All's (Mostly) Quiet on the Texas Front

After two days of open recruiting for the class of 2027, some of the dominos are starting to fall, but a few of the top programs have been pretty quiet so far, Texas included. There have been no public commitments to the Longhorns thus far, but that's to be expected. And in fact, that will most likely change today, Texas got on the board last night and the athlete will likely make the announcement later today.

When the future of Texas is already so incredibly stacked, recruiting gets a lot harder. In the two classes before the 27s (both of which were the #1 class in the country), Texas has a gold-level setter, a gold-level MB, two gold-level defensive specialists, and THREE DIAMOND pin hitters. That's daunting to anyone thinking about coming to Texas, looking up ahead at the depth chart in front of them.

This is especially true for hitters, who are staring down Henley Anderson, Abby Vander Wal, and Cari Spears before them. That's a nasty starting lineup right there. Nothing is guaranteed in this day and age of college athletics, but that could very seriously be the starting lineup for 2-3 years in Austin. If I'm recruiting one of the top outsides in this class such as Ireland Real or Tessa Larkin, it's a harder pitch for them to come here when they know what the path to playing time looks like.

And it goes both ways. That caliber of prospects are good enough to earn certain NIL deals wherever they go, and money is playing a bigger and bigger factor in where athletes decide to go. Is Texas going to be able to provide that for a fourth OH? You know Texas has deep pockets, so it's not an automatic no, but it's also not an easy yes.

Beyond the pins, Texas is one of the many schools passing on 2027 setters and looking forward to the future at that position. With a strong 2026 setter in Harris and a strong 2028 class, this year just isn't a priority.

And this is true more broadly as well. Texas was able to capitalize on the high end talent in recent years, which means for a 2027 class that collectively isn't quite as strong as the classes surrounding it, it's okay if Texas has a little down year. If there's ever a year to be quieter, this is a fine year to do it, everything kind of works out well in the grand scheme of things. There were plenty of 2028 and even a couple 2029 prospects at experience camp, so the staff is ready to roll for the future.

That being said, the Horns are still in the running for some more top 2027 recruits as well. The staff is not at all treating this as an 'off' year. But it's also important to keep in mind some of the factors that will likely make this a smaller class. Things are going according to plan, and no one at Texas is concerned with where they're at right now.