Texas gets Swiss Army knife with 4-Star 2024 ATH commit Aeryn Hampton

What looked to be a good possibility in terms of the next commitment up for the 2024 Texas football recruiting class arrived this week in the form of the rising four-star Daingerfield (TX) athlete Aeryn Hampton. A touted in-state product and former Baylor Bears commit, Hampton brings a lot of versatility and potential to the table for Texas’ 2024 class as he can play on either side of the ball.

Hampton announced his commitment to the Longhorns on the morning of Feb. 14 via a post on his Twitter timeline. This was something that looked more and more likely to happen over the course of the last few weeks. But it was good for the Longhorns to seal the deal with their second commitment in the 2024 class early this week.

Texas also holds a commitment from the four-star Aledo defensive back and brother of 2022 four-star safety commit BJ Allen Jr, Jaden Allen, in the 2024 class at this point in time. There could be something special brewing in the Longhorns 2024 class with how good of a start this cycle is off to.

A lot happened in a rather short span of time in the recruitment of Hampton. It was roughly two months ago that Hampton had originally committed to head coach Dave Aranda and the Bears. But he would de-commitment from Baylor on Jan. 4 before it started to look like he was trending to essentially flipping his pledge to the Longhorns.

Hampton also received three scholarship offers between the time when he de-committed from Baylor and then committed to Texas.

Texas football gets their second commitment in the 2024 class from 4-Star ATH Aeryn Hampton

However, this was a solid effort on the recruiting trail by the Longhorns coaching staff, namely safeties coach Blake Gideon, to lock in on this commitment from Hampton in the 2024 class roughly one month after he re-opened his recruitment. Gideon is really picking up the pace on the recruiting trail of late, and this commitment from Hampton is proof of that.

Texas is now one of only three schools that has multiple commits in their 2024 class. The other two are the Florida State Seminoles and Iowa Hawkeyes.

This foundation that the Longhorns staff is laying for the 2024 class is something that could be truly special down the road. Allen was a great start for the Longhorns 2024 class after he announced his commitment to Texas a couple of months ago.

Hampton now brings a different level of versatility to the table as someone that can be a threat on multiple sides of the ball. He is a potent defensive back that has good ball skills and is solid in one-on-one coverage assignments. Last season with Daingerfield, Hampton had a whopping nine interceptions, five of which he returned for touchdowns. He also added nearly a dozen pass breakups last year.

And Hampton is a very speedy and elusive weapon that the Longhorns can use in the return game. He has returned both kicks and punts recently for Daingerfield.

Last but not least, Hampton is a very productive wideout that runs very quick and clean routes mostly playing out of the slot. He also regularly makes opposing defenders miss in the open field. Last season, Hampton registered just over 1,000 receiving yards and a dozen touchdown catches.

As an added bonus, Hampton even makes plays for Daingerfield on the ground. He had just over 300 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns in 2021.

All of those proven facets of his game just go to show how versatile of an athlete the Longhorns are getting out of Hampton. In all likelihood, though, Texas is going to try and have Hampton play on the defensive side of the ball. But that could change depending on how positional needs play out in the months and years to come in the Longhorns 2024 class.

For now, Texas can continue to ride this wave of momentum they’ve found on the recruiting trail to lay an elite foundation in the 2024 class. Texas is well on its way to putting together a solid early run and compete to have one of the very best 2024 classes in the entire country.

Texas is now up to two commits in their 2024 class between the likes of Allen and Hampton. The Longhorns now have double the number of prospects in their 2024 class compared to 2023, where the lone commit is the four-star Arlington-Seguin defensive back Jamel Johnson.