Four-Star Cornerback Deuce Harmon Chooses A&M over Texas Longhorns
Texas missed out on a four-star in-state cornerback today when Deuce Harmon made his verbal pledge to rival Texas A&M.
Harmon is the No. 18 cornerback, No. 41 player in the Lone Star State and No. 264 overall prospect in the 2021 class according to 247Sports.
He also has offers from Arkansas, Baylor, Cal, Houston, Illinois, Kansas, Kansas State, Memphis, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, Illinois State, Washington State and North Texas.
Watching his tape: Two things stood out while watching Deuce Harmon's high school film. First, he's extremely aggressive. Some corners, especially young ones, aren't confident enough in their timing to jump under slant routes, cut off go routes or cut inside on a crossing pattern, but you can see Harmon do all three. Of course, there's a fine line between being aggressive and getting called for pass interference, but Harmon stays on the former side of that line in large part because... Second, he's extremely smart. Harmon looks like a student of the game when he's on the field, completely familiar with the opposing receiver's route tree before the play starts. He's using little cues from the receiver to get to where the ball is going before it gets there. These aren't just good instincts, it shows a strong knowledge of what's going on.
Where Texas goes from here: The Longhorns were certainly pushing hard for Harmon and felt they were making some real progress. Texas offered the standout corner after he had already released a top 10 (which didn't include Texas), but a few weeks later when Harmon released his top seven it did include the Burnt Orange.
While they will certainly not stop recruiting Harmon outright, cornerbacks coach Jay Valai will certainly have to start looking at alternatives in a position of high need in the 2021 class.
Dallas Kimball's Ishmael Ibraheem seems to be a strong possibility. The Longhorns appear to be in a good spot with the No. 13 cornerback, No. 28 player in the state of Texas and No. 171 overall prospect in the class.
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