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Inside Texas Football
Texas Longhorns Recruiting: New Predictions, Priority Targets Set Visits, DL Offer Spree
Welcome to the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel, powered by InsideTexas.com. I'm Joe Cook, joined today by Eric Nalene and Justin Wells. We've got a lot of recruiting information to talk about. Tuesday was a big day for the Longhorns on the recruiting trail, not just in sending out offers, but visits confirmed and a couple predictions that we put out that you all to put out as part of On3's recruiting prediction machine day. So we'll talk about those predictions. We'll talk about those targets confirming their Texas visit dates. And we'll talk about a few offers that Kenny Baker put out. So Eric, we'll start it off with you, a lot of big predictions. And you may have put in the biggest in the network I feel like yesterday when you made a prediction in favor of the Longhorns for Michael Fesussi to eventually pick Texas. Yeah, well, I mean, just like always, before a big prediction goes in, you know, you consult guys that know them quite well. So I talked to Justin about that. I might have put it in the prediction, but normally the five star predictions are a team effort. We just feel good about it. You know, along with Justin's primary information, some of us have heard secondarily. I also have this theory that, you know, the bigger the recruit, the more likely he is to land at Texas. And when you look at the three big offensive tackles in the state, Lamont Rogers, Ty Haywood and Fesussi, Texas sets up best for Fesussi. So I think Texas, I think the big regional powers are going to split for the big three offensive tackles. And I think Fesussi is going to end up at Texas. And I feel pretty good about it. I put it at a confidence of 60%. - And just so people who may not be familiar inside Texas and insidetexas.com, you're very specific in how you put in your predictions. You have a process and I'd like for, if you could, go into detail how you do your predictions. - Well, I mean, you know, a lot of times predictions aren't predictions. You know, a lot of times we know in advance. Inside Texas readers have never cut off guard, but my predictions are true predictions. I won't put one in after a decision date has been made. Normally, when a kid makes a decision rather than announcing out of the blue, everybody figures out where he's going pretty quickly. And I don't change him. If I get it wrong, I get it wrong, I'll live with it. It's all good. I like to keep the fun and the prediction aspect of it rather than just kind of ruining the kid's moment. - Justin, you heard Eric talk about how the big three regional powers are going to be competing. That's Texas, that's Oklahoma, and that's Texas A&M. But this one almost seems like it's a two team race for Fesussi. - Yeah, I mean, I think Texas and OU have a good head start, a good margin of lead right now. But listen, Missouri really impressed him. And Texas A&M has some connections on that staff to Fesussi. And so this one's gonna end, and Fesussi likes the recruiting process. Not in a bad way. He enjoys the attention. He's going to take his visits. And so, but it's, to me, the biggest data point was Texas was his first official visit that he locked in that we broke a couple days ago. And to me, that's the biggest factor. - Yeah, he's still going to steal a shoe in Oregon. So yeah, this one's, that's why I said it's a prediction. I'm not, it's no guarantee, but, you know, I like my feel on this one. - We'll keep going. Justin, you made a prediction for another big target, linebacker Riley Pettijon from McKinney High School. You wrote that Texas is battling some of the top programs in the country, including Ohio State and USC. But he will be back in Austin for the Orange White game. Still put in a prediction for him. What are you thinking as far as Texas and Pettijon with Johnny Nansen taking over this recruitment? - Yeah, there's two linebackers in DFW that are prime priority targets right now. And that's Riley Pettijon and McKinney and Elijah Barnes out of Dallas Skyline. Put in both RPMs for those guys yesterday. There's just been a lot of good. That one, I feel really good about both of those. There've been other RPMs from our own staff for these guys. And so I felt like I was having to catch up to you guys because you all have had that. But you know what? I think those two guys make a lot of sense. Our Charlie Williams and I were at a track meet a couple of weekends ago and we had Elijah and Riley together, standing together. And I said, listen, I need to get a picture of you of the two future Texas linebackers. And they both had the biggest green in the world. And so I feel good there because I think Nansen's gonna be a good addition, a multiplier to this recruitment. That's already had a solid foundation. They love SARC, they love PK. And more than that, they love the atmosphere at Texas. They love the proximity. It makes too much sense for these two guys. Granted, it's gonna take a while. I believe Peta John's gonna hit USC. I know Barnes wants to hit a few other schools as well. I think LSU and A&M are gonna, oh, you're gonna be in the mix. But I feel really good about Peta John and Elijah Barnes right now winding up in Austin. - Eric, we talked about Jeff Chote, the goat, so often last year and in the years prior with how he recruited. But it looks like Johnny Nansen is putting himself in position, especially with Peta John and Barnes to be able to bring in a pretty stock linebacker class after a one man haul with Ty Anthony Smith. - Yeah, Justin, just mentioned track. This is like a relay race where you just wanna pass a clean pass to the baton from Chote to Johnny Nansen. And I think they got that in the recruitment so Elijah Barnes and Riley Peta John. - Another, some other news that inside Texas put out on Tuesday was a number of priority targets confirming their Texas visit dates. And Justin, the wide receivers coach Chris Jackson had a good little run of news when on three industry ranking five-star Kaleet Lockett confirmed his June 21st official visit. He also had Katie Jordan, wide receiver Andrew Marsh, putting a June 14th official visit down. Those are two wide receivers on a seemingly ever-expanding wide receiver board, but two from in state that Texas has put themselves in a good position for. And of course, we'll now receive official visits for in June. - Yeah, you know what's funny is with Marsh, Eric just saw him, Eric was all over the place last weekend and he got to see him and catch up with him. And Texas is solid there. I think it's gonna take a little bit more time, but Texas looks good there. Kaleet Lockett to me is the most interesting though, because he's a guy that despite not being one of the higher rated guys in the state, the national view of him is a five-star. He's an industry ranking five-star within on three, or the industry rankings rather. And so to me, he is the consummate possession receiver. He does so many things really well. And so the fact that Texas gets him in for that first official, I think is big, because therefore, about the last six months, I don't think there's one school that's really stood out to Kaleet, but he's always mentioned Texas because they were early on him. They were really early on him. He really likes Chris Jackson. He likes the direction. He's been on campus three or four times, guys. Some under the radar. I can remember over a year ago, him coming on campus for one of the camps. And so if Texas pushes for Kaleet, I love where they're at with that guy right now, but Texas A&M really likes him too. He's got some connections, actually, to college station. Unless she was trying to make a push. I wanna say there's about three or four other schools that are trying to jump into the mix, but right now, if Texas really, really pushes for Kaleet Lockett, I love their position right now. Get him in on that official visit and figure it out. And because I think he wants to make that decision before the beginning of his senior year, I could see that in July or August. And then Marsh seems like it's another Texas versus A&M battle, but some other schools could be entering in the fray as well. Oklahoma, Eric wrote about it and we talked about it. Look, you know, with Marsh, it's funny because he's such a fun kid and he's such an explosive dynamic kid, but you never know kind of what direction he's leaning right now. But one consistent is that he has liked Texas for the last two years. That's the one consistent, that camp he came to last summer and got to catch pass the belief from KJ Lacey. That was a big deal. Like Texas has always been in the mix. It's always A&M's thought that they had kind of an advantage. Now, I think Oklahoma is a school that you gotta watch. Again, the sooners are making strong impressions on these in-state guys for 2025. And that's something that very noteworthy when it comes to that. - Eric, a couple other ones that we put out, including one today, Hoffman, defensive tackle Zion Williams, someone that you intruded into East Texas to go and check out and see. Maybe, you know, despite his ranking by on three and a number of other services, someone who is basically very high or maybe at the top of Kenny Baker's board, getting that official visit has to be huge, especially with LSU and Bo Davis still lurking on this one. - Yeah, I snuck under the razor wire perimeter that Justin set up around East Texas and went and saw him. That bear crawled about 100 miles to go see him. You know, I love the way that kid sets up for Texas. You know, I've talked about it before. He's a theater major, kid played Santa Claus, the gatekeeper in the Wizard of Oz. He just seems like a kid that would go to Texas, even if he didn't play football. But on top of it, I think he likes to school and I think there's nothing but slack in the recruitment for Kenny Baker to make up. That's not a bad thing. You know, he's gotta kind of win him over the way that we talked about. Nancy has done with Riley Pedagion and I think he's on that path. You know, I think LSU probably is the big hangup right now and M has a chance as well. But he's familiar with Bo Davis is helping out. Baton Rouge is not all that far from home. He said that, you know, being in Baton Rouge felt like being in East Texas. So, you know, I think that that's gonna be, that's gonna be tough to overcome. But I do like Texas's position, just my read of that kid. If I met that kid and not knowing where it was from and just talk to him and didn't even know what kind of high profile player he was, I would say. He seems like a good fit for UT. I think that's probably how it's gonna end up. Normally that read is right. But we'll see Justin, Justin broke that visit this morning and that's a big one. Don't throw out his ranking. He's a low four star. He's one of the two or three most important players in the class. He's very talented. He's giant with hardly any bad weight on him. I mean, it's just, it's how you draw him up. - Another big one scheduled on June 21st is Kiadi Armstrong, Justin, a teammate of Ty Anthony Smith from Jasper. Texas already has a Mari Winston committed in a class after Dikani's Nick Townsend, but Kiadi Armstrong posted on social media on Wednesday morning. He'll be heading to Austin on June 21st. And Jeff Banks is trying to reload that position room and Kiadi Armstrong seems like a focus of his. - Yeah, you know, they've got Emory Winston in the class from Calhoun, Georgia. They want one more, maybe two more. We don't know it could be a three tied in class. I do know, I feel like they're gonna split one of the two between Nick Townsend and Kiadi Armstrong. And I feel like A&M would likely get the other. Now, there's a sense that A&M leads for Kiadi. I'm not going that far yet. I think that's a lot of the region bias. And just because, you know, a lot of guys in that area are familiar with A&M, but they've done a good job. They really have that they've prioritized him at the same time. Jeff Banks loves him. That guy's a monster, man. He's not Cal Pitt's athletic, but he's got that just presence about him. He's just a big joker. You know, I can't imagine this guy's hitting a baseball, playing center field. I can't imagine this guy's running in relays. Like he is an absolute monster. Texas is going to take their swings. That's the kind of guy you've got to go for, whether you get him or not between him or Nick Townsend. I think Texas A&M split those guys today. - Interesting, I think UT is going to get Townsend. So I mean, I mean, I'm going to see him soon, but I-- - I kind of do too, Pete. I feel like Texas has a really good-- that's kind of when you have to game it out a little bit. Like they might be good with a coyote now, but if they get Townsend early, then what happens? And so A&M will negative recruit that probably pretty effectively. But we'll see, man. Both those guys are rare. Texas is lucky to have them in this class and the class where they've got the numbers to go big. - Hey, I'll tell you this, if you want him to go to Texas, have A&M telling me he's an offensive tackle he'll commit tomorrow. - Speaking of taking swings, two more defensive players who've locked in some visits. Jonah Williams from Galveston Ball, April 6, just an unofficial visit. Defensive athlete can play a variety of positions. This is a multi-faceted recruitment. Not only is Texas having to pitch the football angle, they have to pitch the baseball angle and they may have to go against the MLB draft as well. So Eric, kind of a variety of positions that Jonah Williams has been recruited at, but this one seems like it's another Red River battle for the star from Galveston County. - Well, I don't know. Texas is probably behind some others as well. Baseball is gonna, baseball recruiting is gonna have to do his job every bit as much as football. I don't think he's gonna play linebacker. I think that's where his body is gonna go, but I think they'll still keep him at a wider receiver and he would just try to fight it and stay around 220 pounds, be as lean as possible. If he plays college football, I think he's gonna be on the offensive side 'cause I don't think he really wants to play defense. And he's dangerous with the ball in his hand. He is explosive and athletic. He can play wide receiver. It's probably come across as like, I'm not the biggest fan of him. I just have not seen him in the class. But if Texas picks up the slack in the baseball recruiting and has a clear vision for him as a football player, maybe they can make a move and April 6th is gonna be the time to do it. - Joe, I made an RPM on him like two month, month or two ago. I think Oklahoma's the team to beat there. They're talking baseball, they're selling baseball just like they did with Taylor Tatum, the four star running back out of Longview in the last cycle, they're selling baseball and right now I think, oh, you used the team to beat. I'd be surprised that Jonah Williams takes an official visit to Texas after this April 6th trip. - One more visit to talk about. That's Kobe Sellers from Shadow Creek. He scheduled a June 14th official visit. Corner recruiting is always a pretty fun thing to track Eric but this one seems like again, maybe this one's a little bit more of a red river battle than the other one I just mentioned was. - Yeah, it's, it's gonna be a tougher Texas on this one. I think Terry has a lost, Terry Joseph has a lost too many cornerback battles of late and this is one I think that it's increasingly likely that it's gonna go OU's way. We'll see, he's got OU's gonna be his last official visit right before the dead period and right before a lot of kids make their decision, they're gonna make that last chance to get him across the line. Texas will have him the week before. So it's gonna be interesting to see if Texas can make up ground. I think they're already looking in different directions. I think they're hard after Caleb Chester, hard after Cortland Guillory. They're not gonna give up on Kobe by any stretch but they're right now I think they're in a trail position. - A lot of different positions there but we're gonna focus now on some defensive lineman and Kenny Baker has started to throw out a lot of different offers not only just in state and it's a class that Eric he said's really strong but in some of his more familiar recruiting areas, there's a couple went out to Florida, Derry Norris, AKA Chuck Norris from Port Orange, Spruce Creek, Jarquez Carter from Newberry, Florida, Stefan Shivers from Humboldt, Tennessee and then there was an in-state offer to Chase Sims from Richmond, Randall or maybe Rosenberg, Randall, Southwest, Southwest, Houston area. Justin of those four who kind of stands out to you. It's tough 'cause Stefan Shivers, I didn't know about him until last night to be honest and man for his size and the way he can move, I swear to God, there's so many of those type of guys that are under the radar that you find that all of a sudden become, you know, huge. Like it reminds me of Josiah Sharma. I think Shivers is what? Six, five, three, 55 moves really well for his size but I gotta tell you, Chase Sims, he's only a three star but that guy, the instant, the recruiting rankings for the defensive tackles in state in Texas for 2025 is kind of slacking in the national view and I think Chase Sims is much better than his ranking. I thought he should have been offered a month ago. I liked both of those are the two guys I really like. - Eric, what do you see from those four offers and then what do you think it says about just Kenny Baker's recruiting strategy in general? He obviously showed up with a few big targets left over from Bo Davis and of course, Pete Quakowski has a vision for but now he's starting to put some feelers out for his own prospects. - Yeah, I mean, the guy's gonna have a different board than the previous coach. There's always gonna be different opinions. You know, we see that a lot. Johnny and Anson didn't just stay after the same coaches that Jeff Choat prioritized. I like to chase Sims offer. It was necessary not only as an in-state guy, it's with an easy path to get to campus. I think he's got really good body mechanics. There's a lot of guys in the NFL that don't dominate but play a lot of reps at 6, 2, 3, 0, 5, which I think Sims is at now or will be eventually when he matures. But the way he moves is what tells the story for me. I think it was a very good offer. But yeah, I mean, all of them, you can see something special in all of them. I think it's a continuation of a theme that I always talk about is, you know, the bigger they are, the more underrated they tend to be for some reason. I think everybody falls in love with the smaller guys, the quarterbacks and the skill players. It's probably easier to evaluate them from an athleticism standpoint. Everybody wants to focus on the smaller guys running 4-2 rather than Tavondre sweat, 1-5-2. But I liked all the offers. You just want more lines in the water. Obviously, there's going to be some recruitments that they lose. A lot of these are hotly contested due to scarcity. And so you want as many options as possible. And, you know, that's what Baker's setting up. Might have been a little bit later than a lot of recruiting fans wanted. They wanted those offers out, you know, five minutes after he got the job, but he's starting to cast a wider net and we'll see what he can catch. - Hey, when you upgrade from T-Mobile to AT&T, it makes a big difference in the cities. I'm telling you, you just get more coverage, more coverage. This is not paid for, sponsored by AT&T, rather, either. - One last question. Got one in the class with Brandon Brown. What's the number of defensive tackle of this cycle? Four. Four should be a lot of great work for Kenny Baker to get done. It should be really enjoyable to cover it over at InsideTexas.com. Make sure you come check us out over at InsideTexas.com. Also like and subscribe to all the, like this video, subscribe to the Inside Texas YouTube channel. We'll have a bunch of recruiting information throughout the spring. Spring football, team drills are coming up soon. We'll have a lot of reaction from that. It's a great time to be a Texas football fan, especially ahead of year one in the SEC. So Justin, Eric, anything else, are you all ready to get on out of here? Nope. Sounds good. - Hey, there's a ton. - Thank y'all for watching. - There's a ton. Yeah, I was just gonna say, Eric did a great job this morning wrapping up all the craziness from Tuesday night yesterday. Go ahead and check that out at InsideTexas.com. Come join the community. Come hang out with us. It's a party, come on. - It's always good stuff at Inside Texas. Thank you for watching, and we'll see you next time on the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel, powered by InsideTexas.com.