4-star S Andrew Mukuba commits to Clemson over Texas and LSU

Four-star Austin LBJ safety Andrew Mukuba announced his commitment to the Clemson Tigers on Thursday evening. He chose Clemson over his other two finalists, the Texas Longhorns and LSU Tigers.

The hometown Longhorns pressed hard to try to keep the local blue-chip prospect home, but in the end Mukuba opted for the Tigers.

This was a recruitment that had some twists and turns for the Texas staff to navigate, as they reportedly had to overcome some hurdles. Early on it looked like Oklahoma was going to be the biggest obstacle, but as Mukuba’s recruitment progressed, Clemson began to receive more mention despite Mukuba’s inability to make a trip to campus when the coronavirus pandemic began.

Normally, a recruit not making a visit to a school he is considering would rule them out, but head coach Dabo Swinney and his staff making it known to Mukuba that he was a priority target helped them overcome that in the end. In fact, Swinney made Mukuba the only target at the safety position.

So the Longhorns weren’t able to capitalize on the benefits of proximity — the ability to get Mukuba on campus multiple times, the ability for him to play in front of his family in college, and his relationship with Texas freshman cornerback Jahdae Barron, a Pflugerville product.

The commitment underscores the extent to which Texas still struggles to win national recruitments against programs with the recent success of Clemson.

With Mukuba now off the board, it will be interesting to see how the Texas staff rearranges their big board and whether they decided to pursue another safety for this class.

A consensus four-star prospect, the 6’0, 185-pounder is ranked as the No. 242 prospect nationally and the No. 13 safety, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.