New staff has Texas in play for 5-star Kam Dewberry

Offensive lineman Kam Dewberry is one of the country’s top overall talents in the 2022 class. He’s a recruiting priority for more programs than he can count. That includes the Texas Longhorns, but according to Dewberry, that wasn’t always the case.

When the new Texas staff, including Steve Sarkisian, Kyle Flood and Jeff Banks were brought in, they immediately went to work on Dewberry and they’ve put Texas in a position where the Longhorns are high on his list. There was ground to make up after the previous staff had allowed UT to slip down Dewberry’s list, but the five-star lineman said Texas is now back in his good graces.

“They have been recruiting me so hard. Coach Banks, coach Sark, coach Flood – those dudes have been on me like crazy,” Dewberry said. “The last staff, they didn't even really recruit me that hard so I started falling off for a while for Texas. But this new staff has been pushing me really, really hard, talking about ‘Let's make Texas great again, let's win the national championship, build the best class, get the best players in Texas to stay here.’”

Under the previous coaching staff, Dewberry said he felt like he was “going to them more than them coming to (him).” He had visited the UT campus multiple times but there was a period when the contact was minimal from the Texas coaches. That’s no longer the case, and the Longhorns have closed the gap on the other programs that were recruiting Dewberry more diligently.

“I felt like they weren’t focused on me and I wasn’t a priority for them,” Dewberry said. “I’ve always had love for Texas, so really no love was lost when the new staff came in. They made that (ground) up really, really fast and made me fall in love with Texas again.”

The 6-4, 313-pound Dewberry currently has a top 10 of Alabama, Oklahoma, Auburn, Texas, Baylor, LSU, Georgia, Texas A&M, Florida and Ohio State. He’s scheduled to make some sort of announcement next weekend, although he’s choosing to keep everyone in suspense on exactly what that announcement is going to be.

“Right now I'm down to 10 schools and those schools are the ones I'm really focusing on really heavily to see where I'm going to be able to go to school. On the 17th I'll make an announcement,” he said. “I know what it is – it may be a commitment, it may be just to narrow it down but it's a big announcement coming next Saturday.”

With Texas once again making Dewberry a recruiting priority, the Longhorns should receive strong consideration for whatever news Dewberry shares on Saturday. New Texas offensive line coach Kyle Flood has been recruiting Dewberry for a few years, which is helping UT’s position.

“Me and Coach Flood have been having a relationship since he was at Alabama because they offered me as a freshman. When I was in ninth grade, he was at Alabama, and he was the one who offered me,” Dewberry said. “So we've been building this relationship for a while and then when he told me he was coming to Texas, he’s still trying to pursue me as hard as he was at Alabama, like come play for him, be a family guy for him and everything like that.”

Texas is still looking for its first offensive line commitment to pair up with some of the skill talent that’s on the 2022 commitment list. The need for big guys up front has been discussed with Dewberry and he said the UT coaches have told him they’d love for him to get the ball rolling.

“It’s really down to three of us – it’s me, Kelvin (Banks) and Devon (Campbell). Those are the three that have kind of been circling around. They talk to all of us as far as come be the first lineman. They’re itching grabbing for it,” Dewberry said.

Schools like Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Ohio State are regularly discussed as potential landing spots for Dewberry, but he says anyone counting out Texas is making a mistake.

“It’s the culture at Texas. I’ve visited Texas more than any other school that I've ever been to. That's what people sometimes don't realize,” Dewberry said. “They feel like I'm big on A&M but I've been to Texas more times than A&M, and Texas is further from where I live. So that that goes to show that I'm very high on Texas and they are one of my priority schools.”

Dewberry ranks No. 14 on the Rivals100 and is the nation’s No. 2-ranked offensive tackle prospect.