The news cycle on the trail for the 2022 Texas football recruiting class caught fire since the beginning of last month. The resumption of visit season with in-person official and unofficial visits during the month of June gave the chance of a lot of top 2022 high school prospects to take their first real tours around the country to the top schools pursuing them.
With that in mind, it’s not too surprising that the month of July is set to bring such a busy dead period. At the outset, new head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns 2022 class found some mixed results on the recruiting trail. Texas experienced just about as many highs and lows in one week that Sark has as the program’s head coach thus far.
And the mixed results on the recruiting trail are likely to continue throughout the rest of the month of July as the dead period carries on. Texas landed a trio of commitments within the past week, starting off with the four-star Tyler Legacy (TX) running back Jamarion Miller.
The other two commitments that Texas landed for their 2022 class within the past week were interior offensive lineman Cole Hutson and Connor Robertson. Hutson is a four-star interior offensive lineman hailing out of Frisco High School in the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex. And Robertson is a three-star interior offensive lineman hailing out of Westlake High School in Austin.
Both commitments from Robertson and Hutson arrived simultaneously for the Longhorns 2022 class on the night of July 2.
Texas is now up to 14 commits in the 2022 class after a big week for Sark to start off the dead period. But on the other end of the spectrum, what are the four most detrimental misses for Sark as the Longhorns head coach for the 2022 class thus far?
Landon Hullaby, S
One of the early detrimental misses for Sark and the Longhorns on the recruiting trail came in the form of a brother of one of the players on the current roster. Texas missed out on a commitment from the four-star 6-foot and 185-pound Mansfield Timberview safety Landon Hullaby to the Oregon Ducks and head coach Mario Cristobal.
This is starting to become a common occurrence for the Longhorns to miss out on some of their top targets in-state for the 2022 class to Cristobal and the Ducks in the PAC-12 North. But we’ll get more into that emerging trend for Sark and the Longhorns later in this list.
The focus here is on the DFW-Metroplex native and brewing blue-chip talent Hullaby. Texas was in the thick of the running to get a commitment from Hullaby throughout most of his recruitment. But as is starting to become true with a number of top in-state Texas targets, Oregon seemingly made a late run to catch enough momentum to get Hullaby to commit to their 2022 class.
Texas was likely the school that came in second place for Hullaby, but that doesn’t matter much now. The focus at this point has to be on locking in on commitments from the likes of four-star safeties Bryan Allen Jr. and Bryce Anderson.
What Texas missed out on with Hullaby committing to Oregon is the nation’s No. 352 2022 high school prospect, No. 22 safety, and No. 50 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranks him as the No. 27 safety and No. 63 prospect out of Texas.
Jordan Hudson, WR
Much of the recruitment of the talented four-star Garland wide receiver Jordan Hudson thus far presented a lot of confusion for schools in the Big 12 and in the state of Texas. Hudson was a former commit of head coach Lincoln Riley and the rival Oklahoma Sooners. And while the commitment of Hudson stuck with Oklahoma for nearly a full calendar year, he looks like he will stick with the SMU Mustangs when it’s all said and done.
SMU running backs coach Ra’Shaad Samples, wide receivers coach David Gru, and head coach Sonny Dykes put the full-court press on Hudson following his June 14 decommitment from Oklahoma. Just like they did with Hullaby, Texas looked like it came in second place in the running to get the pledge from the DFW-Metroplex native Hudson.
With how much priority SMU gave to the recruitment of Hudson, it makes some sense that Sark and the Longhorns tried to put their resources elsewhere. It is true that it is more important when it’s all said and done for Texas to get commitments from the likes of five-star wide receivers Kevin Coleman and Evan Stewart over Hudson.
Granted Texas did look like it was carrying some momentum with Hudson once he decommitted from Oklahoma. Sark and the Longhorns coaching staff were in contact with Hudson seemingly throughout much of the latter months of his commitment to Oklahoma.
Hudson gave his commitment to SMU on July 4, taking one of the bigger in-state wide receiver targets off the board for the Longhorns during the critical month of July on the recruiting trail.
Kelvin Banks, OT
It’s very difficult to argue that the most detrimental miss on the recruiting trail for Sark and the Longhorns thus far isn’t the former Oklahoma State Cowboys commit and the elite five-star Summer Creek (TX) offensive tackle Kelvin Banks. The likes of the top schools from Texas and Oklahoma went all out for Banks since the start of visit season. That just wasn’t enough for the Longhorns by decision time for the Humble, TX, native.
The second part of this emerging trend that Cristobal and the Ducks are taking some of the top in-state 2022 high school prospects away from Sark and the Longhorns is really highlighted by them getting a commitment from Banks this weekend. Banks was the most notable Texas target announcing his decision during the holiday weekend.
But the leading indicators started to show up later in the week that Texas had fallen behind the likes of the rival Texas A&M Aggies and the Ducks in the race to land a commitment from Banks. That was not the news that the Longhorns faithful were looking for heading into the holiday weekend. Banks specifically announced his commitment to Oregon on July 4, the same day that Hudson committed to SMU.
Although by the time of the morning of July 4, it was pretty clear that the Longhorns were likely to miss out both on Hudson and Banks to round out the holiday weekend.
What Texas is missing out on with Banks committing to Oregon is the nation’s No. 15 2022 high school prospect, No. 2 offensive tackle, and No. 5 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranks him as the nation’s No. 34 high school prospect, No. 3 offensive tackle, and No. 9 prospect out of Texas.
Missing out on the commitment from Banks means that Texas must get the five-star Bowie offensive guard Devon Campbell in their 2022 class.
Terrance Brooks, CB
One of the surprise commitments in the week of the resumption of the dead period around the college football recruiting landscape was the highly-touted four-star Little Elm/John Paul II cornerback Terrance Brooks. On June 30, Brooks brought that surprise to the public eye by announcing his commitment to join head coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Ohio State resumed their quest to take some of the top talents out of the state of Texas in the past week. Brooks now gets to join a 2022 class in Columbus that also features the likes of former Texas commit and five-star Southlake Carroll pro-style quarterback Quinn Ewers and five-star Lake Travis wide receiver Caleb Burton.
Texas looked to be one of the top schools in the running to land a commitment from Brooks. He was on campus in Austin for an official visit back on June 18. That was one of multiple visits that Brooks took with some of his top schools last month. Some other significant visits included the ones with the Buckeyes (June 21), Alabama Crimson Tide (June 25), and Florida Gators (June 11).
What Texas is missing out on with Brooks committing to Ohio State is the nation’s No. 58 2022 high school prospect, No. 8 cornerback, and No. 13 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranks him as the nation’s No. 102 high school prospect, No. 12 cornerback, and No. 20 prospect out of Texas.
Texas must really now prioritize the recruitment of cornerbacks like the elite five-star North Shore product Denver Harris and even someone switchable like the four-star Arizona State Sun Devils athlete commit Larry Turner-Gooden.