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How the Texas Longhorns closed 4-star DT Chris Daniels

Have a plan, execute the plan. Finish.

By Wescott Eberts
Texas athletics

A day before Texas Longhorns defensive tackle signee Chris Daniels announced his decision to commit to the Oklahoma Sooners, Texas head coach Charlie Strong called him up to extend an offer. The consensus four-star prospect had been on the Longhorns' radar, but Strong and his staff didn't think his junior film was good enough. His senior film was good enough.

So Strong delivered a strong message.

"I called him and said, 'Listen, I know that you are going to commit to Oklahoma tomorrow but I am going to keep recruiting you. It is going to be hard for you to tell me no because I am going to stay on you. [Brian Jean-Mary] is going to do a really good job on you. We are going to flip you somehow.'"

The offer was enough to spark some interest. Daniels visited Texas in mid-January with 19 other commits and targets. Five days later, he ended his month-long pledge to the Sooners.

But as late as the Longhorns came in with the offer, Jean-Mary had been putting in work with the athletic defensive tackle.

"We're not going to be beat our chest about who we're recruiting and how we're recruiting them," Jean-Mary said. "If it were that easy to just swoop in in the fourth quarter and get what we consider high-level prospects, more people would do it. We did a lot of work to put ourselves in that position."

And after all that work and the decommitment, there was Strong's first dab.

It sparked a sensation. And then Daniels was part of a sensation when he picked Texas on National Signing Day.

As questionable as it looked from the outside with the timing of the offer, Strong and his staff had their plan in place. They executed it. Strong told Daniels it would be hard for him to tell Strong no. He couldn't.

Now Daniels is at Texas to change college football.

With the class the Longhorns have, the young pieces already in place, and the additions of guys like Daniels, that lofty goal looks possible. Capable of playing on the edge with speed, shedding blockers, and flashing the lateral mobility to twist or shoot from gap to gap, Daniels is the future along a Texas defensive line that now has the pieces necessary to do it's part in changing college football.

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