Texas Football: 5 most important pre-signing day visitors for Longhorns
Derek Williams, S
Among the recruits currently committed to the Longhorns 2023 class that will be in Austin this weekend, there won’t be any that are more important than the elite five-star New Iberia Westgate (LA) safety Derek Williams. Cornerbacks coach Terry Joseph and safeties coach Blake Gideon will be looking to officially shut down this recruitment for good this weekend.
Competing schools on the recruiting trail such as LSU, Alabama, and the Texas A&M Aggies still appear to be pushing for Williams to flip his commitment heading into signing day. If nothing else, it would be a win for a school like LSU to get Williams to push his final decision out to 2023.
It wasn’t that long ago when Williams said that he wanted to take his four remaining official visits. Obviously, if that were the case, Williams would not be signing on the dotted line next week.
But I do think that Texas has a chance to lock down this recruitment and get Williams to sign and enroll early with signing day approaching next week.
Gavin Holmes, CB
The lone official visitor for the weekend among transfer portal targets for the Longhorns is the former Wake Forest Demon Deacons redshirt sophomore cornerback Gavin Holmes. Texas will be the first school that the third-year corner visits since putting his name in the transfer portal last week.
This is a big opportunity for the Longhorns to become the leader in the race to land a commitment from Holmes out of the portal. He’s got a ton of interest, including offers from the Penn State Nittany Lions, Arkansas Razorbacks, Washington Huskies, and Colorado Buffaloes, among nearly a dozen others.
A notable recent development in Holmes’ recruitment out of the portal was the announcement that came on Dec. 15 that he will be taking an official visit to State College starting on Jan. 7 to see Penn State.
Next. Predicting every flip for Texas before early signing day. dark
The fact that Holmes is making the official trip to Penn State in a few weeks is a good indication that Texas needs to make a big impression during his visit to Austin this weekend. Holmes has a ton of interest on the table, so Texas needs to take advantage of this opportunity to work on closing on his commitment.