The Texas Longhorns are expected to host two official visitors over the weekend, though one important target recently postponed their visit plans.
Baylor OG commit Rami Hammad visiting Texas
The rising prospect has said in the past that he wouldn’t visit Austin without an offer from the ‘Horns.
Erich Schlegel
While Alpharetta (Ga.) Milton running back Peyton Barber, a longtime Ole Miss pledge, was expected to take his official visit to Austin earlier in the week, those plans changed and he will now visit Tennessee with five-star high school teammate Carl Lawson. Barber may have received some family pressure to change his visit plans, as his mother attended college at Tennessee, so the three-star running back will visit Texas next week instead.
Barber isn't the only prospect who had originally planned to take an official visit this weekend, but cancelled. Garden City CC quarterback Nick Marshall was offered in in late December and Texas appeared to be in the lead for his services until the Longhorns backed off at the last second and Marshall committed to Auburn. New Smyrna Beach (Fla.) wide receiver James Clark also planned on visiting before his recruitment took off a bit and Florida and Clemson grabbed his final two official visits.
The two prospects who will be on campus in Austin are Baylor commit Rami Hammad, a 6-5, 320-pound offensive guard from Irving (Texas) whose recruitment has blown up since the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl, and Cibolo (Texas) Steele safety Erick Huhn, a Texas commit since the summer who was not able to take his official visit for the December football banquet with most of the other pledges in the 2013 class.
Hammad is an important potential piece as the Longhorns try to solidify play in the trenches moving forward and add to an already-strong offensive line class. A former three-star prospect by most services, Hammad is now a four-star by 247Sports after dominating at times both during Semper Fi practice and the game, leading to more than 15 offers flooding in over a matter of days after the event, a remarkably rare postseason all-star game boost -- while some prospects can hurt or improve their stock, it’s rare for such an event to result in such an explosion of interest.
Most prospects who are well-regarded enough to participate in high school all-star games are already proven commodities, making Hammad quite the exception.
Will he flip to Texas? The buzz in Longhorn circles has been positive in that regard, especially since Hammad cancelled a planned visit to Oklahoma to travel to Austin instead.
The more immediate question is whether or not he has an offer. Hammad has said in the past that he wouldn’t visit otherwise, so it’s probably safe to assume that he either has one or will receive one when he gets on campus.
What happens after that will be watched with interest by Baylor fans hopeful of keeping the suddenly hot commodity in the fold. Not to mention Art Briles and his staff.
