3 big-time recruits Texas football could lose out on this weekend

Dalton Brooks, ATH

One target of the Longhorns 2023 class that we haven’t talked about much of late is the highly touted four-star Shiner (TX) athlete/running back Dalton Brooks. Even though Brooks was originally one of the bigger priorities among athletes on the board for the Longhorns 2023 class, that picture has changed this offseason.

There are multiple reasons why things didn’t go Texas’ way of late in the race to land a commitment from Brooks. One reason might have to do with the positional/scheme fit at Texas. And the other just has to do with the connection that the Texas A&M coaching staff fostered with Brooks in the last six or eight months.

If Texas was planning on having Brooks play at the running back position when they originally offered him back in the fall of 2020. But that was also the staff under former Texas head coach Tom Herman that offered Brooks at the time.

The priority now for new running backs coach Tashard Choice, Sark, and the Longhorns at this position in the 2023 class is definitely the talented four-star Edgewater (FL) product Cedric Baxter Jr.

Yet, it looks like Brooks was in line to play at the safety position if he landed on the Forty Acres. Texas has recently recruited Brooks as a safety, whereas Texas A&M has pitched him as either a defensive back or running back.

That along with a handful of successful visits to College Station to see Texas A&M has done enough for the Aggies to start trending to land Brooks’ commitment in the last couple of months. That is the case from most major recruiting services, including On3 and 247Sports.

While the decision timeline for Brooks likely pegs him to make his commitment potentially pretty late into the fall, Texas has a lot of ground to make up here if they’re still trying to catch up with the Aggies. But the fact of the matter is that Texas was likely looking in other directions a while ago.

And it will be interesting to see if Brooks gets caught up in the hype for Texas A&M’s 2023 class late this month and gives his commitment to Fisher and the Aggies in the near future. That certainly seems plausible if he takes to the same sped-up decision timeline as Hill.