Texas Football: Predicting the Longhorns next 2021 commit

4) Next up for 2021 Texas football recruiting class

The prospect that all eyes are going to fall onto if he announces his commitment decision prior to the end of the Early Signing Period will be the highly coveted four-star Cy-Fair running back LJ Johnson. This uber-talented 5-foot-10 and 205 pound product hailing out of Cypress, TX, should be known as the grand prize target left on the board for Herman and the Longhorns at this point in time.

It was not all that long ago that Johnson included the Longhorns as one of his four finalist schools. He announced his latest round of finalist cuts on his Twitter timeline back on Sep. 1. The other three that made his finalists were the LSU Tigers, Texas A&M Aggies, and Oklahoma. Those are the usual suspects among Power Five programs that compete with Texas on the recruiting trail.

Moreover, Johnson ranks as the nation’s No. 42 2021 high school prospect, No. 4 running back, and No. 7 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranks him as the nation’s No. 31 high school prospect, No. 3 running back, and No. 4 prospect out of Texas. That would be a huge get for the Longhorns to round out the 2021 class.

As of the evening of Nov. 16, there are 40 schools on the lengthy offer sheet of Johnson. The other highlighting schools on his offer sheet (outside of his already mentioned finalists) are the Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, Michigan Wolverines, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Ohio State Buckeyes, Tennessee Volunteers, and USC Trojans.

The 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions at this moment have the Longhorns and Aggies almost in a dead heat in the race to land a commitment from Johnson. And the Rivals FutureCast has 75 percent of their analysts and publishers picking Johnson to commit to Texas over Texas A&M and the rest of the competition.