Texas Football: Predicting Longhorns’ first 2024 commit of the spring

The spring will be a busy time on the recruiting trail for head coach Steve Sarkisian and the rest of the Texas football coaching staff. Texas will be looking to start putting some pieces in place in the 2024 recruiting class during the spring and summer. Last offseason, the spring and summer were the points in the year when Texas built up the most momentum on the recruiting trail in the 2023 class.

And the writing is on the wall that Sark and the Longhorns staff are on a similar trajectory for the 2024 cycle in terms of the timing of momentum on the trail this offseason compared to last year.

Texas currently holds commitments from two recruits in the 2024 class as of the morning of March 9. Unfortunately, though, the Longhorns have lost more commitments than it has picked up pledges in the 2024 class in the last four or five months.

As recently as in the last couple of weeks, the Longhorns lost a highly touted blue-chip commit in the 2024 class in four-star Aledo cornerback Jaden Allen.

But it shouldn’t be too long before the numbers start getting added to the Longhorns 2024 class both in terms of quality and quantity. The spring brings along a big visit season.

5-Star RB Jerrick Gibson and the priority 2024 recruits that could be the first to commit to Texas football this spring

Here’s a look at a prediction of the next recruit to commit to the Longhorns 2024 class this spring.

Selman Bridges, CB

A priority target for the Longhorns in the 2024 class that is really seeing his recruitment explode this spring is the highly touted four-star Temple Lake Belton (TX) cornerback Selman Bridges. The lengthy and physically-gifted 6-foot-4 and 170-pound defensive back/athlete has received more than a half-dozen offers in the last couple of months alone from Power Five schools.

Bridges received offers from the likes of the Longhorns, Alabama Crimson Tide, Arkansas Razorbacks, Tennessee Volunteers, Oregon Ducks, Oklahoma Sooners, and USC Trojans since the turn of the calendar year.

And while Bridges’ recruitment has exploded in the last few months, Sark and cornerbacks coach Terry Joseph managed to find a way to join the top group of schools in what seemed like a matter of weeks. Joseph and the Longhorns staff have a good connection with Bridges. It sounds like Texas has some real momentum in this recruitment as Bridges is about to embark on his first visit to the Forty Acres later this month.

Texas has really made Bridges a top priority at the cornerback position since Aledo’s Allen de-committed from the Longhorns 2024 class last month. That push has resulted in On3’s Sam Spiegelman placing an On3 RPM pick projecting Bridges’ commitment to Texas with a moderate to a good level of confidence.

Joseph and the Longhorns must continue to push the right buttons in this recruitment to ultimately beat out other top challengers such as Alabama and USC when Bridges does narrow down his decision.

We will be following his spring trip to Austin in a couple of weeks very close. Texas will need to move the needle in a big way to keep its spot among the top schools in the race to land a commitment from Bridges heading into the summer.