Texas promotes 2024 signing class on billboards in recruits' hometowns
The Texas Longhorns are taking their 2024 recruiting class to new heights – literally.
To promote the Longhorns’ top-10 recruiting class, billboards have started popping up near the homes of its signees. The billboards feature the signee’s name and indicate the recruits are officially Texas Longhorns.
Early Wednesday morning, UT four-star quarterback signee Trey Owens shared a graphic on X with an address of where the billboard was supposed to be located near his high school in suburban Houston. He asked Texas fans if they’d seen it yet.
National Signing Day: Live updates on commitment decisions
It didn’t take long for somebody to spot it off of Katy Freeway in Brookshire. Less than two hours after his original post, Owens shared a photo of the billboard in all its glory.
“Ain’t she something,” Owens said in the post.
Other players in UT’s recruiting class also shared posts of their billboards or the graphic of where it was located near their homes.
While it’s not the first time that this has been done – LSU, Arizona, UCF and others have done it in the past and Missouri also did it this season to promote four-star receiver Courtney Crutchfield and three-star Austyn Dendy’s signing in Arkansas – it’s still a creative way for Texas to recognize its star-studded signing class. But it’s also another way for the Longhorns to help the players ability to boost their NIL. By putting a face with the name, NIL experts agree it bolsters recognition and could generate opportunities down the road.
“It’s brilliant,” one NIL agent told On3. “Usually, billboards are reserved for Heisman Trophy candidates. This sure is something. It’ll help the players begin to build their NIL brand with Texas fans.”
Texas Longhorns 2024 class is elite
The Longhorns entered Signing Day with a class featuring three five-star and 15 four-star recruits. What’s also impressive about the class is that it has multiple players with strong On3 NIL Valuations.
The UT class has an average On3 NIL Valuation of $127,000, which is only behind Alabama in the top 10 of the recruiting rankings. It’s a sure sign of the strength of the Texas Longhorn roster brand. But it’s also an indication that several players could be big winners individually from an NIL standpoint.
Take Five-Star Plus+ EDGE signee Colin Simmons for example.
Opportunities should be readily available for Simmons as soon as he makes the drive down IH-35 from Duncanville to Austin.
Simmons is the face of the back-to-back 6A state champions, Simmons’ name, image, and likeness already carry weight in DFW. Plus, don’t forget that the Texas One Fund is one of the top collectives in the country.
“Once he officially throws on the burnt orange for the newly-minted SEC program, he’s likely to contend for early playing time at a position that attracts a lot of eyeballs,” Inside Texas’ Joe Cook tells On3.
“Pair the potential of standout play on the EDGE, something that has not always been present on the 40 Acres during Texas’ doldrums, with his likely statewide popularity and Simmons stands to benefit greatly during the early years of the NIL Era.”