Five-star RB Jerrick Gibson reveals top five schools

The Texas Longhorns signed the nation’s top running back in the 2023 cycle in Cedric Baxter Jr, but by no means is running backs coach Tashard Choice resting on his laurels in 2024. Choice has been aggressively pursuing Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy five-star running back Jerrick Gibson for some time now and it looks like his efforts are paying off.

On Tuesday, Gibson announced that he has narrowed his list of suitors down to five finalists and Longhorns made the cut as Gibson’s recruitment begins to round into the home stretch.

It is an absolute knife fight when you go recruit the state of Florida and even more so when you go into IMG Academy, which is loaded year in and out with some of the top players in the country. With that said, the Longhorns have recruited very well at the running back position in recent years and just had two backs have their names called in the NFL Draft in Bijan Robinson (Atlanta Falcons) and Roschon Johnson (Chicago Bears).

This gives Choice and head coach Steve Sarkisian a strong pitch on the recruiting trail and it looks to the be working to their advantage in Gibson’s recruitment, as Texas is currently heavily favored to earn his commitment according to the 247Sports Crystal Ball Forecasts ( 100 percent with two picks in for Texas ) and also in On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine (94.3 percent with five picks in for Texas).

Gibson is slated to make official visits to four of his finalists this summer and will be in Austin the final weekend of June to see the Longhorns officially.