Texas Football: Push to flip 5-Star OT Kelvin Banks from Oregon continues

Any time the Texas football program sees a top target of a recruiting class of theirs in-state commit to a PAC-12 program, the expectation should usually be that the coaching staff will go all out to flip them. That will be especially true with a head coach like Steve Sarkisian who’s got a lot of west coast connections. His coaching staff is largely made up of west coast influence, including new co-defensive coordinators/linebackers coaches Pete Kwiatkowski and Jeff Choate.

So it should come as no surprise that Sark and the Longhorns will continue to try to pursue the commitment of the elite five-star Summer Creek offensive tackle Kelvin Banks. In the first week of the resumption of the dead period, Banks shocked the Big 12 and state of Texas by giving his commitment to the Oregon Ducks over the likes of the Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies.

Texas looked like one of the two frontrunners to get a commitment from Banks. That was until about the final five days before the decision of Banks was announced on July 4. Approaching the holiday weekend prior to his commitment, Texas A&M and Oregon started to emerge as the top two schools in the race to land him.

Priority still remains in the 2022 Texas football recruiting class for 5-Star OT Kelvin Banks

And Banks wasn’t the only offensive lineman that Oregon managed to get from Texas during the first week of the dead period. Three-star Duncanville offensive tackle Cameron Williams also gave his commitment to Oregon over Texas in the initial week of the dead period, hampering this program’s ability to fill a need at OT.

Banks was definitely the bigger of the two misses for the Longhorns 2022 class, though. And per a Horns247 report (paid content) this week, Texas looks to stay in contact with Banks through the fall to try and gauge his interest in flipping his commitment in the coming months.

Texas needs to add some pieces at the offensive tackle position in the 2022 class. New offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood added commitments from two interior offensive linemen in the initial week of the dead period.

But adding depth at offensive guard and center isn’t necessarily the priority from here on out for Texas. At least that is the case beyond the elite five-star Bowie offensive guard Devon Campbell.

Banks could still very much be a possibility for the Longhorns to get in this 2022 class. A next big step for Sark, Flood, and the Longhorns could be to get Banks on the books for an unofficial or official visit to the Forty Acres early in the fall.