Texas neck and neck with Texas A&M for 5-Star CB Denver Harris

Maybe the two biggest chases that head coach Steve Sarkisian and the 2022 Texas football recruiting class are in down the stretch this cycle concern elite five-star prospects in North Shore cornerback Denver Harris and Bowie interior offensive lineman Devon Campbell. Texas had a huge weekend on the recruiting trail in the last 72 hours or so.

A lot of pieces fell in the Longhorns’ favor of late, and we’ll see if this newfound momentum on the recruiting trail can be parlayed into success during the Early Signing Period. If there is a world where Sark and the Longhorns are able to land commitments from both Harris and Campbell ahead of, or during the Early Signing Period, this would pretty clearly be the best-case scenario for the 2022 class.

Potentially the most interesting recruitment that the Longhorns are involved in at this point of the cycle is with Harris. The Houston-area product looks like he is now down to the Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies less than 48 hours ahead of the start of the Early Signing Period.

It feels like the recruitment of Harris really swung back and forth in the last few days. The feeling coming from Harris seems to be that the Aggies were the emerging favorite thanks to the likes of the LSU Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide fading off down the stretch.

Texas football right there with Texas A&M for 5-Star CB Denver Harris

LSU was a strong contender for Harris, but the Tigers’ cornerbacks coach Corey Raymond leaving to join new head coach Billy Napier with the Florida Gators obviously decimated their chances with the five-star DB.

And while this is hard to believe, it sounds like the Crimson Tide just were never able to lock in on this one. It’s rare that you see the likes of the Longhorns and Aggies hang with the Crimson Tide and Tigers on the recruiting trail for a top defensive back like Harris. Granted, LSU has wavered in the last couple of years through all of the Ed Orgeron drama.

Most of the expert 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions have the four most recent picks in for Texas A&M. And the Rivals FutureCast has the bulk of their analysts and publishers picking Harris to commit to Texas A&M.

But there are some discussions emerging of late that the Longhorns are still on the right track with Harris when it really felt like they were losing a lot of ground with him for the last three or four months. You could see that Harris wanted to see this Texas program succeed on the field this fall, and he was very patient with them throughout 2021.

Texas never delivered the product on the field that he was looking for, though.

Multiple reports coming out ahead of the Early Signing Period are both talking about how Texas is hanging around with Harris along with Texas A&M. The discussion at this point almost goes to the point of saying that it’s hard to tell where Harris is leaning right now with all of the buzz coming out of both camps.

Now, I want to try and give some type of reasonable take on all of this buzz going around for Harris right now. I think the Vegas money should still reasonably go on Texas A&M. That’s where all the buzz was for Harris coming out of the weekend after his visit to College Station.

That’s probably not just going to all go away overnight. Texas is certainly going down with a fight and I do believe this wave of momentum that Texas is finding on the recruiting trail of late could bring this decision for Harris down at least close to a coin flip.

There is no way that you can count Texas out right now, though, in the pursuit of the commitment of Harris. Texas A&M and Texas are going to be the final two schools it appears with Harris. And the fact that Texas is still hanging around with this one is a testament to the great job that Sark and his coaching staff are doing on the recruiting trail at this point, despite the lack of success on the field this fall.