When defensive back Austin Jordan announced his commitment to Texas on Wednesday afternoon, it caught much of the recruiting world by surprise. It wasn’t the timing of Jordan’s commitment that was unexpected – he had announced on Tuesday that he had news coming at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Instead, it was his decision to commit to Texas. Most prognostications had Jordan leaning towards Oklahoma for the past several months, so much so that the Sooners had 100 percent of the Rivals FutureCast picks.
Jordan played things very close to the vest all the way until the end and kept people guessing until his official announcement. It turns out, that was his plan all along.
“Usually, especially with crystal balls and that stuff, you’ll give it away. They’ll decide where you go before you even decide,” Jordan said of his secrecy. “That’s why I said big news coming and didn’t even say I was committing.”
The Denton Ryan product said he had Wednesday’s date of July 13 in mind for a decision for a while. There was no real rhyme or reason for that particular date, but it’s the day he settled on after taking his official visits. Even that news was kept to himself until about 15 hours before he officially committed.
The 6-0, 185-pound cornerback took official visits to Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas in June and said he pretty much had his mind made up after finishing his UT official visit on June 27. He sat down with his mother about a week ago and after the two once again discussed his options, the decision to commit to Texas was finalized.
“It feels good. It feels like a relief, a relief that I finally did it,” Jordan said.
On his Texas official visit, Jordan said things just felt natural and clicked. He bonded with the UT staff, including Terry Joseph, and the Longhorns moved out into a lead they would not relinquish.
“You know where you’re at a place and it just feels like home? Some places just feel like that,” Jordan said. “It was a nice coaching staff. The whole place was just amazing.
“When I had my one on one with coach Joseph, the cornerbacks coach, he just showed me a lot and what he can do for me.”
Texas is recruiting Jordan as a cornerback and nickel back, and Jordan feels his versatility will allow him to thrive in any position the UT staff wants to put him.
“I feel like I can do everything that is asked. Whatever they want to put me at, I’ll be ready to play,” Jordan said. “My strengths are my man coverage and physicality. I want to improve on being fluid, things like that.”
With his commitment now locked in, Jordan said he’ll turn his attention towards Ryan’s 2021 season, and he also plans on doing some recruiting on the Longhorns’ behalf. He’ll get his first opportunity to do that as a Texas commitment when he visits the UT campus in late July for a pool party/barbecue recruiting event Texas is hosting.
“I’m shutting things down,” Jordan said. “I’m focused on my senior season. I’m going to try to bring whoever I can.”