Two signees from the 2016 class aren’t yet on campus.
As the Texas Longhorns await the prospective arrivals of 2016 signees Erick Fowler of Manor and Marcell Southall of Duncanville, head coach Charlie Strong said on Friday that he thinks both players will eventually be able to enroll in classes in Austin.
“They’re still getting their work in and at some point they’ll make it to campus,” Strong said, according to the Statesman.
A likely Fox end at Texas, Fowler is a 2016 US Army All-American who famously elicited an impromptu dab from Strong on National Signing Day when he flipped his commitment from LSU.
It’s not clear exactly what Fowler has to take care of to become eligible, but here’s the report from The Football Brainiacs a month ago:
We checked with someone close to the Fowler family and we were told that the necessity for summer school is indeed a possibility. However, we were told it’s not yet set in stone. Fowler recently re-took the SAT and apparently everything is going to be contingent on how he finishes out this semester and the results of his SAT score.
If for some reason Fowler isn’t able to get the SAT score and grades needed to qualify, it would be a significant loss for the 2016 class, as the Manor product is a consensus four-star product ranked as the No. 74 player nationally and No. 12 player in Texas, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, as well as a top-10 outside linebacker.
Aside from the rankings, one of the reasons why Fowler is so important to the class is because of his tenacious pass-rushing ability — he’s a natural off the edge and the only Fox end in the class after Strong was unable to fill the need at that position until the final moments.
There’s much less public information available about what is keeping Southall from getting to campus. Like Fowler, he committed to the ‘Horns on National Signing Day. As a defensive tackle, he’s a candidate to contribute this fall if he can qualify academically.
On that huge day in early February, recruiting coordinator Brian Jean-Mary was hopeful that Texas wouldn’t experience any eligibility problems in the 2016 class after losing three members of the 2015 class to academic issues, but did acknowledge how difficult it is to know with any certainty that far out.
“I feel pretty confident,” he said. “Now, we’re not in the high schools with them. There are some guys on paper who are qualified, but they have to complete their senior year. They’re on track to graduate and qualify, but there’s always unforeseen circumstances like what happened to us in the past that we didn’t account for. We feel confident on all 24 of these guys qualifying.”