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Texas Recruiting Notes 2023: Strippers, Monkeys, and 5-Stars


Machinator

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(CJ Vogel) Nighttime Notes | Texas Busy With 2023 WR Offers

Spoiler

June 1 marked the first day of the visit period for colleges across the country, but it also marked a day where Texas, and specifically Andre Coleman, made a jump into the in-state 2023 wide receiver converation.

Texas has already extended a number of offers to in-state pass catchers for the 2023 class with some notables being Johntay Cook, Ashton Cozart, Jalen Hale and Jaquaize Pettaway. Today, that group of in-state offers almost doubled.

Texas extended offers to two central Texas standouts, the first being Temple’s Mikal Harrison-Pilot and the other being Del Valle’s Braylon James. Both names have been circulating the board for months now and now that an offer has been extended to both, we should begin to see some positive movement on the Texas front.

The third offer of the day comes in the form of Fort Worth All Saints WR Chris Palfreeman.

I’ll dive into each offer and what to expect with each target moving forward.

Temple ATH Mikal Harrison-Pilot

The offer for Harrison-Pilot came with pretty good timing. During my trip to Temple last week, Harrison-Pilot told me he was hoping to camp at some point with the Longhorns, though was unsure of what day. Offers have been flying in seemingly every other day for Harrison-Pilot who now boasts 25 offers nation wide.

I was told by a source close to Harrison-Pilot that he does have a soft spot for the Longhorns, as evidenced by the photo he Tweeted out following the offer. I am not going to say things are going to be all Texas from here on out, especially with other schools having been in the picture for months already, but it will certainly help in this recruitment.

While Harrison-Pilot has made a name for himself as a wide receiver, he told me the he had been in contact with the most at Texas had been safeties coach Blake Gideon. Gideon was also tagged in MHP’s tweet reporting the offer so it is safe to assume the offer came on the defensive side of the ball. I didn’t get the sense that one side of the ball had more weight than the other when I spoke with him last week, but it is something to follow.

Del Valle WR Braylon James

I have been pretty vocal about Braylon James being one of the top pass catchers in the state for quite some time now. For this offer to come this late is pretty surprising in my opinion. I don’t like the fact Ohio State, LSU, Georgia, Florida and Stanford have all had offers extended for quite some time prior to the school 15 minutes away. But, that’s in the past now and the Longhorns are officially in the running.

Having spoken with sources around James, I get the sense that Texas will get a fair shot at the 6’3″ standout. It’s still early in this recruitment, but a source spoke highly on three schools early on in this recruitment – Ohio State, LSU and Stanford.

James himself told me Stanford had been recruiting him the hardest a while back and obviously there is a strong pipeline of Austin area WRs heading north to Ohio State. James has family ties to LSU and grew up wearing the purple and gold so there’s plenty of reason to be weary of the Tigers.

With that said, James told me he is close friends with 5-star QB Arch Manning and had planned to visit Austin prior to the offer. I believe the plan is to visit the June 12 weekend for the Elite Junior Day.

Fort Worth All Saints WR Chris Palfreeman

Admittedly, I am not super familiar with Palfreeman. However, after some film review and research, he’s a dude. Palfreeman ran a 10.54 100m dash as a freshman and claims a 4.44 40-yard dash on his Twitter profile. Palfreeman is a dual threat offensive weapon as well with 18 catches going for 511 yards (18.3 YPC) and 78 carries for 700 yards (8.97 YPA).

At 5’10” and 160 lbs, Palfreeman is the prototypical slot guy with elite speed that has appeared in Sarkisian’s offense in the past. Early on, SMU, UNT, Pittsburgh, Texas A&M and Baylor have all thrown their hat in the ring for the speedster.

Gulliver Prep WR Jalen Brown (Miami, FL)

One more just for fun. Texas offered WR Jalen Brown out of Miami this morning as well. I saw Brown at the True Buzz 7v7 tournament in DeSoto about a month ago and can say without much hesitation that Brown is one of the best WR prospects I have seen since I began covering recruiting.

Brown is a consensus top ten WR in the country and will have suitors all over the place.

 

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2 hours ago, MichaelDicksonFanClub said:

They do it in High School so that someone who gets straight A’s in AP classes doesn’t have the same 4.0 as someone who gets straight A’s in regs.

Regular classes in HS are remedial

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8 hours ago, Machinator said:

(CJ Vogel) Nighttime Notes | Texas Busy With 2023 WR Offers

Offers have been flying in seemingly every other day for Harrison-Pilot who now boasts 25 offers nation wide.

i see what you did there futurama GIF

Edited by Bevo14
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IT

Spoiler

TE Walker Lyons, Folsom (Folsom, CA) - 2023:

The rising tight end from the Cali will trip to Texas soon. He's scheduled to arrive in Austin on June 21st and is eager to see UT.

At 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, the four-star holds 25 offers including Alabama, Penn State, Ohio State, Tennessee, and LSU, and the list keeps growing.

Texas offered on May 5th and Lyons continues to build a good bond with Jeff Banks.

Lyons will be one of the top tight end's in the country for 2023, and with Banks' recruiting savvy and Sarkisian's west coast ties, Texas should be in this one. We find out more in three weeks.

ATH Mikal Harrison-Pilot, Temple (Temple, TX) - 2023:

At 6-foot, 185 pounds, the four-star athlete does a little of everything at Temple. Running back, wide receiver, safety, and special teams are his orders.

With 25 offers already, including Notre Dame, Miami, USC, Oregon, and Tennessee, the Longhorns stepped up today with a verbal invitation for the target north on I-35.

Harrison-Pilot took an unofficial to UTSA today, and has his sights on seeing UT soon. The Horns message was clear.

"I was talking with coach (Blake) Gideon and he loves that I'm a versatile athlete that can play different positions," said Harrison-Pilot. "(Texas) loves the fact that I'm a coach's kid and a hard worker. They love my film and can't wait to get me down for a visit."

He tallied 46 tackles, three pass-breakups, one interception, and one forced fumble on defense, while he totaled 581 yards and eight scores on offense in 2020.

Knowing Harrison-Pilot over the last few years, it was only a matter of time before Texas came with an offer.

 

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Roach

Spoiler

— One of the best kids I saw this spring will camp at Texas later this week. 2023 Converse Judson wide receiver Anthony Evans told me he will be on campus tomorrow. Evans has been talking to a few of the Texas coaches, and I feel he's a guy to watch if he has a good camp performance. The 2023 receiver class is stacked and keeps growing by the day, but Evans is a kid who should take off soon.

 

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Gerry

Spoiler

The June 11-13 weekend is when the staff will bring in as many top 2023 prospects as possible. IT has been told that Lewisville High (TX) DE Jordan Renaud will be among the star-studded group of juniors, that includes Arch Manning, running back commit Rueben Owens and Johntay Cook. The 6-foot-4, 250-pound move in from South Florida is one of the nations elite defensive line prospects in the country in the 2023 cycle with offers from the majority of college footballs top programs. A busy June visit schedule also includes Alabama and Texas A&M.

 

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Wells

Spoiler

LB Jaiden Ausberry, University Lab (Baton Rouge, LA) - 2023:

At 6-foot, 185 pounds, the five-star composite linebacker from Da Boot will be seeing the ATX soon.

After UT offered, he immediately setup a visit to travel to UT. He’ll be in Austin on June 12th.

Ausberry holds 13 offers including LSU, Florida, Georgia, and Arizona State. But this recruitment might not get too far.

His father is a former LSU Tiger and current Executive Athletics' Director at Louisiana State. While Ausberry claims to be open, it'll be tough taking this tiger from home.

WR Chris Palfreeman, All Saints (Fort Worth, TX) - 2023:

The 5-foot-10, 160-pounder has speed in high doses. The two-sport athlete in football and track and field (100 meters, 200 meters) ran 10.54 100 as a freshman in 2020.

The junior-to-be recently transferred from Brock, where he started the last two seasons, and will play at All Saints in Fort Worth this fall.

Who does he hear from the most? “Texas A&M, OU, and SMU,” said Palfreeman.

He holds eight offers including UT, Texas A&M, TCU, SMU, and Pittsburgh. And he's set to see some college campuses this month.

“I’ll see OU, TCU, and probably Texas A&M,” Palfreeman said.

Texas getting in here early is key, and we now how much this staff covets speed.

 

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CJ Vogel

Spoiler

There were plenty of names that popped up on campus this afternoon that may come as a surprise to many.

*** 2023 Dickinson CB Vernon Glover Jr. made it to campus this afternoon as well. He currently holds offers from Miami and Arkansas and is primed to have a big fall season.

*** There is a report from Horns247 that one of the top linebackers in the country for the 2023 class 2023 Kahuku, HI Tausili Akana will be on campus Thursday and Friday. I’ll work to confirm and get an update out as soon as I can.

 

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Roach

Spoiler

— Kahuku (HI) linebacker Tausili Akana was on campus today. The four-star 2023 linebacker played his sophomore year in Utah but is expected to return to Hawaii this year. Akana already holds 20 offers and I expect the Longhorns to join that list soon. Jeff Choate is experienced recruiting out west and is working to expand the Longhorns' reach to those areas. We are going to follow up with Akana later in the week to recap his visit and see where the Longhorns stand, but we were told the visit went very well.

— Five-star 2023 defensive tackle David Hicks spent most of the day on campus and participated in the camp.  I was told that the family loved the trip and felt Texas rolled out the red carpet to show them how much of a priority they are.  They met with most of the staff and a few academic advisors before doing some drills at camp with Bo Davis.  Davis and Hicks' father have a previous relationship from the latter working camps at both Texas and Alabama when Davis was on staff.  I was also told that Hicks' mother was impressed by the coaches and overall presentation.  Texas scored well on the first shot.

— Converse Judson 2023 WR Anthony Evans felt he had a good camp as well.  Evans spent some time with the Texas coaching staff before the workout and got a full tour of the campus.  Evans said he connected well with Andre Coleman and feels he established himself as a name on the Texas board.  He said that he's supposed to talk with Coleman again later this week.

 

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Already seeing so many national articles on Arch. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect this to be the most followed recruitment in history, one where even casual sports fans know where he ends up. Short of a playoff run, there’s no quicker way for Sark to flip the perception of our program than by landing him.

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