Texas football makes a big move with 4-Star EDGE Tausili Akana

Texas football just hosted what could be the biggest visitor list of the regular season, with some top targets on the recruiting trail making the trip for the matchup in Austin against the No. 1ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. Last weekend, Texas hosted a few dozen visitors among targets of the 2023, 2024, and 2025 recruiting classes.

Among the visiting recruits for head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns staff last weekend were some official visitors. One of the more important official visitors for the Texas-Alabama game was the highly touted four-star Skyridge (UT) edge rusher Tausili Akana.

Akana is one of the top remaining edge rusher targets on the board for the Longhorns 2023 class. Co-DC/LB coach Pete Kwiatkowski and the Longhorns are clearly making Akana one of the top priorities on the recruiting trail this fall.

Texas football has the momentum with 4-Star EDGE Tausili Akana

And it looks like PK and the Longhorns were successfully able to make a big impression on Akana during his official visit to Austin over the weekend for the Alabama game.

A tweet from Jason Suchomel of Orangebloods on Sep. 11 reports that Akana had a favorable impression of Texas following the official visit. He said that Texas “moved up a lot” thanks to the experience he had for the Alabama game on Sep. 10.

A report from Justin Wells of Inside Texas also echoes this sentiment that PK and the Longhorns made a sizable move in the race to land a commitment from Akana coming out of the weekend. Akana reportedly stated “I love Texas’ defensive schemes” from what he saw in this game.

It sounds like it was the formations, usage of the linebackers/edge players, and the fact that he saw all hats moving to the football with some high-effort plays against Alabama.

Akana clearly sees a fit for himself schematically and a connection for his style of play with the non-stop effort that Texas defenders are showing in pursuit of the ball carrier so far this season.

This is obviously big since Akana might be the most important edge rusher target of the Longhorns 2023 class that remains uncommitted at this point of the recruiting cycle.

There is still a long way that Texas has to go, though, in the race to land a commitment from Akana. While Texas looks to have some real momentum among the top schools for Akana right now, he’s got some key upcoming official visits to watch for the rest of the fall.

Akana will be officially visiting Baton Rouge this fall to see the LSU Tigers, and it’s still likely that he will schedule trips to see the Texas A&M Aggies and Oklahoma Sooners at some point this season.

Oklahoma and LSU look to be real threats to Texas among Akana’s top schools, depending on how much they push for him in the next few weeks. LSU could have some other priorities that they push for harder among 2023 edge rusher targets. And Oklahoma has lost a bit of steam in the pursuit of Akana since the summer.

Texas definitely sits in a favorable position and is the hot school at the moment in Akana’s recruitment.

Texas currently holds commitments from 22 recruits in the 2023 class as of the morning of Sep. 14. Two of the 22 commits in the 2023 class at the moment are edge rushers, including four-star Derion Gullette and three-star Billy Walton.