
Jeff Howe, Gerry Hamilton, Jordan Scruggs and Hank South reveal the loaded group of elite recruits expected in Austin for Texas’ primetime showdown with Ohio State. The preliminary list already features the nation’s top two 2028 edge prospects, several priority defensive linemen, elite receiver Champ Mays and Texas quarterback commit Neimann Lawrence, while five-star offensive lineman Ismael Camara is scheduled to make his official visit. The crew also delivers the latest on Easton Royal’s fall visit schedule and explains why the atmosphere surrounding Texas–Ohio State could matter more to recruits than the final score. Plus, Gerry provides a detailed evaluation of four-star cornerback commit Brandon Sherrard, including his improved size, positional versatility, winner’s mentality and the area of his game he wants to sharpen before arriving on the Forty Acres.
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Welcome back to On Texas Football. Time for this week's edition of the Recruiting Breakdown. I'm Jeff how, joined as always by Jerry Hamilton, Jordan Scruggs and Hank South. This edition of the Recruiting Breakdown is brought to you by Mark Saunders Allstate. Tell you more about Mark later in the show. Guys, we're still a little bit out from the Texas Ohio State game and yes, Texas does have a game against Texas State to open the season, but we're talking about the Ohio State game specifically the visitor list. Now, it is early, so the visitor list that we're putting up, it's, it's, it's a preliminary list nevertheless, some big names on it. Jerry, when you look at this list, first off, this has got to be. Since it's a night game with Ohio State coming to town, this is the potential to be one of the best visit weekends on the 40 acres I can remember.
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Yeah, it definitely does because it's that night game and people can fly in from the west coast, from the east coast, if you're in Florida, if you're in Georgia, wherever, it doesn't matter. You can get to this game, you and a family member can get to this game even if you played a Friday night high school football game. Right. So I think this is going to be a stacked official visit list. I mean a visitor's list, not official visit list. We do have one official visit. But when you just look at where we're at right now, I mean starting this guys, obviously the list of commitments, which Includes Neiman Lawrence, 2028 quarterback, which Hank had that news. But then you look at the younger guys because obviously the guys that are committed is. That's one topic. If Easton Royal coming back for this game, that'll be the week after Eastern rolls at the LSU Clemson game, by the way. And then he'll go on the Florida two weeks after that. But he's going to make his rounds. But you look at the 28 guys and it's the number one prospects in state at about three or four positions.
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Yeah, Jordan, I'll go to you. When you look at that 2028 list, which names jump out to you?
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The D line edge group for sure. Kenny Baker, Alan Clark. I think they've recruited as good as anyone on the roster on the coaching staff since they got to Austin a few off seasons ago. Cameron McGee out of Chicago, Asher Giotto I believe is how you pronounce it, out of Jacksonville. Those are the number one and two ranked edge rushers in the class of 2028. You also have Prince Che from Georgia, the number two interior lineman in the class of 2028. So the SEC, this obviously isn't a conference game, but as long as you're in the sec, you have to bulk up in the trenches. That's what Texas is doing. And then on the offensive side, you have Armani Edwards out of Sign Ranch, a prospect that Steve Sarkeesian in Texas have gone as far as saying you're the number one guy for us regardless of position. They've been telling them that since they offered him back last fall, they revisited for a game. So Talon in the trenches is where I'm kind of focusing on. I think, you know this list is going to grow. You're going to see more offensive skill players added. But I do think the focus of this visit weekend will continue to be in the trenches, specifically the defensive trenches.
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Hank, what stands out to you with that 2028 list?
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Yeah, just the fact that we're, we're sitting here a month out from the game and we're already talking about a list that has, you know, two dozen and growing. You know, the talent's going to Be off the charge in terms of who's there. Jordan and Jerry just covered it. It'll be a good opportunity for all the guys that are currently committed to come back and kind of reconnect I guess at the start of the season. We're remember we're coming off a two month dead period now where kids haven't been able to take visits in the month of July and August. So this will be a good time to kind of reconnect and you know get that, get that buzz going back into the fall, you know a couple months out from, from December signing day. But obviously Ismail Camara coming in for his official visit. Not a guy that we're concerned about at all. He just committed but you know that, that to get him back on campus as many times I know Jordan's reported on it at, on Texas football, get him back in Austin a lot this
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fall will be, will be big.
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Easton Royal is going to get a lot of attention obviously seeing that the three schools he's still considering, lsu, Texas and Florida this fall, but just the, the whole group. The group as a whole. And I know Jerry's going to talk more about Brandon Sherrard having those guys back in town for, for a big home game atmosphere. It reminds me of the Georgia game from 2024. Hopefully for Texas it doesn't turn out like the Georgia game in 2024, but in terms of just the sheer amount of talent and you know, when we're talking about this list the week of the game, I'm sure we're going to have a handful of other names but I know Jordan mentioned a lot of the 2028 kids. I do want to mention Champ Mays as well. The receiver from North Rally. Texas's top end state wide receiver target in the 2028 clash. Total stud. He, he impresses every time we see him. He'll be on campus and obviously Texas is going to get him a lot of attention as well as much as they can during, you know that a big home game weekend.
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Hey Hank, real quick. When you look at the commit list, obviously Neiman Lawrence, when you talk about the 28 class, it kind of starts with him. Have you gotten a feel for it? And look, some quarterbacks, guys gravitate to some quarterbacks, you know, can kind of pull guys with them. Have you gotten a feel so far for what kind of recruiter he might be in terms of just guys wanting to play with him or just getting guys to, to maybe join the class?
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Yeah, I think he's going to be pretty effective you know, in today's recruiting, you know, he, he's going into his junior year of high school and he's already traveled the country, whether being at the opening in Oregon and being around top talent out there, Elite 11 events out at Texas to camp twice or multiple visits. This guy's been all over the place. So kids, despite being in one part of the country, they know kids throughout the whole country. They're very familiar with everybody. He's got a very, you know, engaging personality that I've come to notice. You know, having been able to talk to him a couple times, I think kids kind of gravitate towards him. So I think he's going to be effective, you know, once he gets, once he gets going. I think right now he's, you know, obviously focused on, on getting acclimated at American Heritage and playing his junior season there, but I think as, as time goes on, we're going to see him have, have a big impact on that.
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All right, Jerry, real quick, before we get into one of the commits on this list that I know you had a chance to see on Tuesday morning in the past, and we're going to get asked this question a lot leading up to this game. Does the result of the game. How much will the result of one game sway a recruitment one way or the other?
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I, I don't think much anymore. I think we're past those days. Look, I mean, this is, this is all about development and it's all about nil. I mean, that's really what recruiting is about. And you get to do that at the, these guys at the highest level schools in the country. I don't think one game. Now, I will say this, where that changes is if one of these teams wins that game by 30 points and looks like LSU in 2019 just comes out on the season, you're like, oh, my gosh, this team offensively is just something else. And if Texas were to beat down Ohio State 35 to 10, it would start to matter. But there's very few instances like that anymore. And I will say this, the biggest thing for me, more than winning a game necessarily, how much that impacts recruitment is getting these kids to see the real atmosphere at its best at Texas or wherever they go on campus. I think that's the biggest thing nowadays, and hopefully it's a parent member with them so they can see what the University of Texas is all about on a Saturday game day. And, and, and that's one of the things I'll talk about Brandon Sherrod in a second. Even though he's committed. But these guys, they come to a game like this and they this is kind of their dream in college football is to see a Texas and Ohio State net be part of one of those games one day and play in one of those games one day. And you know, Hank mentioned the Georgia, the game at Georgia a couple years ago. Pretty sure Justice Terry was at that game. Justice Terry didn't end up signing with Georgia sign with Texas. So does the outcome of the game matter? Not so much in the nil area anymore. But I do think the atmosphere, what gets these kids excited about playing at the University of Texas is much more impactful long term on kids.
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Jordan real quick on Ishmael Kumari. You did some reporting over@ontexasfootball.com on Monday. He's coming in for his official visit schedule to the Ohio State game. But that's not the only Texas game he's planning on seeing this fall, is it Jordan?
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No. Spoke with the source close to close to him, close to his recruitment on Monday morning and was told they plan to be at as many games as they can be. Obviously he's in East Texas. Depending on where he's playing on Friday night, that could be anywhere from a four to six hour drive. It's not a fun one. I've made it multiple times and so we'll see. Will he make it to every single home game? Probably not. But every single game he plays this season is on a Friday outside of week one on Thursday. So it's not like, you know, he'll be missing the game because he's playing in one. So I'd expect him to make it to most of them. Probably not all though, just because it's logistically going to be a challenge. I will say though, I spoke with Keon Hemphill woods on Monday afternoon. He plans to be at each and every single home game this fall. Columbus. All 10 of the regular season games are on Friday. And you know, as you can tell, the drive from Columbus to Austin is a lot easier to make than a drive from East Texas to Austin. So there should be a strong nucleus of commits at each and every single game. But specifically on the O line you also have Jackson Cook who lives about 20, 30 minutes away in Westlake. That shouldn't be a challenge or difficult for him to make it to each home game as well. So you know you love that, especially with Kamara. He he going into the summer canceled all his OVs, looked like he was going to take it into the fall, ended up committing on the 4th of July and this will be the only ov that he takes during his recruiting process and like I said, is only going to be visiting Texas this fall. So a lot to like about that specifically because he's spearheading arguably Texas's best O line hall since 2022.
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Thank you Jerry. Guys, high school football practices in the state of Texas are now a full swing. Everybody's on the practice field. Jerry, you over at Shadow Creek Brightner not even bright, just early early morning to check out Brandon Sherrard and hang out with the Shadow Creek football team.
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The only good thing about the morning 5am Morning practices in Houston is you don't have to battle the traffic. But the humidity once you get out of the car may be worse, which is crazy. But was over at Shadow Creek this morning to see Brandon Sherrard. There's also a number of young guys. Jaylen Adai, 2028 receiver, son of Joseph Adai, obviously BJ Lefel, 2029 athlete, son of Brandon Lefell, which I'm going to get to him at the end of this little talk about Brandon Sherrard. Then Jacoby Thomas, young 2029 defensive lineman looks really good by the way guys 64270 some young guys that Texas is already offered already have their eye on but Brandon Sherrard is the topic today. The Texas commit six one. You know first thing Coach Green told me, the head coach at Shadow Creek, he said I think he's grown a little bit and he may have grown half an inch legit six one about 182, 183 now he's gained about four or five pounds of lean muscle. He is a very wiry strong guy, plays corner at Shadow Creek, is going to get his first look at Texas at corner. But maybe the most impressive thing when you talk to Brandon Shard, if you saw him in coffee and football, we're gonna have another video interview with him coming up this week is he just wants to be a Texas Longhorn and go win games. Like he said, yes, corner is my dream. That's what I want to play. But if they think I'm better at nickel, I'll play that. If I end up playing safety as long as I get my shot at corner get my get my shot to be starting corner at Texas and compete at corner at Texas then I'm good with whoever will must champ Mark Orfeh, Blake Gideon, Steve Sarkeesian think I can help Texas win games. That's absolutely attitude you want from a guy. I think he's got a winner's mentality about him. The other a couple interesting things from today on Brandon Sherrard amongst the all the sweat, nobody has any water weight left after that practice by the way is he's not a midterm graduate so he's going to stay and run track this spring at Shadow Creek. So he's one of the rare non early enrollees anymore in these Texas classes. Nicholas Robertson was one in the last class. Brandon Sherrard will be one in this class. I I assume Ishmael Kamara will be as well because of the academic work he has to make up coming over to the states as a high school student. But Brandon Schrod will not be getting in in January as a player. I think the one thing that's always impressed me about Brandon Sherrard is first time I saw him he's a sophomore. You go see Chris Stewart, you're like man, who's the guy with really long arms playing corner and so he always had the frame that he was going to grow into but it's his calmness and his patience at the corner position. He's got really calm feet. He's got a really calm body. He doesn't look like anything's rushed. He's not like he feels the pressure of a snap and he gets himself out of position before the play really start begins. He is very calm, calm feet, calm body. Now then when it's time to react he really reacts and I talked to Brandon Lefell, which you're going to get to in a second. Brandon Lefell kind of volunteer coaches to wide receivers. He wants to be around the program. Former NFL star wide receiver, but we talked about just that patience is he he's a guy that gets a lot of PBUs. The one thing Brandon Shard's working on and the one thing Brandon lefell talked about he needs to work on is finishing plays with interceptions and that's kind of a goal for Brandon Shard this year. But again look great Tuesday morning in practice. Really moving well. I think he's got great reactive quickness. He's got really good body quickness. He's got the twitch you want to see but he's also at the same time he's got calm feet and he really stays square and he keeps himself in position to make plays on the football. So who's better to talk about Brandon Sherrard? Much better than I to talk about Brandon Shard. Let's hear from former NFL receiver Brandon Lefell on Brandon Sherrard and what he likes about Texas four star corner commit. I want to get an opinion on Brandon Sherrard as a young db and who better to get it from than a former NFL wideout?
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I think, I think B10. You know, when you, when you look at the measurements, he check all the boxes. Six two receiver, I mean six two DB plays with lint. Got excellent speed. He's actually one of our track guys around here. Got excellent speed. He plays physical and then, hey, only thing he needs to work on is attacking the ball in there better. But other than that, the guy can tackle and you can tell your defense is tough when your DBs come up and tackle. And he does a great job at that, helping out in the run game and in the past game. He's a lockdown corner.
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Do you see him as a corner? Do you see him as a nickel safety? I mean, could he play any of it?
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He could play any of it. But with that size, with that length, I would definitely like to keep him outside because he's very rangy. And when you got that size on my outside, you can pretty much shut down half side of the field.
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All right, Jerry Jordan, Hank, thank you guys for the knowledge, the intel, the time and the expertise. As always, big thank you to Matthew behind the scenes for producing it. Thank you to Mark Saunders as always for sponsoring the recruiting breakdown here on the channel. If you're not a member over on Texas football.com you want the latest on recruiting visitors. You want the latest recruiting intel, the best, most in depth recruiting intel you'll get in the Texas market. You're going to get it@ontexasfootball.com $3 for your first three months of access. For new members, do not hesitate. Take advantage of this offer right now. It won't last forever. $3 for your first three months of access. At ontexas football.com make sure that you like this video. Make sure you're subscribed to the OnSexas Football YouTube channel and make sure you've got your notifications set. That way, anytime we go live or drop a new video, you're not missing any of our Longhorn coverage or breaking news. For Jerry, for Jordan, for Hank, for Matthew, for the entire on Texas football staff, I'm Jeff Howell. Thank you so much for watching and listening. And until next time, you know how
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Welcome.
Podcast Summary: On Texas Football – "Texas Is Building a MONSTER Visitor List for the Ohio State Game"
Date: August 11, 2026
Host: Jeff Howe (with Jerry Hamilton, Jordan Scruggs, and Hank South)
In this episode, the On Texas Football team dives deep into the early but already stellar visitor list Texas is assembling for its marquee home game against Ohio State. The conversation highlights the strategic focus on future recruiting classes (especially 2028), the importance of recruiting momentum around big games, the minimal impact of single game outcomes on recruitments, the influence of top commits as recruiters, and detailed scouting on current Texas pledges. The hosts mix inside information, on-the-ground observations, and expert commentary to give fans a clear sense of where Longhorns recruiting stands going into a pivotal fall.
Focus on Trench Talent:
Key Skill Prospects:
Practice Report:
Development & Traits:
On the Visitor List's Strength:
“This is going to be a stacked visitor list... potential to be one of the best visit weekends on the 40 Acres I can remember.” — Jeff Howe [02:00]
On Building in the Trenches:
“Bulk up in the trenches. That’s what Texas is doing.” — Jordan Scruggs [03:48]
On Recruiting Trends:
“I don’t think much anymore... this is all about development and it’s all about NIL.” — Jerry Hamilton [07:23]
On the Power of Big-Game Atmosphere:
“What gets these kids excited about playing at the University of Texas is getting to see the real atmosphere at its best...” — Jerry Hamilton [08:20]
On Brandon Sherrard’s Attitude:
“He just wants to be a Texas Longhorn and go win games.” — Jerry Hamilton [14:55]
On Sherrard as a CB Prospect:
“With that size, with that length... you can pretty much shut down half a side of the field.” — Brandon LaFell [18:24]
The episode provides comprehensive and candid recruiting insights for Texas fans, highlighting the forward-thinking strategy of stacking visitor lists well in advance, especially for games with maximum exposure and campus energy. The staff offers context about the changing drivers in recruiting—with atmosphere, relationships, and NIL overtaking the outcome of individual games. The spotlight on player-commits as pulse-leaders, detailed scouting notes on current pledges, and high-level projections for 2028 and beyond make this episode a must-listen for anyone tracking Texas’s push to remain at the apex of college football recruiting.
Useful for: