Texas football recruiting class is getting with Jaylon Guilbeau

Guilbeau ranks as the nation’s No. 144 2022 high school prospect, No. 15 cornerback, and No. 21 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). The Top247 has his stock quite a bit higher, as the nation’s No. 57 high school prospect, No. 8 cornerback, and No. 9 prospect out of Texas. He is pretty far down in the ESPN300, as the nation’s No. 233 high school prospect.

There’s still a ways that Guilbeau has to go in terms of his development as a cornerback in pass coverage. But his ceiling is incredibly high once he arrives on the Forty Acres. He timed in earlier this year at the National Combine in San Antonio with a 4.82-second 40-yard dash. But his shuttle (4.30 seconds) and broad jump (9-foot-9) were much better than his 40-yard dash time.

He is getting better in one-on-one coverage, but can get tripped up occasionally and needs to get a bit faster. Guilbeau is known for playing physical, and making plays in the backfield or at the line of scrimmage when needed.

Guilbeau could be a starter for the Longhorns by his second or third year on campus, depending on how quickly he develops in his last two years with the Memorial High School football program. He is both a football player and a track athlete, so maybe that could help with the flat-out speed and agility in the near future.

After adding the commitment of Guilbeau, the Longhorns 2022 recruiting class now has three prospects in the mix. He is the first to play on the defensive side of the ball, and the second highest ranked of the three commits. Four-star Lancaster wide receiver Phaizon Wilson is the lowest ranked, and five-star Southlake Carroll pro-style quarterback Quinn Ewers is obviously the top ranked.

According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the 2022 Texas recruiting class now ranks at No. 4 in the nation, and sits in the top spot in the Big 12. In order from top-to-bottom, LSU, Ohio State, and Penn State, are the three schools with 2022 recruiting class that rank higher than the Longhorns.

Texas is now the only Big 12 2022 class to have three commits. Oklahoma, Baylor, and Kansas, each have two commits. And Oklahoma State is the only other Big 12 program with at least one 2022 commit, as they have just three-star Huntington safety De’Kelvion Beamon in their class.