Texas football is a ‘big deal’ to red-hot 2025 4-Star TE Jack VanDorselaer

The spring evaluation period saw Texas football send out more than a dozen offers to emerging targets in the 2025 recruiting class. But it’s not just the newer offers for Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian this spring in the 2025 class that is making some noise.

One of the more established offers from last summer in the 2025 class for the Longhorns is the extremely fast-rising four-star Southlake Carroll (TX) tight end Jack VanDorselaer. Special teams coordinator/tight ends coach Jeff Banks and the Longhorns offered VanDorselaer in June 2022, but his recruitment has really started to blow up this offseason.

In the last two months alone, VanDorselaer has received offers from nearly a dozen Power Five and major Group of Five schools including the Oklahoma Sooners, Arkansas Razorbacks, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Auburn Tigers, Michigan Wolverines, and USC Trojans.

It’s clear that Banks and the Longhorns got their foot in the door in this recruitment at the right time to establish this relationship early on before the offers really started rolling in for VanDorselaer in 2023.

Texas has already hosted VanDorselaer on a couple of successful unofficial visits to Austin since he was offered by the Longhorns last summer. The first unofficial trip that VanDorselaer made to the 40 was on the same weekend that he received the Texas offer (June 11, 2022).

Texas football is in the mix for fast-rising 4-Star 2025 TE Jack VanDorselaer

VanDorselaer also got to see Texas during a game weekend at DKR on Oct. 15, 2022. He said of the game atmosphere at DKR that he got to see last October it was a “sick game atmosphere” and that he had a great time in Austin.

Since VanDorselaer’s visit to Austin last fall, it sounds like Banks and the Longhorns have maintained consistent contact with the blue-chip tight end recruit. Mike Roach of Horns247 reported on May 3 (paid content) that the “Longhorns have been keeping up contact” with VanDorselaer this offseason.

VanDorselaer mentioned in this piece from Roach and Horns247 that “Texas would be a great school to go to” and that since he grew up in this state “Texas football is just a big deal”.

It’s worth noting that VanDorselaer reportedly doesn’t have any visit plans to see Texas this summer at the moment. But he did say that he would “love to go up there this summer”. If Texas pushes more in this recruitment heading into the summer, I would anticipate that getting a return visit scheduled with VanDorselaer for June would be a logical next step here.

Assuming Texas does make the push for the DFW-area tight end recruit, it will have some stiff competition from out-of-state schools prioritizing VanDorselaer. Notre Dame is a school to watch in this recruitment after VanDorselaer left a visit to South Bend last month with a very positive impression of the program.

It also sounds like Oklahoma is firmly in the race early on to land a commitment from VanDorselaer. He was able to see a practice in Norman this spring and loved the energy he felt from the players and coaches on campus during camp.

As of May 3, VanDorselaer is one of just five tight end recruits in the 2025 class that holds a Texas offer. He is also the only in-state tight end recruit in the 2025 class that has a Texas offer, after the nation’s No. 1 recruit at the position in this class, five-star Davon Mitchell, moved to Los Alamitos, CA, after the 2022 season.