Texas football ‘remains the leader’ for 4-Star RB target Christian Clark

The first major official visit weekend of the month of June is just around the corner for Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian. This coming weekend will be a majority of out-of-state official visitors for Texas while the priority in-state recruits will be making the official trip in a couple of weeks for the most part.

One of the priority out-of-state skill recruits that are set to make the official visit to Austin this weekend is the highly touted four-star Phoenix (AZ) Mountain Pointe running back Christian Clark. Texas has made Clark one of its top two priorities among out-of-state running backs in the 2024 class this offseason.

Clark is commonly considered to be Texas’ second-most important target at the position for this cycle behind the nation’s top-ranked running back recruit in the 2024 class, five-star IMG Academy product Jerrick Gibson.

That’s not to downplay the importance of getting Clark in this class for running backs coach Tashard Choice and the Longhorns, though. The sizable and agile 5-foot-11 and 195-pound Clark is a versatile back that changes speed and direction really well and has some big play ability to his game.

Texas football reportedly remains in the lead with 4-Star RB target Christian Clark

Texas would ideally be able to get both Clark and Gibson in the 2024 class to solidify the future of the running back room for a good while. And it looks like Texas could be in a good spot to make this two-RB class of Clark and Gibson become a reality starting over the course of the next few weeks.

Texas made the cut of Clark’s final five schools, which he announced on social media on June 1.

And heading into official visit season last month, Texas looked like the leader in this recruitment after Choice and this staff made a big impression during Clark’s unofficial trip to the 40 for the second Junior Day of the offseason (March 25).

The Oregon Ducks and Georgia Bulldogs looked like the biggest competition for the Longhorns in the race to land a commitment from Clark heading into the summer. But Georgia was able to flip its top priority target at the running back position in the 2024 class this week from the Florida Gators in four-star The Benjamin School product Chauncey Bowens.

There also isn’t much noise surrounding the Ducks in this recruitment following Clark’s official visit to Eugene on June 9. Oregon looks to have found a top running back priority in the 2024 class in Mater Dei’s Nathaniel Frazier.

This leaves Texas still as the school to beat in this recruitment heading into Clark’s official visit weekend to Austin, which starts on June 16. Justin Wells of Inside Texas reported on June 12 (paid content) that multiple sources confirmed Texas “remains the leader” after Clark has concluded more than half of his official visit schedule for the months of May and June.

Texas’ staff clearly has plenty of reasons to be confident in their positioning in this recruitment heading into Clark’s official visit to the 40 this coming weekend. And considering the fact that the last remaining official visit among those currently on the docket for Clark is to Georgia on June 23, Texas will be in a good spot to try and shut down this recruitment during his official visit from June 16-18.

Choice and the Longhorns will host each of their top two priorities at the running back position in the 2024 class for official visits in the next two weekends. Clark will begin his official visit this weekend starting on June 16. And then, Gibson will make his highly anticipated official visit to Austin the following weekend, starting on June 23.