David Hicks: Latest On3 RPM with 5-star 2023 defensive lineman

With Signing Day in the rearview mirror, the On3 football recruiting database has flipped to the 2023 class. With that in mind, it’s the perfect time to check in to see where the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine sits with the nation’s top junior recruits, including five-star defensive lineman David Hicks.

David Hicks

Allen (Texas) High
On3 Consensus: No. 4
On3 NIL Valuation: $18.1K
Status: Uncommitted
On3 RPM: Oklahoma 79.6%, Texas A&M 14.2%, Notre Dame 1%, Baylor 1%, LSU 1%, Ohio State 1%
On3 Intel: While it hasn’t generated as many national headlines as Arch Manning or Cormani McClain, David Hicks’s recruitment is certainly one to watch.

Hicks talks a lot about how relationships and family will be important to him in his decision-making process. That’s why Oklahoma and Texas A&M have gotten out to the early lead in this recruiting battle.

David Hicks was on campus at both schools in late January, and the Sooners have done an outstanding job building a bond with him. That bond is really strong with co-defensive coordinator/defensive tackles coach Todd Bates. He was recruiting Hicks heavily when he was at Clemson.

The Sooners lead early in the On3 RPM, but you can never count out A&M with an in-state target. That’s especially true since the Aggies have a number of players from its No. 1 ranked 2022 class, like Bobby Taylor and Malick Sylla, recruiting him hard.

Spring visits look like they will be key. Those will allow him to explore some out-of-state schools like Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Oregon, Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC and others. But this recruiting battle seems to be another one between the Sooners and Aggies.

While there is already one On3 RPM projection in for Oklahoma with David Hicks, we might have to wait a while for his actual commitment. He’s said that he would like to commit at the 2023 Under Armour All-America Game.

David Hicks is special

David Hicks currently ranks as the No. 4 player in the country, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

He also ranks as the No. 1 defensive lineman in the country and the top-ranked player in Texas.

David Hicks currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $18,100, which ranks 517th in the On3 High School Football NIL Rankings. The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.

What is the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine?

The On3 RPM debuted to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college. 

It factors in machine learning, expert predictions, social sentiment, visits, and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.