Longhorns Get Late Surprise as 2020 CB Falls into Texas' Lap Nearly 3 Months After Signing Day
A college football recruiting class comes together with hundreds of hours behind the scenes from a coaching staff. Through long, sleepless nights, days on the road and careful scouting and analysis, a class is meticulously built to compliment the existing personnel and fit the staff's scheme plans for the future.
Then again, sometimes, a key piece just falls right into a staff's lap.
Texas always intended to take two cornerbacks in the 2020 class. Kitan Crawford is a talented four-star prospect out of Tyler, but the Longhorns wanted to add some more depth at the position.
Circumstances started to fall against Texas as viable options at the position disappeared off the board. First, former commit Joshua Eaton jumped ship for rival Oklahoma, then the No. 1 overall prospect at the position Kelee Ringo chose Georgia. Ethan Pouncey decided to stay in his home state of Florida. Texas even made a last-minute effort to pull Duncanville's Ennis Rakestraw away from longtime favorite Missouri in late February to no avail.
It seemed the Longhorns were resigned to miss out on a second corner for the class. There were even some inside whispers of turning a guy like Kelvontay Dixon from receiver to cornerback to help fill out the depth chart.
All the while the Longhorns second cornerback was right under their noses.
Playing football less than half an hour from the University of Texas campus at Connally High School in Pflugerville, Jahdae Barron always wanted to play for the Longhorns.
"I've been a Longhorn since I was a kid," Barron said during his commitment video on Instagram Live.
Though the four-star recruit ranked as the No. 24 cornerback in the 2020 class according to 247Sports, he never got an offer from the old defensive staff and eventually decided to take his talents north to Baylor.
"It wasn't hard to (decide) to go to Baylor, but it was hard to put that to myself that I'm not gonna be able to go to Texas," Barron said.
Though it wasn't his first choice, Barron was prepared to make it work at Baylor, but the story wasn't over yet. Shortly after national early signing day Bears head coach Matt Rhule decided to make the move to the NFL to coach the Carolina Panthers.
Baylor managed to make a splash hire shortly after, landing LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda and Barron decided to give the new staff a chance before making any rash decisions.
Barron took an official visit to Waco, a school he was already signed to play for, to meet the new staff and get a feel for how things were operating, but never quite felt at home.
"I respect him (Aranda) as a man and I love Baylor, and they're gonna do great things in the future," Barron said. "But just being with him, I just didn't feel the connection. That's when I decided to open up my options."
New Longhorn defensive coordinator Chris Ash and cornerbacks coach Jay Valai were already well aware of the Pflugerville Connally cornerback. It's rare to see a player of his caliber come back on the market this late in the recruiting game and the Longhorns staff moved quickly.
Still, the whole process had to be done without a face-to-face meeting due to the current recruiting dead period.
"Number one, it was just trying to build a connection with every coach and then make sure my mom was happy with it," Barron said. "I have been face-timing with coaches like every day."
Barron won't be able to report to campus for workouts, but he's already been in touch with coaches about nutrition, playbooks and getting started on virtual meetings.
"It's straight business," he said.
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