Texas set for Easter visit with new No. 1 2024 QB Dylan Raiola

At the moment, most of the attention on the trail for second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff for their Texas football recruiting efforts falls on the 2023 class. In the midst of the spring visit season, Texas is trying to continue to build up their 2023 recruiting class as they hold just three commits as of the morning of April 7.

Yet, it is still worth looking at what Sark and the Longhorns staff have going on in the 2024 class at this point of the offseason. Texas has laid the foundation to put together potentially one of the very best 2024 recruiting classes in the entire country.

A key target for the Longhorns 2024 class that still remains relevant for this staff is the elite five-star Chandler (AZ) quarterback Dylan Raiola. Texas originally looked like a top school in the recruitment of Raiola.

But that came when Raiola was still attending Burleson High School in Texas. Ahead of his junior year, Raiola’s family moved out to Chandler, AZ, where he will now be attending Chandler High School. That in combination with him opening up his recruitment as a whole last fall put Texas behind the eight ball in his recruitment heading into this offseason.

Texas football confirmed to be hosting the new No. 1 rated 2024 prospect Dylan Raiola

The fact of the matter is, though, that Sark and the Longhorns are very much still in the running in the race to land a commitment from Raiola. While it’s hard to peg Texas as the leader in any sort right now with Raiola, they are certainly still in a position to make a move with him this offseason.

And one of the first opportunities that Texas will have with the newly ranked No. 1 2024 high school prospect in the initial Top247 for this cycle is set to come later this month. A report from Horns247 on April 6 (paid content) confirms the plan for Raiola to visit Texas during Easter weekend.

This visit with Raiola comes at a really important time for the Longhorns, who are looking to make moves in a similar fashion to the USC Trojans, Clemson Tigers, and Ohio State Buckeyes, among a couple of other schools in this recruitment.

It’s big for the Longhorns to still lock in a spring visit with Raiola despite the school seemingly trending away from him since late last fall.

This will still be a major challenge for Texas to hang around among the top schools in the race to land a commitment from Raiola as this offseason moves along. But don’t count out the recruiting efforts of Sark and quarterbacks coach AJ Milwee. This coaching staff has proved really resilient to overcoming challenges on the recruiting trail already in the last few months.

Another important factor to note regarding Raiola’s recruitment with the Longhorns is the fact that Sark and Milwee are going all-in on the 2023 five-star quarterback Arch Manning. If Texas winds up landing Arch, that will put them at odds with Raiola. But this dynamic for the Longhorns on the recruiting trail between pursuing Arch and Raiola will be something we will continue to watch.