Texas Named Finalist for No. 1 Recruit in New Jersey
The Texas Longhorns' 2026 recruiting class ranks 12th overall in the country on On3 Sports, and they are looking to get inside the top 10.
On3's Hayes Fawcett reported Friday that Texas made the final cut for four-star edge rusher Luke Wafle out of Middletown, New Jersey. Wafle's other finalists are the Ohio State Buckeyes, USC Trojans, Penn State Nittany Lions and Florida Gators.
Advertisement
He is listed at 6-foot-5.5, 245 pounds and attends Hun School.
Texas is fresh off its first season in the SEC, where the Longhorns went 11-1 and reached the SEC Championship Game. The Longhorns then went to the College Football Playoff as the No. 5 seed.
Texas Longhorns head football coach Steve Sarkisian.© Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Wafle is the No. 53 national prospect, No. 10 edge rusher and No. 1 recruit from New Jersey in the On3 Industry Rankings.
Texas is in second for Wafle via the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine. Penn State is the leader at 25.4%, while Texas follows at 17.3%. Ohio State is third at 10.7%, with USC tied with Florida for fourth at 7.2%.
The Longhorns' 2026 class is highlighted by five-star quarterback Dia Bell, four-star athlete Jermaine Banks Jr. and four-star receiver Chris Stewart.
Advertisement
Texas' recruiting reach knows no bounds, as the Longhorns have dipped into Sweden to find a college football prospect recently. Texas was named one of the top schools for international prospect Valdin Sone out of PPI Recruits in Malmo, Sweden.
On the transfer portal side, Texas has solid additions like former Syracuse Orange defensive lineman Maraad Watson. On3's Pete Nakos believes Watson will have a massive impact next season.
After making the playoff, Texas reached the semifinal round by beating the Clemson Tiger and Arizona State Sun Devils. The Longhorns eventually lost to Ohio State 28-14, who won the national championship.
Texas opens the 2025 season against Ohio State on Aug. 30.
Related: Greg McElroy Explains Why He Excluded Texas' CJ Baxter From RB Rankings
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
11 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Federal judge approves $2.8B settlement, paving way for US colleges to pay athletes millions
A federal judge signed off on arguably the biggest change in the history of college sports Friday, clearing the way for schools to begin paying their athletes millions of dollars as soon as next month as the multibillion-dollar industry shreds the last vestiges of the amateur model that defined it for more than a century. Nearly five years after Arizona State swimmer Grant House sued the NCAA and its five biggest conferences to lift restrictions on revenue sharing, U.S. Judge Claudia Wilken approved the final proposal that had been hung up on roster limits, just one of many changes ahead amid concerns that thousands of walk-on athletes will lose their chance to play college sports. The sweeping terms of the so-called House settlement include approval for each school to share up to $20.5 million with athletes over the next year and $2.7 billion that will be paid over the next decade to thousands of former players who were barred from that revenue for years. The agreement brings a seismic shift to hundreds of schools that were forced to reckon with the reality that their players are the ones producing the billions in TV and other revenue, mostly through football and basketball, that keep this machine humming. The scope of the changes — some have already begun — is difficult to overstate. The professionalization of college athletics will be seen in the high-stakes and expensive recruitment of stars on their way to the NFL and NBA, and they will be felt by athletes whose schools have decided to pare their programs. The agreement will resonate in nearly every one of the NCAA's 1,100 member schools boasting nearly 500,000 athletes. The road to a settlement Wilken's ruling comes 11 years after she dealt the first significant blow to the NCAA ideal of amateurism when she ruled in favor of former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon and others who were seeking a way to earn money from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) — a term that is now as common in college sports as 'March Madness' or 'Roll Tide.' It was just four years ago that the NCAA cleared the way for NIL money to start flowing, but the changes coming are even bigger. Wilken granted preliminary approval to the settlement last October. That sent colleges scurrying to determine not only how they were going to afford the payments, but how to regulate an industry that also allows players to cut deals with third parties so long as they are deemed compliant by a newly formed enforcement group that will be run by auditors at Deloitte. The agreement takes a big chunk of oversight away from the NCAA and puts it in the hands of the four biggest conferences. The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC hold most of the power and decision-making heft, especially when it comes to the College Football Playoff, which is the most significant financial driver in the industry and is not under the NCAA umbrella like the March Madness tournaments are. Roster limits held things up The deal looked ready to go since last fall, but Wilken put a halt to it after listening to a number of players who had lost their spots because of newly imposed roster limits being placed on teams. The limits were part of a trade-off that allowed the schools to offer scholarships to everyone on the roster, instead of only a fraction, as has been the case for decades. Schools started cutting walk-ons in anticipation of the deal being approved. Wilken asked for a solution and, after weeks, the parties decided to let anyone cut from a roster — now termed a 'Designated Student-Athlete' — return to their old school or play for a new one without counting against the new limit. Wilken ultimately agreed, going point-by-point through the objectors' arguments to explain why they didn't hold up. 'The modifications provide Designated Student-Athletes with what they had prior to the roster limits provisions being implemented, which was the opportunity to be on a roster at the discretion of a Division I school,' Wilken wrote. Winners and losers The list of winners and losers is long and, in some cases, hard to tease out. A rough guide of winners would include football and basketball stars at the biggest schools, which will devote much of their bankroll to signing and retaining them. For instance, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood's NIL deal is reportedly worth between $10.5 million and $12 million. Losers, despite Wilken's ruling, figure to be at least some of the walk-ons and partial scholarship athletes whose spots are gone. Also in limbo are Olympic sports many of those athletes play and that serve as the main pipeline for a U.S. team that has won the most medals at every Olympics since the downfall of the Soviet Union. All this is a price worth paying, according to the attorneys who crafted the settlement and argue they delivered exactly what they were asked for: an attempt to put more money in the pockets of the players whose sweat and toil keep people watching from the start of football season through March Madness and the College World Series in June. What the settlement does not solve is the threat of further litigation. Though this deal brings some uniformity to the rules, states still have separate laws regarding how NIL can be doled out, which could lead to legal challenges. NCAA President Charlie Baker has been consistent in pushing for federal legislation that would put college sports under one rulebook and, if he has his way, provide some form of antitrust protection to prevent the new model from being disrupted again.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Texas Tech's NiJaree Canady breaks down after heavy pitching load in Women's College World Series
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Texas Tech's NiJaree Canady threw every pitch for the Red Raiders in the Women's College World Series through the first two games of the championship series and the first inning of the third. Canady, who has signed a second NIL deal worth more than $1 million, finally broke down and was pulled after the first inning of Game 3 against Texas on Friday. After dominating much of the World Series, the two-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association Pitcher of the Year gave up five hits and five earned runs on 25 pitches. Advertisement Canady threw 88 pitches on Wednesday, 107 on Thursday and started Friday in the game that will decide the championship. She had no doubt she was going to pitch, despite going the distance in the previous five World Series games. 'I'm always going to play -- like throw my game, throw what I'm confident in,' Canady said after a 4-3 win over Texas in Game 2. 'It's gotten me through three years, so I'm just going to keep doing that.' Cat Osterman, one of the most decorated pitchers in U.S. softball history, says the heavy pitching load has taken a toll on Canady and Texas pitcher Teagan Kavan, but it's not quite like if a baseball pitcher did it. Osterman said because of the way a softball is released, fighting through is more about endurance and leg strength than arm pain. Advertisement 'It's more of being fatigued than it is being sore or painful,' she said. 'Obviously, with baseball guys, like it's a five day recovery period. And I know the upper body probably feels a lot worse than anything. And that's not the case for us.' Osterman, who is a general manager of the Volts in the Athletes Unlimited softball league that begins play Saturday, said softball pitching still is tough on the body. 'I'm not going to say there's not effort and strain on the arms, because absolutely there is, but it's not as much the arm as it is the legs,' she said. 'And so for us, it's a matter of can you train your body to have enough endurance, core and lower half, to sustain the impact of 200 pitches a day, etc. Osterman played for Texas back in the day when there were no off days at the World Series. Canady had breaks between games three times during this World Series. The first two were earned because of wins. The third was because there's an off day built into the schedule before the championship series. Advertisement Osterman said she understands why Canady kept going. Osterman, for all she achieved, never won a national title because she pitched during one of UCLA's championship runs. 'I mean, when you're this close to winning a national championship, there's nerves, there's adrenaline,' she said. 'It all plays a part.' ___ AP sports: Cliff Brunt, The Associated Press
Associated Press
29 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Peña extends hitting streak to 12 games, Gordon gets 1st win in majors as Astros beat Guardians 4-2
CLEVELAND (AP) — Jeremy Peña had three hits to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, Colton Gordon got his first major league win and the Houston Astros defeated the Cleveland Guardians 4-2 on Friday night. Christian Walker drove in a pair of runs in the fifth inning and Brendan Rodgers added a solo shot in the sixth as the Astros improved to 3-1 on their six-game road trip. Gordon (1-1), who was making his fifth start, allowed one run on seven hits and struck out five. The left-hander was an eighth-round pick in the 2021 amateur draft. Josh Hader recorded his 17th save, tied for second in the American League. David Fry homered for the Guardians, who have dropped three of four. Carlos Santana had his 14-game hitting streak snapped. It is the second hitting streak this season of at least 10 games for Peña. The shortstop is batting .449 (22 of 49) with three home runs and six RBIs during his current run. Houston took the lead with three runs in the fifth off Cleveland starter Logan Allen (3-4). Peña scored from second on a deep infield single by Jose Altuve and Walker drove in a pair with a base hit to right. Key moment Cleveland had a chance to do some damage in the first inning, but Angel Martínez and José Ramírez were thrown out at second by Houston left fielder Mauricio Dubón when they tried to extend base hits into doubles. Dubón joined Toronto's Addison Barger as outfielders with a pair of assists in one inning this season. Key stat Houston's struggles with the bases loaded continues. The Astros were 0 for 2 Friday night and are last in the majors with a .146 batting average. Up next Houston RHP Hunter Brown (8-3, 1.83 ERA) is tied for the AL lead in wins. Cleveland will go with RHP Gavin Williams (5-3, 3.79 ERA). ___ AP MLB:
