Following a disastrous 2017 NFL Draft for the Big 12 conference, much has been made and discussed as to how the Big 12 can turn things around. As we have written, the key to helping change the narrative, is for the Texas Longhorns to get back to national dominance, which means getting the best recruits in Texas to attend UT. Well, Tom Herman continued to take steps towards changing that over the weekend.
Herman was able to convince four-star safety Caden Sterns to flip his commitment from LSU to Texas.
Staying home. #HookEm pic.twitter.com/CVYWMT0HPq
— C.Sterns (@lil_STERNS2) May 8, 2017
Sterns is 6’1”, 192 and originally committed to LSU last November. He also has offers from Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma, TCU and Tennessee.
But not only is Sterns a great recruit to flip from an SEC West team, but the safety from is from Cibolo (Texas) Steele, in the San Antonio area and is a top-five prospect overall in Texas.
Of Tom Herman’s 8 commitments in the class of 2018, 4 are from Texas and two are from Oklahoma.
The remaining two are California and Florida natives.
This is getting more towards the ratio Texas fans should want to see from their program.
Back in Mack Brown’s heyday, the class of 2006 was a top 5 class, had 25 commitments, and 23 of them were from the Lone Star State.
Now with how the college football landscape has changed, I don’t expect to see 90%+ of any recruiting class for Texas to be in state, but getting that number to 75%+ should not be an unreasonable goal for the Longhorns.
By comparison, Charlie Strong’s last class in Texas (2016), which was his strongest class and was the best job he did recruiting in-state, had 68% of his commitments from Texas.
It’s great to see Herman flip 4-star players like Cameron Rising (California) and Justin Watkins (Florida). But flipping top in-state players who were previously committed to SEC schools is exactly the kind of formula Texas needs to have to get itself back to national prominence and give the Big 12 the boost it needs on the recruiting trail, on the field, and eventually in the eyes of NFL scouts and general managers.
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