Predicting Texas football’s next 2023 commit after Derion Gullette

The next big addition for head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff in the 2023 Texas football recruiting class arrived on the afternoon of Aug. 5 to get the weekend started on the right foot. Texas landed a commitment on Aug. 5 from the highly touted four-star Teague (recent Marlin High School transfer) linebacker/edge rusher Derion Gullette.

Sark and the Longhorns landing a commitment from Gullette in the 2023 class brings Texas up to 21 commits now. Adding Gullette also brings the Longhorns 2023 class up to a whopping 15 blue-chip commits in the mix.

And we could soon have more on the way.

Moreover, Texas was able to keep the momentum going on the recruiting trail with the 2023 class heading into the fall by staving off the likes of the rival Texas A&M Aggies and Ohio State Buckeyes to land Gullette. This was big for Texas to get this win on the recruiting trail over Texas A&M.

After losing out on the elite five-star Denton-Ryan linebacker Anthony Hill to the Aggies last weekend, it was imperative that co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Pete Kwiatkowski hauled in Gullette. And that was exactly what Sark, Coach K, and the Longhorns were able to do on Aug. 5.

Who’s next for Texas football after landing 4-Star EDGE/LB Derion Gullette in the 2023 class?

Here’s a look at a prediction of who the next commit in the Longhorns 2023 class could be following the commitment of Gullette on Aug. 5.

Jalen Hale, WR

On Sep. 22, we’ll get the decision from the highly touted four-star Longview wide receiver Jalen Hale, which boils down to Texas along with the Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs. And for a few days coming out of last weekend, it looked like Texas A&M was going to re-join the running in the race to land a commitment from Hale next month.

But a lot of the hype between Hale and the Aggies has largely gone by the wayside in the last few days. And it now looks like Texas will still be duking it out with some SEC giants on the recruiting trail in Alabama and Georgia to ultimately land Hale.

It still feels like this could be a recruitment that the Longhorns are out in front of since he announced his decision date.

Alabama is definitely making a big-time run at Hale of late. A successful unofficial visit that Hale took to Tuscaloosa to see the Crimson Tide definitely made an impact on him and his camp. That even land to a handful of forecasts projecting his commitment to Alabama.

Yet, I still don’t feel like there is enough there for Alabama to be confirmed as the pacesetter in this recruitment following his unofficial visit to Tuscaloosa in the last week.

Texas and Alabama both have official visits on the books with Hale for game weekends this fall. Hale is set to officially visit Texas on the big-time game weekend where Sark and the Longhorns face head coach Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide on Sep. 10. A solid atmosphere combined with Texas putting a competitive product out on the field that weekend should be enough to win over Hale as it stands now.