4-Star LB target Sebastian Cheeks likely to spurn Texas football for UNC

The ups and downs that the 2022 Texas football recruiting class and new head coach Steve Sarkisian faced on the trail thus far have come to a head since the start of the dead period a few weeks ago. Texas landed a whopping four commitments since the start of the dead period. But they’ve also missed on a handful of key targets they were expected to win over.

That might wind up becoming the storyline again with the touted four-star Evanston Township (IL) linebacker Sebastian Cheeks. There was a point in time last month where the Longhorns looked like they were in a really good position with the Illinois prospect Cheeks, but that momentum has since faded.

Cheeks announced on his Twitter timeline on the afternoon of July 20 that he will be announcing his decision on July 28 at 4 p.m. CT. That is an abrupt announcement from Cheeks as to when his decision date will be.

Bad news could be ahead for Texas football with 4-Star LB Sebastian Cheeks

Considering that Texas is not headed in the right direction it seems with Cheeks at the moment, it’s not great news for Sark and this staff that he’s not pushing his decision back further. That had to be what the Texas coaching staff was hoping for when Cheeks went pretty quiet following the conclusion to visit season last month.

According to a report from Horns247 on July 20 (paid content), Texas is clearly no longer looking like a frontrunner to land the commitment of Cheeks. The North Carolina Tar Heels and former Texas head coach Mack Brown look to be leading the way for Cheeks ahead of his July 28 decision date.

Texas did have one expert 247Sports Crystal Ball Prediction in its favor a couple of weeks ago that seemed fairly confident. But now most of the Crystal Ball Predictions that are updated are going in favor of the Tar Heels. And the Rivals FutureCast now has all of their analysts and publishers picking the commitment of Cheeks to land with UNC.

This was an important commitment to get for the Longhorns. Texas has yet to land a commitment from a blue-chip linebacker in the 2022 class. Cheeks was presumed to be a good bet to be the first this summer.

Texas had a good group of top recruiters after Cheeks in new co-defensive coordinators/linebackers coaches Pete Kwiatkowski and Jeff Choate. But it doesn’t look like they will be able to win this one over UNC co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen.

Cheeks is one of 16 linebackers that the Longhorns have offered for the 2022 class. But most of those will be committed elsewhere in all likelihood at the end of the month. This makes it paramount for the Longhorns to go all out for five-star Cy Park linebacker Harold Perkins heading into the fall.