Texas Football: 5-Star RB Cedric Baxter Jr. will ‘be in Texas in January’

One of the hot topics on the recruiting trail for Texas football this fall has to do with some potential flip targets in the 2023 class. Texas has tried to flip a number of recruits committed to other schools and pulled off one already when it flipped the highly touted four-star Oklahoma Sooners commit and Austin Westlake edge rusher Colton Vasek.

But there are still some recruits committed to the Longhorns 2023 class that other schools are going after on the recruiting trail ahead of signing day. A couple of those hotly-discussed flip targets that are committed to the Longhorns 2023 class are four-star South Oak Cliff cornerback Malik Muhammad, five-star New Iberia Westgate (LA) safety Derek Williams, and five-star Edgewater (FL) running back Cedric Baxter Jr.

The latter of those three Texas commits is the most important recruit for the Longhorns to keep in the 2023 class ahead of signing day given one major suitor on the recruiting trail of late. Baxter is getting heavily pursued by the Florida State Seminoles this fall, which was his favorite school growing up.

Those efforts from Florida State on the recruiting trail this fall resulted in Baxter making two trips to Tallahassee for game weekends in the last couple of months. Baxter visited Florida State unofficially on Oct. 15 to see the Noles’ close one-possession loss to the Clemson Tigers.

And then, Baxter took an official visit to Tallahassee on Oct. 29 to see Florida State convincingly defeat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Florida State kept its foot on the gas with Baxter in the last few weeks, despite him remaining solid on his commitment to Texas at every turn that we’ve heard about.

A report on Nov. 19 from Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports (paid content), mentions comments from Baxter’s dad on the matter of Florida State’s flip efforts with his son and the status of his pledge to Texas. He stated that, despite Florida State’s continued efforts on the recruiting trail with Baxter that the recent video that the Noles staff sent to him “isn’t going to change his mind”.

5-Star RB commit Cedric Baxter Jr.’s dad says his son will be with Texas football “in January”

For context and to those who didn’t see, Baxter posted a video on Twitter on Nov. 19 from Florida State that showed him intertwined with a highlight mix from former Noles’ star running back Dalvin Cook.

This was a good pitch to Baxter given how Cook was one of his favorite players growing up. And this video that Baxter tweeted this week caused quite a stir on social media, and rightly so.

Yet, Baxter’s dad also said that “he’ll be in Texas in January” referring to Baxter’s plans to enroll early and participate in spring ball in Austin.

Texas looks to continue to keep a grasp on Baxter’s commitment with signing day roughly one month away. Head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns do need to end the season on a high note to make sure they keep Baxter’s commitment to Texas firm for the next few weeks.

I will say that we can thank running backs coach Tashard Choice for building such a solid relationship with Baxter that Texas was able to keep him committed through all this pressure to flip from his favorite childhood school in Florida State.

Choice was recruiting Baxter before he replaced Stan Drayton as the running backs coach for the Longhorns last offseason. And he’s continued to build and manage this relationship very well as the Texas running backs coach.

Texas currently holds commitments from 21 recruits in the 2023 class after flipping Vasek last week. Two of the recruits committed to the Longhorns 2023 class are running backs in Baxter and the touted four-star DeSoto product Tre Wisner.