What Can CB Ishmael Ibraheem Bring To The Longhorns?

New Texas Longhorns' signee Ishmael Ibraheem was arguably one of the most important recruits left on Steve Sarkisian's board, and for good reason.

New Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian received a major boost to his talent pool in the secondary on Wednesday morning when Dallas Kimball cornerback Ishamel Ibraheem signed his letter of intent with the Texas Longhorns.

The highest-ranked player left to sign for the Longhorns, Ibraheem comes in at a position of need for Sarkisian and staff, following substantial roster turnover this offseason. 

Ibraheem entered the 2020 season as the lone Texas recruit on the preseason SI99 rankings list, but following an arrest for evading arrest in December, his college football future was called into question. 

READ MORE: Longhorns Recruiting Tracker: Elite Dallas-Area Recruit Signs On The Dotted Line

However, despite the legal issues, and the massive staff overhaul that took place after the hiring of Sarkisian, the Longhorns never lost sight of the Dallas product, allowing him the second chance to prove himself in Austin and in the Big 12. 

Ibraheem originally committed to former defensive back's coach Jay Valai and Tom Herman's staff, but stuck with the Longhorns following the hiring of new secondary position coaches Terry Joseph and Blake Gideon.

READ MORE: Who Are Longhorns' Top Remaining Targets For 2021?

Standing 6-foot-1 and weighing 175 pounds, Ibraheem is a tall, long-bodied wideout with great instincts, athleticism, and speed, who excels both in man-to-man coverage and driving downhill against the run.

Ibraheem has had experience and success playing both as a boundary corner and a field corner and prefers to play off-coverage, rather than press coverage at the line of scrimmage. 

From SI All-American:

With his tall and long frame, Ibraheem has excellent length for a corner prospect. However, he prefers to sit and squat on the perimeter in off-coverage, where he can use his instincts, awareness, and reaction quickness. He must acquire more reps in press-man coverage, work on his off-hand jam and continue developing his ball skills and wrap-tackling ability. Yet, his size and awareness could allow him to play well as a field corner in a defense with heavy cover-3, cover-4, and cover-6 concepts for its backend.

You can view Ibraheem's full scouting report from SI All-American here.

Ibraheem chose the Longhorns over top programs from around the nation, including Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M, Michigan, and USC, as well as Big 12 schools such as Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU, and Kansas.