The Texas Longhorns have been making a run on big, fast wide receivers in the last week, securing commitments from Marble Falls (Texas)'s Garrett Gray on Monday and Longview (Texas)'s Dorian Leonard on Thursday. On Friday, it was former TCU commit Emmanuel Porter of Dallas (Texas) Lincoln who added his name to the list, reports Scout's Erin Hartigan and confirmed later by 247Sports.
Emanuel Porter commits to the Texas Longhorns
The former TCU commitment’s recruitment was only open again for a matter of days.
The 6’5, 190-pounder committed to TCU in August of 2012 and the Horned Frogs remained his only offer until last Sunday, when the Longhorns extended one following a strong mini-camp performance. Porter is a consensus three-star prospect, the no. 70 player in the state of Texas by 247Sports, and the no. 69 wide receiver nationally by the same service.
The commitment of Porter continues a little retribution exacted by the Longhorns on the Horned Frogs for the flip of Arlington (Texas) Martin running back Kyle Hicks from Texas to TCU in the 2013 class. Texas head coach Mack Brown and his staff also managed to secure a commitment from 2015 Center (Texas) safety Johnny Shaw at the Sunday camp that produced Porter's offer. Shaw was previously pledged to TCU.
The Lincoln product who is relatively new to football is now the 17th pledge in the class for the Longhorns and the fifth wide receiver overall in a large class for pass-catchers as new playcaller Major Applewhite seeks to put his imprint on the personnel he’ll have available. Besides Gray and Leonard, the Longhorns hold commitments from 6’3 Abilene (Texas) Cooper’s Lorenzo Joe and Houston (Texas) Sharpstown’s Roderick Bernard.
Based on the results, it appears that Applewhite values speed and size in his outside receivers -- Porter reportedly ran a 4.43 40 at a TCU camp last year and registered a 34-inch vertical, attributes that should help him become a deep threat and a redzone target at Texas, though he’ll need to spend some time with wide receiver coach Darrell Wyatt to refine route-running ability that is still developing because of his inexperience in football.
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