Texas Football: 5 big recruits the Longhorns landed over Jimbo Fisher

Jordan Thomas, DE

One of the more integral parts of the Longhorns 2021 recruiting class was signing the talented four-star Memorial strong-side defensive end Jordon Thomas. The final battle to land the commitment of the 6-foot-3 and 240 pound Port Arthur, TX, native Thomas can down to just the Longhorns and Aggies.

It was former Texas head coach Tom Herman and assistants like Oscar Giles and Mark Hagen that helped win the battle on the recruiting trail to land Thomas in the end. Against Herman, Giles, and Hagen, on the Aggies side was Fisher and defensive ends coach Terry Price.

Texas and Texas A&M were the two schools duking it out to land Thomas for a good while. A lot of the attention he had on the trail went away once that became clear.

In fact, Texas and Texas A&M were two of just eight schools that offered Thomas. Some of the other notable schools included the LSU Tigers, Baylor Bears, Houston Cougars, SMU Mustangs, and TCU Horned Frogs.

Texas officially got a commitment from Thomas back on May 2, 2020. And then he signed his National Letter of Intent to lock in his spot in the 2021 class during the Early Signing Period last December. Thomas is set to arrive on the Forty Acres as a summer enrollee with the rest of the incoming freshmen from the 2021 class.

Moreover, Thomas ranked as the nation’s No. 292 2021 high school prospect, No. 18 strong-side defensive end, and No. 45 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranked him as the No. 19 strong-side defensive end and No. 41 prospect out of Texas.