Texas football still reported favorite to land 5-Star RB Rueben Owens

The first and only commit at any point in time for the 2023 Texas football recruiting class was the elite five-star El Campo (TX) running back Rueben Owens. Texas and new head coach Steve Sarkisian landed a commitment from the extremely highly-touted in-state product Owens back on Feb. 25, 2021.

It was one of the huge initial commits in the first couple of months after Sark was hired as head coach to replace Tom Herman. But Texas was only able to hang onto the commitment of Owens for a few months. He decommitted from Texas on June 17. Since then, the former Longhorns commit has received offers from nine schools.

Some of the schools that have offered him since June 17 include the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Ohio State Buckeyes, Michigan Wolverines, Oregon Ducks, and Miami Hurricanes.

It does look like Texas is headed in the right direction, though, with Owens heading into the fall. And with Texas looking good with Owens following the big win in the regular season opener over the No. 23 ranked Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns at home on Sep. 4 by an impressive 20-point margin, Sark and this staff have to be confident moving forward in this recruitment.

Texas specifically has running backs coach Stan Drayton as the primary recruiter going after Owens. He’ll have to namely compete with the likes of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Texas A&M Aggies, Georgia Bulldogs, and USC Trojans.

Texas football continuing to look up with 2023 5-Star RB Rueben Owens

Moreover, according to a report from Horns247 on Sep. 6 (paid content), Texas is “still the favorite” at this point in the race to land the official commitment from Owens. There are two other important nuggets from this Horns247 piece regarding the recruitment of Owens at the moment.

The first is the fact that Georgia looks to be in second place if there was a school in that spot with Owens right now. Owens declared that Texas still sat in the lead for him even following his June decommitment. And that looks to be confirmed following this season-opening win over Louisiana.

https://twitter.com/ii_rueben/status/1421960302271340549

And the second important nugget from this piece is the relationship with Drayton, Sark, and director of recruiting Brandon Harris have a stronger bond than ever with Owens.

Texas is trying to remain strong in the race to get a commitment back from multiple blue-chip skill position targets for the Longhorns 2022 and 2023 classes. Five-star wide receiver Evan Stewart and four-star cornerback Jaylon Guilbeau are former Texas commits that the Longhorns want back in the 2022 class this fall. And Owens is the one that Texas wants back to get the 2023 class off the ground again.

We don’t know yet when a decision will come down from Owens, but it’s good to know that the Longhorns are still moving in the right direction in pursuit of his commitment. Georgia has to be trending up with Owens too, though, with how much that staff prioritized his recruitment and that team’s performance in a big Week 1 win over the No. 3 ranked Clemson Tigers.

This could be a key battle on the recruiting trail moving forward between namely Georgia and Texas. It will be big for Texas to continue to build this strong bond with Owens. And getting a win over the Arkansas Razorbacks next weekend on the road, upon the move from the Big 12 to the SEC, can do nothing but help the Longhorns.

Owens is definitely one of the highest-rated prospects that has an offer from the Longhorns 2023 class at the moment. He ranks as the nation’s No. 31 2023 high school prospect, No. 2 running back, and No. 5 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite).