Texas working to flip Auburn 4-star OL commit DeAndre Carter

Texas added to its growing 2024 football recruiting class on Sunday night by beating out Oregon, Ohio State and Nebraska for five-star Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei offensive tackle Brandon Baker.

His addition gave the Longhorns their 18th commitment of the cycle and third along the offensive line, joining four-star interior lineman Daniel Cruz and and three-star Nate Kibble. Texas has its eyes on adding more big man to the class, and their main target is Auburn commit and four-star offensive lineman DeAndre Carter.

Carter and Baker are teammates at Mater Dei, and the former is expected to be on the Forty Acres this weekend for an official visit.

“DeAndre Carter, the Auburn commitment and 4-star guard is scheduled to be in Austin this weekend for an official visit. Let’s see if he follows through with that. But as of this morning, he’s still scheduled to be on an official visit to Texas,” InsideTexas.com’s Gerry Hamilton said on Monday. “He committed to Auburn over Michigan State and Texas on September 3, but Texas has never given up on DeAndre Carter.

… That’s the one thing Texas fans have grown accustomed to with Steve Sarkisian is they don’t back off their top targets. They continue on these guys. I call it recruiting through the whistle, and they recruit through the whistle. And that’s December with the Early Signing Period. This weekend, Carter is scheduled to be on campus. And if Texas could flip him, I think they would close up shop on the offensive line.”

The 6-foot-3, 340-pound Carter is the No. 146 overall player in the 2024 cycle, per the On3 Industry Rankings, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also the No. 8 IOL and No. 16 player out of California.

Longhorns still hunting for big targets

In addition to Carter, Texas still has its eyes on a couple of five-stars and other big names to close out the cycle.

At the top of the list are five-star St. Louis (Mo.) wide receiver Ryan Wingo and five-star Waco (Texas) Connally cornerback Kobe Black.

The Longhorns have been trending for nearly the entire summer for Black, and that doesn’t appear to have changed.

“Black sits on top of the Longhorns’ 2024 recruiting board and there’s plenty of reason to believe that the Longhorns have carved out a sizable lead,” On3’s Sam Spiegelman wrote last week. “However, LSU and especially Texas A&M continue to chip away. Black maintains that he is going to hold this decision out until December, but it wouldn’t be the least bit surprising to see a mid-season decision.”

As for Wingo, he was back in Austin last weekend before watching Missouri play in St. Louis on Saturday. He will take an official visit to Colorado next weekend, but the Longhorns hold the lead in the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM).

“Missouri has definitely lost some momentum here, and Texas has that,” On3’s Chad Simmons said earlier this week. “We’ll see what Colorado can do after having him on campus in January. I feel pretty confident in saying that Texas is definitely the team to beat heading into this weekend, but recruiting can change very quickly and Missouri is off to a good start this year.”