4-Star EDGE Braylan Shelby slights Texas football for USC
Texas football lost out on another one of their top in-state edge rusher targets for the 2023 recruiting class on the afternoon of Aug. 6. The highly touted four-star Friendswood edge rusher Braylan Shelby wound up committing to new head coach Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans in the PAC-12 over Texas this weekend.
This is the second notable miss for the Longhorns among in-state edge rushers in the last week or so. Texas also missed out on the touted four-star hometown product and Austin-Westlake edge rusher Colton Vasek to the Oklahoma Sooners last weekend.
USC was able to take advantage of Shelby’s wanting to leave the state and experience something new away from home. New USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and primary recruiter Roy Manning gave Shelby a very convincing pitch on both what they’re building with that program and what Los Angeles could offer him away from the field.
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Texas football loses out on 4-Star EDGE Braylan Shelby to USC
It became pretty clear over the summer that Texas was going to have a tall task ahead in convincing Shelby to keep his talents in-state. Texas ultimately was not able to stave off the big move that USC made with Shelby in the last few months, culminating in a big commitment for the Trojans in their 2023 class.
Granted, losing out on Shelby is definitely not a reason to panic for the Longhorns faithful. As most Texas fans know, co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Pete Kwiatkowski and Sark hauled in a commitment from the ultra-athletic and potent four-star Teague (TX) linebacker/edge rusher Derion Gullette on Aug. 5.
It does hurt that Texas missed out on Vasek and Shelby. But the fact of the matter is that USC was anticipated to be the favorite to land the commitment of Shelby for the last few weeks. It doesn’t come as a huge surprise that he picked USC over Texas this weekend.
Texas missing out on Vasek to the rival Sooners was also more of a shock and detriment to the Longhorns. Ahead of his commitment to Oklahoma last weekend, it appeared that Texas and the Oregon Ducks were actually the favorites among Vasek’s top schools.
Nonetheless, Texas must close out this recruiting cycle strong in terms of putting the finishing touches on this defensive class. The elite five-star Venice (FL) edge rusher Damon Wilson is a name to keep an eye on heading into the fall as is the highly touted four-star Skyridge (UT) edge rusher Tausili Akana.
Next. Predicting Texas' next 2023 commit after Derion Gullette. dark
Texas currently holds commitments from 21 recruits in the 2023 class as of the afternoon of Aug. 6. After landing Gullette on Aug. 5, Texas now has two edge rusher commits in the 2023 class along with the former Oklahoma State Cowboys pledge and three-star South Oak Cliff product Billy Walton.