The Longhorns miss on another top target.
The McKinney linebacker Riley Pettijohn, the top target left by co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Johnny Nansen, committed to the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday morning, compounding the Texas Longhorns’ recent recruiting collapse.
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The six-foot-five, two15-pound player visited three other colleges, including Texas, Texas A&M, and USC, before deciding on Ohio State.
During a considerable portion of Pettijohn’s recruitment, the Longhorns were seen as the front-runners. However, as the game progressed, there were rumors that Texas was in third place or worse. As a result, the school needs to catch up significantly if Nansen is to finally unseat Pettijohn from Ohio State.
Pettijohn, a consensus four-star prospect who is rated as the No. 4 linebacker and the No. 31 player nationwide by the 247Sports Composite rankings, ran a 10.77-second 100-meter dash this spring, which is a great time for his position and supports the sideline-to-sideline range the McKinney native demonstrates in pads.
Texas is a candidate for Fort Worth North Crowley linebacker Jonathan Cunningham, who made an official visit to Austin on June 14, and has a commitment from top-100 national talent Elijah Barnes of the Dallas Skyline.
