The bulk of the focus from last weekend’s Texas Longhorn junior day was on 2020 prospects, but there were some high-profile 2021 players in attendance as well. Perhaps the most highly-regarded was quarterback Preston Stone, a 2021 players who has already garnered attention from just about every college program in the country.
How hot of a prospect is Stone? He has yet to finish his sophomore year of high school but already holds more than 40 scholarship offers from most of college football’s power players.
During his visit to Texas last weekend, the Dallas Parish Episcopal School standout got some time with the Texas coaches and some of the younger players in the UT program, and Stone said it was a good visit overall.
“It was fun. I got to meet with coach (Tom) Herman for a while. We took a tour of the facilities, got to meet a lot of coaches,” Stone said. “I saw all the new early enrollees.”
Herman’s message to the 6-2, 185-pound sophomore was pretty direct.
“He basically told me that he’s really interested in me coming here. It was great to get to talk to him,” Stone said.
Texas has a strong quarterback tradition in recent years with guys like Vince Young and Colt McCoy leading the way. During his visit last weekend, Stone met with UT offensive coordinator Tim Beck and the history and make-up of the successful Texas quarterbacks was a focal point of their conversations.
“We went to a position meeting, and what coach Beck was really preaching the entire time was what it means to be a Texas quarterback. You look at guys like Sam Ehlinger, Vince Young - they all possess that trait of a winner, you know? That’s what he was preaching the whole day,” Stone said.
Current Texas quarterbacks Sam Ehlinger and Roschon Johnson were also involved in the visit and addressed the quarterback recruits on campus.
Beck, who has had success developing quarterbacks at stops at Nebraska, Ohio State and Texas, made a strong impression on Stone.
“He’s an awesome coach,” Stone said. “You look at his track record. Guys like Tommy Armstong … all those guys put up great numbers. Sam (Ehlinger) is the next one of those guys in line. He’s definitely a quarterback generator. He showed us a big slide of all the guys he had. He’s definitely had a lot of great quarterbacks.”
Along with an offer from Texas, Stone holds scholarship offers from the likes of Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, TCU and Texas A&M, to name but a few. As a sophomore in high school, he has plenty of time to work through the recruiting process, but Stone said he plans to narrow his focus soon.
“I’m narrowing it down to I’d say around 10 or so, and I’ll probably put that out pretty soon,” he said.
