Texas offers Arizona DT commit Austin Faoliu

In hopes of landing a defensive tackle in the 2017 recruiting class, the Texas Longhorns extended a Friday offer to Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei product Austin Faoliu:

The 6’3, 285-pounder committed to Arizona in late September and also holds offers from Baylor, Illinois, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, TCU, Virginia, and Washington State.

Since most of those offers have come recently, there’s a chance of getting the California native on campus this month, but Texas faces a lot of competition to do so.

A consensus low three-star prospect, Faoliu is ranked as the No. 1,373 player nationally, No. 82 defensive tackle, and the No. 127 player in California, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Expect Faoliu to take a leap in those rankings on the next update in light of his recent offers and strong senior season. Many of the clips from those highlights look the same — Faoliu comes out of his stance and fires his hands, knocking back the offensive lineman, then disengaging to stop the running play.

He’s not a guy who is always looking to shoot gaps or bull rush his opponent. Instead, he first controls his opponent to diagnose the play, then separates once the ball carrier gets in his area to make the stop.

HIs work with his hands is probably his most impressive quality, but he also has enough athleticism to chase down plays along the line of scrimmage.

The Longhorns don’t currently have any defensive tackle pledges in the class or any targets set to visit, so the offer to Faoliu is an important one to a prospect who would make a nice addition to the class, regardless of the rankings.

The question now is whether the staff can out-compete Faoliu’s other recent offers to get him on campus.