Texas Football: 3 most regrettable 2021 recruiting misses for the Horns

1) Biggest 2021 Texas football recruiting misses post-NSD

The most significant miss around National Signing Day for Sark and the Longhorns on the recruiting trail was one running back target they had prioritized for a good portion of the 2021 cycle. That was the new Texas A&M Aggies commit and highly touted four-star Cy-Fair 5-foot-10 and 205 pound running back LJ Johnson.

In the same span of 24 hours, the Longhorns saw that they missed the potential to land the commitment of Johnson to their in-state rival Texas A&M, and saw him sign his National Letter of Intent. Johnson was about the lone realistic option that Texas had at the running back position for their 2021 class to complement Jonathon Brooks late in this cycle.

While the pipeline of running back talent looks to remain strong for the Longhorns after signing the underrated four-star Hallettsville product Brooks, landing Johnson would be huge.

Johnson had a whopping 40 schools on his lengthy offer sheet ahead of his Feb. 3 commitment/signing with Texas A&M. The other highlighting schools on his offer sheet included Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State Seminoles, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State Buckeyes, Oklahoma, Penn State, Tennessee Volunteers, and USC.

Moreover, Johnson ranked as the nation’s No. 45 2021 high school prospect, No. 4 running back, and No. 9 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranked him as the nation’s No. 52 high school prospect, No. 3 running back, and No. 8 prospect out of Texas.