2014 RB Donald Catalon Joins Growing Texas Longhorn Class As Third Pledge

As if Thursday wasn't crazy enough already, the Texas Longhorns continued their early surge with the 2014 class by landing a commitment from Aldine Eisenhower running back Donald Catalon, known as Duke. The third pledge in the last 24 hours will become official on Monday after he sends his transcript to the Texas coaches.

The 5-10, 193-pound back with an ideal build for the position was essentially recruited to replace Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron (in recruiting, it's ideal to replace players as juniors). Yes, I just said that Duke Catalon was recruited to replace two guys who are entering their sophomore seasons in college.

Recruited by a rising star in the recruiting world -- running back coach/co-offensive coordinator Major Applewhite. Once upon a time there was skepticism about whether running backs would trust the former quarterback enough to play for him. Then he landed Malcolm Brown and stole Joe Bergeron from the world. And then Johnathan Gray. Then Kyle Hicks. And now Catalon. The top targets in each season (unless one wants to consider Keith Ford the top target in 2013, though he was never really in play for Texas).

Not bad. In fact, Applewhite may be the best individual recruiter in the class right now. And there are some good ones lodged over in Moncrief these days.

Prior to his pledge, Catalon held offers from Texas Tech and SMU, but is generally considered one of the top running backs in the state. Eric Nahlin at Inside Texas has seen Catalon in person and believes he is the best. 247Sports agrees, while Orangebloods has Catalon ranked behind Samaje Perine and Vershaun Nixon, even though Nixon is undersized and Perine is coming off a significant knee injury. Let's just call Catalon the best back in the state.

Stay tuned for more thoughts on Catalon and, if these commitments ever stop, some big-picture thoughts on what Thursday meant for Texas and the college football recruiting world.