Notes/thoughts on Texas' latest commitment, two of this weekend's official visitors, and one of next weekend's official visitors:
North Forney WR Briceson Thrower — AGNB27
Looking back on it, the Thrower recruitment was awesome to cover. It was straightforward the entire time and there was never fluff or much of any misdirection. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever covered a recruitment of a wide receiver that had as little drama as Thrower’s recruitment did. He is a great young man from a great family and is extremely likable and easy to root for. And he’s not your regular three-star either. He could very well finish as a four-star and is a player with traits, measurements, times, and the right mental wiring to be projected to the NFL Draft years down the road.
I think his commitment was taken a bit for granted given that there was no drama and that it was Texas vs. the field for months, so I just wanted to make it clear Thrower isn’t just a player that can play at Texas, he’s a player who can start and make a real impact in Austin before hearing his name called in the NFL Draft. He’s also a relentless and hard worker who will make the rest of the position room and locker room better. Rankings and stargazers might take Thrower for granted, but Texas fans shouldn’t be sleeping on the young man from North Forney.
I was able to speak with Thrower’s wide receivers coach, offensive coordinator, and head coach at Thrower’s ceremony on Saturday and will have quotes from them up on OTF on Monday.
Barbers Hill DL Raiden Cook — Houston commit
I was able to catch up with Cook while he was in the car on the way home from his Texas official visit. I went into the weekend viewing this recruitment as one that Houston would hold on to, and I still feel that way after speaking with Cook. He had a good time on his official visit and it’s not like Texas did anything wrong, I just don’t see a flip happening here at this current juncture.
The Cougars have prioritized Cook more than anyone and in every which way and I continue to think that strategy will pay off for them. Texas A&M recently offered and will host Cook for an OV the June 12-14 weekend. Then he’ll head to Texas Tech for an OV the June 19-21 weekend and he also mentioned he might see Vanderbilt on a midweek OV this week or the next.
North Crowley CB John Meredith III
Meredith didn’t offer much when I spoke with him coming out of the OV but he still plans to make a decision before the month is over and I still lean Texas over Texas A&M. The nation’s No. 1 CB was hosted by Jermaine Bishop and Jonathan “Deuce” Cunningham and said “it just felt like home” when talking about the visit.
Meredith told me he’s still considering scheduling an official visit for the June 19-21 weekend but if you ask me I think the Texas official visit was the last OV of his recruiting process. As OTF has reported for a while, Meredith is playing in the OT7 National Tournament June 11-14 and a decision being made during, before, or after the tournament would be far from a surprise.
It’s also worth mentioning Texas A&M is all-in on landing one of Meredith or Joshua Dobson. It will essentially be fiscally impossible to land both. I spoke with a source in College Station earlier today who views the Aggies as the team to beat for Dobson and that the North Carolina native has higher chances to end up in College Station than Meredith does. Meredith will probably make his decision before Dobson does but it was still worth mentioning FWIW.
DeSoto RB SaRod Baker — Texas Tech commit
I don’t have any new intel to include but wanted to add that a source confirmed Baker still intends to officially visit Texas the June 12-14 weekend. I felt it was worth mentioning with all of Texas-Texas Tech talk on social media as of late. He was in College Station this weekend, will be in Austin this weekend, and Lubbock the weekend after that. Baker is one of only three running backs who will see Texas on an official visit this summer. The others are Texas pledge Noah Roberts, who OVed to Austin this weekend, and Richmond Randle’s Landen Williams-Callis, who will be in Austin on an OV the June 19-21 weekend.