Longhorns land interior OL commitment from Daniel Cruz

Texas offensive line coach Kyle Flood has made Daniel Cruz a priority target ever since Flood offered more than one year ago. Those efforts paid off moments ago, with Cruz announcing he’s given the Longhorns a verbal commitment.

The Richland product has been recruited by Flood as a future center for the Longhorns, and Cruz had been a regular visitor to the Forty Acres over the past year for a variety of recruiting events.

“It’s just coach Flood that’s bringing me back and the relationship that I have with the staff over there,” Cruz told OB.

When he wasn’t on campus, the 6-4, 287-pound Cruz would stay in close contact with Flood, talking a couple times each week. Flood would often-times reach out with videos of some of the drills his players at Texas were working on, and Cruz said he’s already been applying those to his game.

Along with his official visit to Texas, Cruz took trips to Ohio State, Texas A&M and Oklahoma.

Texas is recruiting Cruz as a center, and he and Kyle Flood stay in regular contact, talking a couple of times each week. Their already strong relationship should continue to build with the upcoming visits to Austin.

“He’s just showing me clips of offensive line drills over there, stuff that they’re working on, things I can get better at,” Cruz said of his contact with Flood.

In his conversations with Flood, Cruz was told that he was not just valued as a prospect. Flood sees him as a valuable player in the long term, one that could be a leader for the Texas program.

“I like coach Flood, everything really. I like his coaching style, the way he calls blocks, the way he coaches, everything like that. His message to me, he wants me to be a great leader,” Cruz said. “He wants to be a captain for this team and then just be a great center for him. He sees me as a leader for the team basically.”

Cruz is ranked as a four-star prospect by Rivals.com and is a member of the Rivals250. He checks in at No. 171 nationally.