4-Star S target Andrew Mukuba spurns Texas football, commits to Clemson

On the first day of October, the 2021 Texas football recruiting class missed out on a big commitment from 4-Star S Andrew Mukuba, who pledged to Clemson.

A big miss for the 2021 Texas football recruiting class arrived on Oct. 1. Head coach Tom Herman and recently hired defensive coordinator/safeties coach Chris Ash missed out on a hometown product and four-star LBJ 6-foot and 185 pound safety Andrew Mukuba to head coach Dabo Swinney and the Clemson.

This highly touted blue chip defensive back product hailing out of Austin, TX, was a recruit that was right in the Longhorns own backyard. And it was really the only safety this far outside of Clemson, SC, that the Tigers were going after for the remainder of the recruiting cycle. The Early Signing Period arrives in less than three months, so Clemson got one of the higher rated safeties left uncommitted heading into the month of October.

The writing was on the wall, though, that Clemson was making a lot of headway to land a commitment from Mukuba over the likes of the Longhorns, LSU Tigers, Oklahoma Sooners, etc. in the last few weeks. He was definitely trending to Clemson over Texas heading his Oct. 1 decision date.

What Texas is missing with Mukuba is the nation’s No. 242 2021 high school prospect, No. 13 safety, and No. 43 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). The Top247 slots him as the nation’s No. 212 high school prospect, No. 14 safety, and No. 36 prospect out of Texas.

Mukuba held offers from nearly three dozen schools before committing to Clemson. The other highlighting schools on his offer sheet (outside of those already mentioned) included the Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, Baylor Bears, Florida State Seminoles, Georgia Bulldogs, Michigan State Spartans, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, TCU Horned Frogs, Tennessee Volunteers, and Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Where Texas football goes from here after missing Andrew Mukuba

The Longhorns shouldn’t panic after missing out on the commitment of Mukuba. While it is really important for the coaching staff to keep homegrown talent like Mukuba in their own backyard, the defensive backfield commits in the 2021 class are at least abundant.

The highlights of who the Longhorns have committed in their defensive backfield at the moment includes four-star safety JD Coffey III and four-star cornerback Ishmael Ibraheem. Having commitments from those two lightens the blow of missing out on Mukuba.

Yet, a potential problem for the Longhorns if they want to add to the safety position in the 2021 class is the lack of targets remaining uncommitted. Texas doesn’t really have a realistic shot at landing any safeties at this point that they’ve sent an offer out to. They would have to dig deep to find a solution in this regard.

Where Texas should be focusing their resources now is not whiffing on another top-tier in-state target for this cycle. The two most important prospects it would seem at this point of the cycle are four-star Cy-Fair running back LJ Johnson and four-star strong-side defensive end Shemar Turner.

Landing those two would be huge for the Longhorns to start rounding out their 2021 recruiting class.

According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the 2021 Texas recruiting class ranks at No. 15 in the nation and remains in the second spot behind Oklahoma in the Big 12. Meanwhile, Clemson slots at No. 5 in the national class rankings, and sits atop the ACC ahead of the Miami Hurricanes. Clemson has 17 commits now in their 2021 class.

Texas currently has commitments from 18 prospects in their 2021 class, with the highest rated being the elite five-star Denton-Ryan athlete Ja’Tavion Sanders. There’s still a bit of room to add a few more commits to this class, though.