Five-star RB Derrek Cooper sets decision date

Can the Longhorns pull off the upset for one of the nation’s best running backs?

It has been a rough recruiting stretch for Longhorn fans over the past month or so, but that has not stopped or slowed down Steve Sarkisian and his staff from shooting their shot for elite prospects.

Running back recruiting in particular has been a rough go since Tashard Choice elected to leave Texas for the Detroit Lions, which left the staff scrambling to re-establish relationships under new running backs coach Chad Scott. Recently, Texas lost out on five-star running back Ezavier Crowell to Alabama and four-star running back KJ Edwards to Texas A&M, and that has had many wondering where they would turn next to try to fill their need at the position this cycle.

That is where five-star Hollywood (FL) Charminade-Madonna running back Derrek Cooper comes in. Texas has been recruiting Cooper hard, but was not able to get him to campus for an official visit in June. Despite that, Cooper recently named Texas among his top five along with Florida State, Georgia, Miami, and Ohio State. Cooper also announced that he would be decided amongst his finalist on June 20th.

Under normal recruiting circumstances, if a player does not take an official visit to your program then you could write him off from committing there. But in this new era of college sports you have to often dismiss conventional wisdom because things can change and change very quickly.

Just last month, Cooper showed up to an event decked out in Texas gear and it certainly raised some eyebrows.

Recruits show up in random college gear often, so typically I wouldn’t make much of it. But there appears to be growing buzz that Texas is legitimately in this recruitment despite the official visit omission this summer, as he has reportedly said he will still make an official visit to Texas in the fall.

Cooper recently spoke to 247Sports’ Gaby Urriutia of InsideTheU and had this to say about Texas:

“Texas has been good. They’ve been reaching out a lot too. They’re a big SEC school. It would be great to play for them. I’m still going to take the [official visit] later in the season.”

This has been the definition of a fluid recruitment, and certainly seems like it merits keeping an eye on at this point. Getting elite recruits out of South Florida is a tough task, but it certainly seems like Sarkisian and his staff are making an aggressive pitch in this recruitment and trying to pull off an upset.