Brenen Thompson picks Texas (w/ quotes)

Steve Sarkisian needed speed at wide receiver. Upgrade confirmed. After a recent official visit to Austin, four-star Brenen Thompson had enough data to make a decision on his college future. He announced his decision Wednesday when he verbally committed to Texas.

“Definitely just treating us like family,” Thompson told On3’s Gerry Hamilton about his decision to commit to the Longhorns. “I knew that was going to be a big deal in my recruitment from the start. I wanted to be somewhere where I was treated like family, and UT did a really good job with that, the whole coaching staff.”

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In addition to his recent trek to Austin, Thompson also saw the Longhorns on a trip during the summer with several other recruits and Texas commits in town. Trevell Johnson, Maalik Murphy, and even Evan Stewart after his Texas de-commitment connected with Thompson and made progress toward Thompson’s desire for a family feel.

The 5-foot-10.5, 180-pounder chose Texas over finalists Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. He had over 35 offers including Oregon, Alabama, Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas Tech, and USC.

The Spearman (Texas) speedster and On3’s No. 40 overall prospect in the 2022 recruiting class is the 13th member of the On300 to join the Longhorns’ class.

“I’m excited to be in the offense,” Thompson said. “I’m excited to go be a big playmaker. Coach Sark is doing a great job. He’s great at what he does. I believe in him for sure.”

During the 2021 track season, Thompson notched a 10.40 100m in the 2021 UIL 3A state finals and recorded a personal-best 10.38 earlier in the year.

Accordingly, Sarkisian isn’t the only coach on the Forty Acres excited for Thompson’s commitment. Track and field head coach Edrick Floréal was also fired up for Thompson’s choice, according to the Spearman star.

“We’ll figure it out when we get there,” Thompson said about his track future. “I’m not too sure now. We’ll obviously have to make it work with both of them. The track staff and the football staff get along really well and they really want this. They have kids that are going to do both. I believe in it 100 percent.”

Thompson was named to the Texas Sports Writers Association 3A all-state first team in 2020 and received first-team all-district honors at receiver and cornerback. He earned the district 3-3A D-II newcomer of the year award as a sophomore.

Brenen Thompson evaluation from the Recruiting Notebook

Strengths: An electric athletic talent in a slight build. There’s probably already a hashtag at Texas to “FreeBrenenThompson.” Ridiculously fast track time that translates to the football field where he is most often at the QB position giving defenses fits (see #55 on Childress on multiple plays trying to chase him) with his ability to crease defenses and dart upfield for big plays. Shows tremendous short area quickness and acceleration as one might expect. Change of direction is very good and rarely does he decelerate unless he wants to. He has surprisingly good balance and upper body strength to fight through contact and shows a very strong lower body to drive through glancing blows.

Areas for Improvement / Concern: As a QB, arm strength is lacking as is complexity of the pass offense.  Will need to play at least 20 pounds heavier for durability purposes but they can’t catch him anyway so that may be moot. If not Texas, please not OU.

Thompson is the 22nd commit of Texas’ 2022 class joining Justice Finkley (Hewitt-Trussville – AL), J’Mond Tapp (Ascension Catholic – LA), Jaray Bledsoe (Marlin), Aaron Bryant (Southaven – MS), Ronald Lewis (Warren Easton – LA), Eoghan Kerry (Mater Dei – CA), Derrick Brown (Texas High), Austin Jordan (Denton Ryan), Connor Robertson (Austin Westlake), Cole Hutson (Frisco), Jamarion Miller (Tyler Legacy), Will Stone (Austin Regents), Lance St. Louis (Williams Field – AZ), Zac Swanson (Brophy College Prep – AZ), Kristopher Ross (North Shore), Bryan Allen Jr. (Aledo), Trevell Johnson (Arlington Martin), Maalik Murphy (Junipero Serra – CA), Jaydon Blue (Klein Cain), and Armani Winfield (Lewisville).