Get to know Texas signee Daniel Cruz on national signing day
Whether you’re a diehard recruiting fan in need of a refresher or a casual fan in need of only the particulars, this will be the series for you.
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The first national signing day for college football begins December 20 and runs through December 22. This series gives you the chance to familiarize yourself with the next class charged with keeping Texas in a position of national prominence.
To win at a consistently high level means stacking talented class after talented class. The top-five 2024 class does just that following top-five finishes in the 2022 and 2023 classes.
On the first national signing day, Inside Texas will offer profiles of each member of the 2024 signing class. Up next, Daniel Cruz.
The Player: Daniel Cruz, OL, North Richland Hills (Texas) Richland
The Rating: 91.44 (four-star)
The Ranking: Cruz is ranked as the No. 196 overall prospect, the No. 11 interior offensive lineman, and the No. 33 prospect in Texas in the On3 Industry Ranking. On3 ranks Cruz as the No. 149 overall prospect, the No. 10 interior offensive lineman, and the No. 26 prospect in Texas.
The Highlights:
The Recruitment: Cruz did a little bit of everything for Richland High School on the interior of the offensive line and became one of the nation’s top center prospects over the course of his junior year. Proximity was a big deal for Cruz, who had three regional schools in Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M in his top four (Ohio State was the fourth). Kyle Flood put a considerable amount of effort into landing the tough center prospect, and that effort was rewarded less than a week after Cruz made his June official visit to Texas. Cruz would return a couple of weeks later for the Texas Bash summer recruiting event and completely shut his recruitment down from that point on.
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The Projection: Daniel Cruz is very quick and explosive off the ball. He plays multiple positions for Richland on either side of the line of scrimmage and could probably be effective in college as either a two-gapping nose tackle or an offensive lineman. Cruz is pretty quick in his kick step and certainly on the move in the run game, his ability to get off the ball would be truly valuable for Kyle Flood at center. He doesn’t lack power for battling with defensive linemen and his athleticism is useful in initiating engagements, which matters when you’re a center trying to execute combo blocks with your teammates at guard. Cruz should be a dominant interior lineman in a zone scheme with the quickness to hit lateral targets and the power to move people off the ball when he gets there. – Ian Boyd
The Reasoning: “Ultimately what led to my decision to choose Texas and what stood out to me was definitely coach Flood! His personality and coaching style really fit me well and the people on the team were really genuine. I fit super well with them. I know Texas is coming back. These next couple of years are going to be special. Even Arch (Manning) hit me up and told me we got a special few years ahead of us and I’m excited for that!”
The Relationship: “After my visit, I talked with Coach Flood and talked to my family about the whole experience and the whole weekend. I was just like, this is home right here.”
The Enrollment: Cruz will enroll early
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The Final Word: Kyle Flood focused in on his center in the 2024 class and put forth the effort needed to land the DFW four-star at the expense of future SEC rivals.
