Rivals100 OL out of Cali gives recent Texas visit high marks
Offensive lineman DeAndre Carter is one of the nation’s top overall prospects as a member of the Rivals100. He plays at one of the country’s premier prep institutions in Mater Dei in California. As such, it’s no surprise that Carter is on the radars of college programs from all over the country. He’s taken several campus visits and recently, it was the Texas Longhorns who got a chance to put their best foot forward when Carter made his way to Austin for a UT junior day. The big fella came away impressed.
“I liked it a lot. I met all the coaches the offensive line coach, I liked him a lot,” Carter said. “The head coach, this was my first time meeting all of them together. I liked them a lot, what they want for their program. They're hungry obviously.”
During his visit, the Texas staff stressed to Carter that they love what he brings to the table, and they’d love to see him bring his talents to Austin. At 6-5 and 345 pounds, Carter fits the mold of jumbo-sized offensive linemen that OL coach Kyle Flood loves. Combine that with Steve Sarkisian’s West Coast roots, and Texas has a lot to offer.
“They like what they see on film. They want me to come there, join them, be part of what they want to do, win the national championship,” Carter said.
Ranked No. 73 on the Rivals100, Carter has been pretty active on the recruiting front. In addition to Texas, he’s taken visits to places like LSU, Alabama, Tennessee, USC, UCLA, Cal and Penn State. The Texas visit stacks up with the best of them.
“I'm still looking around everywhere, so I'm trying to stay open, trying to give everyone a shot,” Carter said. “But when I did come (to Texas), of the few visits that I’ve done, I liked this one a lot.”
Sarkisian is personally involved in this one and spent some time with Carter and Carter’s family on the recent visit. Sark stressed that Texas is heading in the right direction, and he’d love for Carter to be a big part of UT taking that next step.
“I had a little meeting one-on-one, talked to him in his office. It was nice,” Carter said. “He was saying that what they're trying to build with the program, how the players are starting to buy into it, everything that they're telling them. And then that's going to get them the championship that they want.”
Of course, Flood is also heavily involved and Carter said he liked what he saw from UT’s offensive line coach during the O-line position meetings.
“We had a position meeting, had a bunch of recruits for O-line in there. He was just going over a bunch of techniques he likes to teach, like if the defense does a certain move, how we would counteract that,” Carter said.
A four-star prospect, Carter holds close to 30 scholarship offers. He doesn’t have a timeline for how he’d like to see his recruitment unfold, but said he’ll probably make a commitment sometime during his senior season.