Could this weekend turn into one of the more successful of the year for the Longhorns? It might not compare in terms of numbers to the June official visit weekends that saw the Longhorns land a combined 20 commitments from players that were in town for those two visit weekends, but the hit rate for this weekend could be incredibly high if things hold to their current course.
Let’s take a look …
2024 PROSPECTS
S Xavier Filsaime – McKinney - The Florida commitment has been trending strongly to Texas over the last couple of weeks, with the only potential hiccup being when Florida did an in-home visit this week and hoped it could get Filsaime to cancel his Texas official visit. Those efforts by Billy Napier and new Gators DB coach Will Harris were unsuccessful and Filsaime arrived in Austin on Friday evening. I’ve thought for a while that if he took a Texas OV, a flip was highly likely. Even Florida insiders seem to see the writing on the wall with this one.
Current commitment - Florida
Prediction – Flip to Texas
Confidence level – 75%
LB Tyanthony Smith – Jasper – This one has certainly been interesting to track of late. Smith continues, even on Saturday morning, to insist that he’s not visiting Texas. Other sources have indicated he’s in Austin on an official visit. Like Filsaime, this one has felt of late like it was a near lock if Smith made it to the UT campus for a visit. In fact, there was some thought that Smith might wind up signing with Texas even if he did not take a UT official visit … he’s been in Austin enough to have seen what he needs to see, and it seems like a foregone conclusion based on some things he’s said behind the scenes that he would not be signing with A&M. Smith is trying to keep as low of a profile as possible in the days and hours leading up to NSD1. That’s never easy, but we likely won’t get any public comments from him before he puts pen to paper. A&M will continue to work on Smith all the way up until Wednesday, but this one looks very good for Texas.
Current commitment – Texas A&M
Prediction – Flip to Texas
Confidence level – 70%
DL Alex Foster – Greenville (MS) St. Joseph – Foster returned to Austin this weekend after coming in somewhat discretely to take in the Longhorns’ home game against Texas Tech. Foster and Texas have been playing footsie for a couple of months and things appear to be picking up in the final week of the race. The question here is how hard Texas will push for a commitment. The Longhorns have a couple irons in the fire with A&M commitments Dominick McKinley and Dealyn Evans, but those ones are far from slam dunks. McKinley could still wind up signing with the Aggies in February, and schools like Oklahoma are also very much in the mix. Evans says he’ll visit UT in January, but he’s also been flirting with schools like Bama, Florida, USC and OU. My thinking is that Texas probably doesn’t bring in a player on the last weekend before the early signing window if the coaches don’t plan on taking said player’s commitment. If that’s true, I expect this one to fall UT’s way.
Current commitment – Baylor
Prediction – Flip to Texas
Confidence level – 60%
TRANSFER TARGETS
Former Clemson S Andrew Mukuba – The former Austin LBJ product arrived for a visit on Friday and this one feels like it’s all but done. When Mukuba first entered the portal, Texas looked like a perfect fit. There were some brief concerns about all of his Clemson hours transferring over but we’ve been told that issue has been resolved. Assuming nothing changes there, this one’s pretty much locked in. Mukuba is the No. 13 ranked player in the Portal by Rivals.com.
Prediction – Commitment to Texas
Confidence level – 90%
Former Houston WR Matthew Golden – The former Klein Cain product arrived in Austin on Friday evening and this is another that seems to be trending to the Longhorns. Golden would fill a couple of major needs at both receiver and in the return game and like Mukuba, this one could wrap up pretty quickly. Golden is the No. 35 ranked player in the Portal by Rivals.com.
Prediction – Commitment to Texas
Confidence Level – 80%
Last edited by a moderator:
