Texas football making play for 5-Star OU WR decommit Luther Burden

A big move that could impact the 2022 Texas football recruiting class heading into the fall is the decommitment from the Oklahoma Sooners by the elite five-star East St. Louis wide receiver Luther Burden. This is one of the most notable decommitments of this entire recruiting cycle, especially during the summer months.

And the fact that Texas was long after the Illinois native Burden should only help the case of new head coach Steve Sarkisian and second-year wide receivers coach Andre Coleman moving forward. Texas had an offer out to Burden since September 2019.

But there will be a number of other top-tier programs that pursue Burden hard now that his recruitment has re-opened this week.

Burden originally committed to Oklahoma back on Oct. 9, 2020. So he was a pandemic commit that really didn’t get to take much of a real set of visits prior to giving his pledge to the Sooners last fall.

Texas football now clearly zoning in on 5-Star WR Luther Burden after decommitment from OU

This now opens the door for other programs to try to win over one of the top-ranked prospects in the nation for the 2022 cycle. And according to a report from Horns247 (paid content) on Aug. 18, Texas was in contact with Burden right away after his Aug. 17 decommitment from Oklahoma.

This Horns247 report did mention that Texas does need to get Burden on campus for a visit this fall. He didn’t have an unofficial or official visit on the books with the Longhorns since he received his scholarship offer nearly two years ago.

Yet, this report also tabs the Mizzou Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs as the presumed favorites with Burden’s recruitment now open. Texas would have some real work to do to catch up with the likes of Georgia and Mizzou. But this move from the Big 12 to the SEC might help the Longhorns case.

The good news here is that Burden was reportedly “receptive” to the contact and the initial pitch that Texas had for him. That is a starting point for this coaching staff to work with in the coming weeks and months.

Burden would clearly change the picture of the Longhorns 2022 class in the national recruiting landscape if Texas joined this group of frontrunners to land his commitment in the near future. He ranks as the nation’s No. 6 2022 high school prospect, No. 2 wide receiver (only behind Evan Stewart now), and the top overall prospect out of Illinois (247Sports Composite).

Texas is now up to 17 commits in the 2022 class, but none of them are five-star prospects. Adding someone like Burden would be huge, but Sark, Coleman, and the Longhorns will certainly face an uphill battle to top competing schools for him like Georgia and Mizzou.