Texas Football: 5 most important pre-signing day visitors for Longhorns

The month of December is a promising one on the trail for the 2023 Texas football recruiting class. Texas is looking to secure its second straight top-five-ranked recruiting class in the nation when the first National Signing Day comes around on Dec. 21.

Before head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns can start to round out the 2023 class on National Signing Day 1, though, the staff needs to have a successful visit weekend a couple of days from now.

Texas is set to host more than a dozen important recruits making the trip to the Forty Acres, with a mix of official and unofficial visitors set to be in Austin, this weekend. With the focus being almost solely on the 2023 recruiting class, pretty much all the visiting recruits will be for the current cycle.

Sark and the Longhorns staff are likely looking to fill at least two or three more scholarship spots in the 2023 class with high school recruits. The rest will probably be filled with NCAA Transfer Portal players.

5-Star S Derek Williams and the 5 key visitors for Texas football this weekend

With that in mind, here’s a look at the five most important visitors for the Longhorns pre-signing day this weekend.

S’Maje Burrell, LB

There will be nearly a dozen commits in the Longhorns 2023 class that will be on campus this weekend, mostly for unofficial visits. And one of the most important visitors for this coming weekend for the Longhorns is the touted four-star Fort Worth North Crowley linebacker S’Maje Burrell.

This unofficial trip to Austin will make it nearly a half-dozen times that Burrell visited the Forty Acres since the start of the 2022 regular season. He’s also well over a half-dozen visits this calendar year to the Forty Acres.

But one of the reasons why this trip to Austin is important both for Burrell and the Longhorns is the fact that the talented linebacker just took an unofficial visit to see the Houston Cougars last weekend. Houston is still pushing to flip the commitment of Burrell heading into the early signing day.

This weekend should be the point when the coaching staff officially locks down the recruitment of Burrell. It’s also important to note that there will be a blue-chip prospect that is Burrell’s teammate at North Crowley that will be on campus for a visit this weekend as well.