Texas eliminated by graduate transfer QB Dakota Prukop

Vandegrift grad and Montana State Bobcats graduate transfer quarterback Dakota Prukop won't be coming back to Austin to play for the Texas Longhorns, as the prolific passer will not visit before making a decision, according to Bruce Feldman of FOX Sports.

Following a trip to Eugene to see the Oregon Ducks, Prukop opted to visit the Alabama Crimson Tide instead of the Michigan Wolverines, all but eliminating the Longhorns prior to his planned Monday decision.

And it wasn't for a lack of interest from Texas, but rather the current state of the program:

"Texas came in really hard late. And while it's my hometown, the situation I'm in, I want to go to a place that's competing for a national championship next year."

While Prukop had received a release to talk with the Horns in recent days, it hadn't been clear whether the interest was mutual from the Texas side. Clearly it was, and after years of missing on or avoiding graduate transfers, this is definitely the time to go all-out in adding as many options as possible.

One other graduate transfer now on the market is a much more familiar name -- San Antonio product Trevor Knight, who lost the starting job at Oklahoma to Baker Mayfield this year and was just granted a full release from the Sooners to transfer, even inside the Big 12. In fact, he's already spoken with Kansas State in addition to Georgia, Oregon, and SMU and will graduate this month.

Knight has connections to the Longhorns because his father went to Texas and he grew up a fan, but there isn't any evidence yet that there is interest in either side.

Going the junior college route is always a possibility, too, and there was some extremely preliminary interest in Trinity Valley CC dual-threat quarterback Jerod Evans. However, he committed to Virginia Tech on Saturday and the dead period starts tomorrow, running through January 13, so his recruitment is basically over because he's an early enrollee.

With the Horns going hard after Michigan linebacker David Reese to get him on campus this spring and the dead period set to start, there's nothing to indicate that another quarterback will join Shane Buechele and the four other scholarship quarterbacks with Prukop out of the mix, but that doesn't mean that the staff has to give up on graduate transfers to enroll for the summer.

Whatever Gilbert eventually decides, it will provide a telling look at his post-spring confidence level in his five options.