Texas Football: 4 biggest 2022 recruiting flops of the summer

Sebastian Cheeks, LB

Maybe the least surprising of all of the big misses of the summer months on the recruiting trail thus far for the Longhorns 2022 class is the four-star Evanston Township (IL) linebacker Sebastian Cheeks. Former Texas head coach Mack Brown and co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen would eventually win over the commitment of Cheeks for the North Carolina Tar Heels.

UNC got the commitment of the 6-foot-3 and 210-pound Illinois native Cheeks over competing programs like the Longhorns, Wisconsin Badgers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish (granted they backed off of Cheeks for the most part of late), Michigan, and Oregon. Although, the three schools that appeared to be the frontrunners in the end for Cheeks were Texas, UNC, and Wisconsin.

Since Texas missed out on the commitment of Cheeks on July 28, Choate and fellow new co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Pete Kwiatkowski were forced to look to one of their insurance policies. Texas wound up having to immediately turn to the eventual three-star Mater Dei linebacker commit Eoghan Kerry after missing out on Cheeks.

What Texas missed out on with Cheeks committing to UNC is the nation’s No. 130 2022 high school prospect, No. 15 linebacker, and No. 4 prospect out of Illinois (247Sports Composite).

With Texas also at odds to land a commitment from five-star Cy Park linebacker Harold Perkins against competing programs like the Alabama Crimson Tide, LSU, Texas A&M, etc., the outlook at linebacker in the 2022 class isn’t great right now.