Texas football trending out of nowhere for 4-Star OT Payton Kirkland

The offensive line recruiting for Texas football offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood in the 2023 class is nothing short of astounding in the last few weeks. Texas has really loaded up along the offensive line in the 2023 class since late June.

And it appears that Flood and the Longhorns have another target in sight that seemingly came out of nowhere in the middle of this week. Texas is definitely on the rise for the touted four-star Dr. Phillips (FL) offensive tackle Payton Kirkland as we get closer to his weekend decision.

A report from Andrew Ivins of 247Sports on July 20 indicates that Texas is the trending school ahead of Kirkland’s decision this weekend. Texas is also the only school that could be considered a realistic landing spot for Kirkland at this point of his recruitment that didn’t make his original top group of schools.

Kirkland followed up on some of this Texas hype on social media on the afternoon of July 20 with a tweet saying “Now why would I go to TEXASSSS?”.

Whether this was Kirkland playing into the storyline or just trolling some of the fan bases of schools in his top group, there is clearly some legs to this development of late.

4-Star OT Payton Kirkland finding traction with Texas football out of the blue

In fact, there is so much traction between Texas and Kirkland that Gerry Hamilton of Inside Texas/On3 was feeling good enough to put in a forecast for him to commit to the Longhorns on July 20. That forecast from Hamilton of On3 also came with a pretty high degree of confidence.

https://twitter.com/On3Recruits/status/1549836067917922307

This came after a multitude of forecasts were placed in favor of Kirkland committing to the Michigan State Spartans earlier in the week.

The original group of top schools that Kirkland had among his five finalists were the Oklahoma Sooners, Michigan State, Florida Gators, Miami Hurricanes, and Alabama Crimson Tide. As of now, it looks like Texas along with Michigan State, Miami, and Oklahoma have the best shot to land Kirkland’s commitment when he announces on July 23.

Kirkland’s decision will be one of many that Texas fans watch closely this week. Five-star South Oak Cliff cornerback Malik Muhammad is also set to make his decision this week, specifically on the evening of July 20. There are some other potential decisions that could happen in the near future that we’re monitoring at the moment too.

As of the early afternoon of July 20, Texas holds commitments from 18 recruits in the 2023 class. According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the 2023 Texas recruiting class ranks at No. 5 in the nation.