Josiah Sharma, a 4-star defensive tackle, chooses Oregon over Texas.
The Ducks score a recruiting victory over the Crimson Tide, Huskies, and Longhorns.
New position coach Kenny Baker and the Texas Longhorns took a hit on the recruiting trail on Friday when the Oregon Ducks landed a commitment from Folsom (Calif.) defensive tackle Josiah Sharma in an announcement on the 247Sports YouTube channel.
Sharma chose the Ducks over the Longhorns and two other finalists — the Crimson Tide and the Huskies, with all four schools hosting Sharma on official visits over the weeks before his decision.
The Texas staff extended an offer to Sharma in February and hosted Sharma for an unofficial visit in March before getting him back on campus for the June 7 official visit weekend.
Sharma initially committed to Washington on New Year’s Day as the Huskies took on the Longhorns in New Orleans at the Sugar Bowl. When Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer left Seattle for Tuscaloosa, however, Sharma decommitted less than four weeks after giving his initial pledge.
“I mean, honestly, it was really good opportunity for me — it gave me a chance to re-establish what I felt like I needed in a college,” Sharma said before his announcement on Friday.
Both Alabama and Washington eventually emerged as finalists for Sharma as he prepared to give his second pledge. Just before noon Central on Friday, Texas held two 247Sports Crystal Ball predictions and 85.2 percent in the On3 RPM, but quickly trended towards Oregon as his announcement approached.
“I just feel like I could get the same development from somewhere close to home, because I know that’s gonna affect me in the long run, being so far away from home,” Sharma said. “So if I can get that same development and get that same Southern treatment from the West, I feel like, I feel like I just should stay in the West.”
The decision by Sharma is an early miss by Baker as he adjusts to recruiting at the Power Five level for the first time and an important one for the program overall in a cycle that needs, at the base-line level, numbers on the interior of the defensive line and ideally would include the type of blue-chip recruit at the position that former defensive line coach Bo Davis struggled to secure during his second tenure in Austin.
With the summer official visit schedule concluded, the top targets for the Longhorns are clear — Texas hosted Sharma, commit Brandon Brown, as one of his four official visits so far, Bellville’s DJ Sanders, arguably the highest-priority defensive tackle, Florida product Myron Charles, and Kevin Wynn, a Georgia native. Wynn committed to Florida State on Monday, Sharma pledged to Oregon on Friday, and Charles joined Wynn in the Seminoles class on Friday.
So, at least for now, that counts as quick misses on three of the five defensive tackles that the Horns hosted on official visits and Lufkin’s Zion Williams cancelling his Texas official visit with a decision date looming on July 4.
Keeping Brown committed remains a priority as the misses on Wynn, Sharma, and likely Williams increase the pressure on Baker to close with Sanders because four is an ideal number at defensive tackle for the 2025 cycle and Texas is only in a strong position with two of the six big defensive tackle targets entering the spring official visits.