WATCH: Texas LB Derion Gullette was an elite dunker in high school
Derion Gullette signed with Texas as a member of its 2023 class. Considered one of the most athletic linebackers in the country, he’s enrolled on campus now and going through winter workouts with the Longhorns.
However, during his time at Marlin High School, he also played basketball where he put up highlight reel dunks seemingly every week.
In a tweet asking who the best dunker in Texas high school basketball was, Midway Running Backs Coach & Recruiting Coordinator Charles Hitchens tweeted out a video showing Gullette from his junior season with a massive dunk off of an alley-oop.
According to MaxPreps, Gullette was Marlin’s leading scorer last season averaging just over 13 points per game.
Gullette committed to the Longhorns August 5, 2022 and is ranked as the No. 140 overall prospect and No. 13 linebacker in the 2023 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also the No. 28 player in Texas.
On3 rates Gullette higher than other recruiting services, according to the Industry Comparison. Per the 2023 On300, Gullette is a four-star recruit, the No. 86 overall prospect and No. 7 linebacker in the country and No. 17 player in Texas.
Texas’ 2023 recruiting class currently ranks as the No. 3 class in the cycle with 24 signees. Of those 24 players signed, 14 were early enrollees including Gullette, who ranks as the third-highest ranked defensive players in the class.
The only players ranked ahead of him are Denton (Texas) Ryan five-star linebacker Anthony Hill, Dallas (Texas) South Oak Cliff four-star cornerback Malik Muhammad and Austin (Texas) Westlake four-star EDGE Colton Vasek.
Gullette currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $149K. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.