4-Star Warren Roberson ‘loved everything he saw’ from Texas football

The biggest visitor that Texas football hosted of late for the 2023 recruiting class ahead of the second (and final) signing period of this cycle is the highly touted four-star TCU Horned Frogs commit and Red Oak (TX) safety Warren Roberson. Texas hosted Roberson on an official visit to Austin over the weekend, which is likely going to be his final college visit before making a decision later this week.

With the late signing day approaching on Feb. 1, there are just a couple of days remaining before Roberson will sign on the dotted line.

We’re hearing a lot of positive feedback regarding Roberson’s experience during his official visit to the Forty Acres over the weekend. It sounds like a lot of the buzz that Texas could be the leader in this recruitment heading into the late signing day is turning out to be true.

According to a report from Mike Roach of Horns247 on Jan. 30 (paid content), “everything we hear points toward Texas” for Roberson as decision day approaches for the Texas native. He also mentioned that “Texas made a pretty tough case and Roberson loved everything he saw” during his official visit to campus over the weekend.

Texas football appears to be in the driver seat for 4-Star TCU S commit Warren Roberson

We were already hearing some really positive discussions coming out of this recruitment late in the process as it relates to the Longhorns’ pursuit of Roberson. Texas already looked to be trending to flip Roberson’s commitment from TCU before his official trip to Austin even began a few days ago.

Essentially all of the major recruiting services had multiple reporters and/or national analysts enter picks for Texas to flip Roberson from TCU. That included multiple 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions and On3 RPM picks projecting Roberson to Texas entering last weekend.

At the moment, it seems as if the four schools that Roberson is ultimately deciding between are the USC Trojans, Arizona State Sun Devils, Texas, and TCU.

USC hosted Roberson for an unofficial visit to its campus last week. And an in-person visit from USC head coach Lincoln Riley really made it look like the Trojans made a big move in this recruitment ahead of the late signing day.

I would still consider USC a legitimate threat to flip Roberson from TCU, depending on how much of a factor staying close to home ultimately is for the blue-chip defensive back.

Meanwhile, Arizona State made a late run to try and flip Roberson from TCU. Arizona State’s efforts on the recruiting trail to try and flip Roberson were largely driven by the addition of the former TCU recruiting coordinator/offensive analyst Bryan Carrington.

But it looks like Arizona State’s late push in this recruitment won’t be enough to make up the necessary ground required to get Roberson in the mix on signing day later this week.

That just leaves TCU and Texas as the two in-state options for Roberson. Texas clearly has a lot of momentum in this recruitment coming out of the weekend. Safeties coach Blake Gideon and the Longhorns staff recruiting Roberson through the whistle could soon pay dividends for the Longhorns.

And it was recently reported by Inside Texas/On Texas Football in the last few days that TCU taking multiple defensive backs late in the 2023 cycle was one of the main factors that led to Roberson passing on signing with the Frogs during the Early Signing Period last month.

I would guess that it is some combination of TCU loading up at DB in the 2023 class along with the departure of Carrington to Arizona State that ultimately led to Roberson keeping his options open in the last couple of months. Roberson had a tight connection with Carrington when he was initially being recruited to TCU.

All in all, if I had to pick a leader in this recruitment a couple of days ahead of the late signing period, Texas would be my de facto favorite. Getting the last in-person visit before signing day is always huge. And Texas has a depth need remaining in the defensive backfield after it lost four-star safety commit Jamel Johnson to TCU in this recruiting cycle along with multiple other young DBs to the transfer portal.

Texas currently has 24 high school recruits committed to the 2023 class as of the morning of Jan. 30. All 24 of those high school recruits committed to the Longhorns 2023 class signed, and more than half of them enrolled early for the spring semester at Texas.