Texas football’s staff has a ‘really good connection’ with Colton Vasek

Texas football might have more buzz right now surrounding the recruitment of the highly touted four-star Oklahoma Sooners commit and Austin Westlake edge rusher Colton Vasek than any other defensive target in the 2023 recruiting class. Texas is pressing very hard to flip the commitment of Vasek from the rival Sooners before signing day.

And whatever the Longhorns are doing of late seems to be working to get more traction with Vasek a couple of months ahead of the Early Signing Period.

Vasek was in attendance for three game weekends where Texas was playing already this season. And we’re only roughly halfway through the 2022 campaign.

Two of those three visits to see Texas games were at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin too. The last unofficial visit for Vasek to Texas for a game weekend was last week in the narrow three-point win over the Iowa State Cyclones.

The other two visits for Texas games came during the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma on Oct. 8 and on Sep. 10 in the tough one-point loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide at DKR.

And from the sound of it, Texas is likely going to host Vasek for at least one or two more visits for game weekends at DKR this fall. It’s a very short drive for the Austin native and Texas legacy to make it to DKR for a game, so that makes sense.

But given the resistance that new Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables usually has with the Sooner commits taking visits elsewhere, it’s pretty surprising to see Vasek on the Forty Acres so often this fall.

This has to be a good sign for Texas.

Texas football maintaining a strong relationship with 4-Star OU EDGE commit Colton Vasek

Moreover, at this point in his recruitment, I would likely narrow the options for Vasek down to Texas and Oklahoma. While it does sound like the Oregon Ducks and new head coach Dan Lanning remain in contact with Vasek this fall, there’s not much interest coming from the Westlake edge rusher compared to that of Texas and Oklahoma.

According to a report from Justin Wells of Inside Texas on Oct. 20 (paid content), Vasek talks to the Texas staff “pretty much weekly” this fall. And Vasek mentioned that he has a “really good connection” with the Texas staff.

The point of Vasek’s strong ties with his former Westlake teammates that are now Longhorns is also something that came up in this IT report. Vasek still has some former Westlake teammates trying to sway him to flip his commitment to Texas, including freshman IOL Connor Robertson, sophomore defensive back Michael Taaffe, and freshman edge rusher Ethan Burke.

This report does make it seem like Texas is making some moves with Vasek of late. But the degree to which Texas has to make an impression on Vasek to get him to actually flip his commitment from signing day is the real question mark.

Most of the rumors swirling around Vasek at the moment seem to think that this decision is getting pretty close to a coin flip if Texas keeps making moves the way this staff has of late. If Texas keeps winning and keeps building momentum on the field, the momentum on the recruiting trail is sure to follow suit. I would imagine this would be the case with Vasek if Texas can keep this winning streak going in Big 12 play in the next few weeks.

Texas currently holds commitments from 21 recruits in the 2023 class as of the afternoon of Oct. 20. There are two edge rusher commits in the mix in the Longhorns 2023 class including the highly touted four-star Teague (TX) product Derion Gullette and the former Oklahoma State Cowboys pledge/three-star South Oak Cliff product Billy Walton.