After entering the Lucas Rhoa sweepstakes in May of 2025, things have gotten surprisingly complicated in Texas' recruitment of the 6'5", 310-pound offensive linemen from Orange, CA. By "complicated", I mean every other program began heavily recruiting him shortly after the Longhorns began doing so.
A lot of the heavy-hitters like Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia, and Oregon decided to jump on the Rhoa bandwagon shortly after Steve Sarkisian offered him.
Big Ten powers attempting to sway Rhoa from Texas
Though Texas is apparently in a great spot with Rhoa, Oregon, and Penn State are the two other schools that the Longhorns have to fend off until National Signing Day. Rhoa's been to Penn State multiple times over the past two years, and Oregon is pushing incredibly hard for the 3-star offensive guard right now.
Oregon and Texas continue to set the pace with Orange Lutheran (Calif.) OL Lucas Rhoa but official visits have been set to Penn State and UCLA as well ahead of a summer decision https://t.co/K2cuqv2HYV pic.twitter.com/rxGQNOIxFr
— Greg Biggins (@GregBiggins) May 16, 2026
Steve Sarkisian and Co. were able to bring Rhoa to Austin on April 4th, and he has his official visit set up for June 19th, so Texas OL Coach Kyle Flood will need to make sure that he has an excellent time on the forty acres.
Two of the biggest things that drew Flood to Rhoa was his strength and nasty atittude on the field.
He's fairly raw when it comes to the technical side of things, but he's an absolute mauler in the run game. Rhoa maintains great pad level and easily displaces interior defensive linemen and edge rushers alike. Very few offensive linemen in the 2027 class are as versatile as Rhoa is, as he's been effective at offensive tackle, offensive guard, and center throughout his career at Orange Lutheran HS.
He also moves very well laterally, which is sometimes hard for high school offensive linemen to master, and that's probably a big reason why he's such a sought-after prospect despite "only" being a 3-star recruit right now. It's not common to see schools like Georgia, Michigan, and Oregon pining for players like Lucas Rhoa at this stage in the recruiting process.
Some of these other top programs likely see Rhoa the same way the Longhorns do: A ball of clay full of potential for their offensive line coaches to try and mold into a solid P4 blocker. Quite a few schools have been taking this type of route when it comes to lower-level offensive line recruits at the high school level, so they don't have to spend tons of NIL money on them. This naturally allows someone like Penn State to spend a majority of their NIL budget on higher-level skills players throughout the year.
Nevertheless, if Kyle Flood can continue building a great relationship with Lucas Rhoa, there's a very good chance that he could commit to the Longhorns sooner rather than later.
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