Shemar Turner, DT
Texas was among the five finalist schools during the 2020 offseason for the elite five-star defensive line recruit from DeSoto (TX) High School in South Dallas Shemar Turner, along with the Alabama Crimson Tide, LSU Tigers, Georgia, and Texas A&M.
Turner visited Texas unofficially multiple times as the Longhorns were one of the big schools that offered him early in his recruitment during the 2019 offseason. He didn't take an official visit to Texas due to COVID-19 disruptions during the 2020 offseason.
The Longhorns' current coaching staff never got a chance to recruit Turner since he signed with Texas A&M in December 2020, before Sarkisian arrived in Austin for the Longhorns in early 2021 in the offseason.
Turner does have connections to coaches on Texas's current staff, though. One of Turner's other top five finalist schools, Alabama, was where current Texas special teams coordinator Jeff Banks and Sarkisian were at for the time when he was recruited out of high school in DFW.
Despite missing out on some elite in-state defensive lineman talents in the 2021 class, the players the Longhorns signed for that cycle in the trenches turned out pretty good. Eventual first-round NFL Draft pick at defensive tackle in 2024, Byron Murphy II, was flipped from the Baylor Bears late in the 2021 cycle. Texas also signed multi-year starter at EDGE, Barryn Sorrell, in the 2021 defensive line recruiting class.