5-Star DL David Hicks’ commitment date a bad sign for Texas football

What seemed to come a little bit out of the blue this week, the elite five-star Katy Paetow defensive lineman and top Texas football recruiting target David “DJ” Hicks now has a commitment date set for the end of this month. Hicks announced on Sep. 23 that he will be committing on Sep. 28, which is much sooner than originally anticipated.

The decision timeline for Hicks was figured to be drawn out at least until after the first signing day in a few months. But he’s now wrapping up his recruitment before his senior high school football season concludes.

A report from Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports on the morning of Sep. 23 confirms that Hicks is set to make his commitment on Sep. 28 at 3:30 p.m. CT. The commitment will be broadcast live on ESPN next week.

Moreover, Texas was in the running for much of Hicks’ recruitment, but they haven’t really looked the part of a frontrunner at any point in time recently. And Texas was included on the teams that were put in the graphic from an On3 Twitter page that also mentioned the Sep. 28 commitment date, which Hicks retweeted on Sep. 23.

Texas football has fallen behind for 5-Star DL David Hicks upon his Sep. 28 decision date

All the teams that were included in this graphic are the Texas A&M Aggies, Oregon Ducks, Oklahoma Sooners, Alabama Crimson Tide, Texas, Michigan State Spartans, and Miami Hurricanes.

Hicks has already taken official visits to Michigan State (June 3), Miami (June 10), and Oregon (June 17). He is also scheduled for an official visit to Norman to see Oklahoma on Nov. 18.

There is technically one official visit that Hicks can still take. But it remains to be seen if he will wind up taking that final OV, which would likely have to come after he announces his decision.

This is all not great news for Texas as defensive line coach Bo Davis and this staff were playing catch up with the likes of Oklahoma and Texas A&M for much of the year. I do believe Texas will still recruit Hicks through the whistle.

But the best case scenario for Texas’ chances in the race to land a commitment from Hicks was to definitely swing some momentum in their favor in the next few months and get an early 2023 decision date from the elite in-state DL.

This now looks like Oklahoma is the pretty heavy favorite to land Hicks next week. New head coach Brent Venables and the Sooners started to look the part of the pacesetter in the race to land a commitment from Hicks a couple of months ago. They should have the edge over the Longhorns, Aggies, and the rest of the field upon Hicks’ commitment date next week.

Texas currently holds commitments from 22 recruits in the 2023 class as of Sep. 23. That includes two commitments from defensive linemen in four-star Bergen Catholic (NJ) product Sydir Mitchell and four-star C.E. King product Dylan Spencer.