Texas football trending for 4-Star DL Justice Finkley ahead of commitment

At an opportune time for the 2022 Texas football recruiting class and new head coach Steve Sarkisian, we could start to see this program really start building up momentum on the trail this fall. Especially if Texas can get a win in the first road game of the season, against the Arkansas Razorbacks this weekend, the results on the recruiting trail should follow suit for the 2022 and 2023 classes.

Sark and the Longhorns really found spark on the recruiting trail for the 2022 class along the defensive line in the past 10 days or so. Texas landed a trio of blue-chip commits along the defensive line in the 2022 class that really boosted the stock of this group as a whole.

And another commit along the defensive line that is a touted blue-chip recruit could soon be on the way for the Longhorns 2022 class. Some recent predictions going in the Longhorns favor have the touted four-star Hewitt-Trussville (AL) defensive lineman Justice Finkley now trending to land with Texas over the rest of the competition.

With Finkley’s decision set to be announced on Sep. 9, this is the next commitment to watch for the Longhorns 2022 class. It was figured that this decision would land in favor of the in-state goliath Alabama Crimson Tide for Finkley. But Texas is starting to make some last minute moves to change that narrative.

Texas football making a last-minute run at 4-Star DL Justice Finkley

The most recent 247Sports Crystal Ball Prediction went in favor of Texas over Alabama. And that prediction had at least a little bit more confidence to it than the one that was put in longer ago for the Crimson Tide.

But the Rivals FutureCast still has all analysts and publishers picking the commitment of Finkley to land with the Crimson Tide.

This still looks to be a recruitment that will come down to the wire. There’s no clear favorite at the moment between Alabama and Texas. The Colorado Buffaloes are also a presumed top school in the running to land the commitment of Finkley.

It would be very surprising, though, to see the decision of Finkley fall in Colorado’s favor on Sep. 9.

The most recent visit that Finkley took was an unofficial with Alabama on July 31. He was on campus in Austin for an official visit with the Longhorns back on June 25. Finkley dropped his three finalist schools the week following his official visit with Texas, which also obviously featured Colorado and Alabama.

If Texas does win this commitment on Sep. 9, it would be a huge win on the recruiting trail for new co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Pete Kwiatkowski, who is the primary recruiter pursuing Finkley. Competing with Kwiatkowski from the Alabama side are defensive line coach Freddie Roach and defensive coordinator/inside linebackers coach Pete Golding.

Texas already has an insane amount of depth in the 2022 class along the defensive line. But landing a commitment from Finkley would truly put an exclamation mark on the 2022 class in the trenches. It would also serve as a turning point for Texas if Kwiatkowski is able to win a key recruitment over Alabama.