Texas Football: 5 most important UT visiting recruits for Kansas game

Zion Williams, DT

One of the more underrated 2025 visiting recruits for the Kansas game on Sep. 30 is the big 6-foot-4 and 315-pound four-star Lufkin (TX) defensive lineman Zion Williams. The Texas offer and blue-chip in-state defensive line recruit told Inside Texas on Sep. 27 (paid content) that he’s planning to visit for the Kansas game this weekend.

This will be the first return trip to Austin for Williams since he visited for the Elite Camp in early June. He also visited Texas for the second Junior Day of the 2023 offseason on March 25.

Williams is one of the 2025 in-state defensive linemen that DL coach Bo Davis and the Longhorns are high on talent-wise and physically. But the reported connection between Williams and TCU defensive line coach Jamarkus McFarland (Williams’ cousin) could put the Frogs in the lead in this recruitment.

Nonetheless, this is an important visit for Williams to get to Texas for the first time on a gameday since the Longhorns offered him on Feb. 1, 2023.

DeAndre Carter, IOL (Auburn commit)

Arguably the biggest visiting recruit for the Kansas game this weekend is the highly touted four-star Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei interior offensive lineman and Auburn commit DeAndre Carter. The enormous 6-foot-4 and 340-pound offensive guard is taking his official visit to Texas on Sep. 29 and 30 this weekend.

Carter confirmed with a post on social media on the night of Sep. 27 that he will be making the trip to Austin this weekend for the Texas-Kansas game.

Offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Kyle Flood and the Longhorns are really high on Carter for what he can bring to the 2024 class along the interior offensive line. Texas will get its first real shot to convince Carter to flip his commitment from the Tigers to the Longhorns this fall during his official visit this weekend.

This won’t be an easy task, but Flood has done a great job recruiting along the offensive line and getting late-cycle flips in previous cycles. I will never count Flood and the Longhorns out in this type of recruitment for a top-priority blue-chip offensive lineman.