Tag: Payton Kirkland

Former Texas offensive tackle Payton Kirkland transfers to Colorado

Colorado’s offensive line just got better and bigger

The Colorado Buffaloes and head coach Deion Sanders have attacked the trenches this offseason, adding numerous offensive and defensive linemen from the college football transfer portal. On Sunday, new O-line coach Phil Loadholt got another big get in former Texas offensive tackle Payton Kirkland.

Kirkland is a former class of 2023 four-star prospect (per 247Sports) who is a mountain of a human being. The Orlando, Florida product was listed at 6-foot-6 and 350 pounds on the Longhorns’ 2023 roster, but other outlets have since reported him to be anywhere from 350 to 385 pounds. Kirkland did not see the field at Texas this past season as he took a redshirt.

At Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, he played both tackle positions. However, because of his makeup, he’ll likely play on the right side of the line at Colorado.

Watching his highlight tape, you can see the power he holds as a run blocker. He’ll likely need some time to develop as a pass protector, so a move to guard could be possible given his ability to move defensive linemen around in the run game.

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Texas OL Payton Kirkland to enter transfer portal

Payton Kirkland is set to leave Texas for the transfer portal.

The transfer portal cycle is set to start for the Texas Longhorns. Offensive lineman Payton Kirkland is one of the latest set to enter the portal. Continue reading “Texas OL Payton Kirkland to enter transfer portal”

WATCH: 2023 class represents Texas in the All-American Bowl

Texas is loaded with All-American talent.

Texas football has plenty to look forward to in the next few seasons. Five players, some of which might make an impact right away at Texas, took the field for the All-American Bowl on Saturday after sending six signees to the All-American Game.

Anthony Hill, Ryan Niblett, Payton Kirkland, S’maje Burrell and Tausili Akana represented the Longhorns 2023 class in the game. The group of players should play a crucial role for the team over the next four seasons. Four-star athlete Jelani McDonald also announced his commitment to Texas while at the game.

Hill, Akana and Burrell represent part of one of the best linebacker classes Texas has assembled in recent memory. Given the departures of DeMarvion Overshown and Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey, the class is much needed for depth and playing time.

Niblett and Kirkland continue the encouraging recruiting trends at their respective positions. Past coaches recruited bigger, slower receivers and smaller, quicker linemen. Texas is doing the opposite.

Niblett brings elite speed to Texas, while Kirkland is the big, imposing human that Kyle Flood looks for up front.

Here’s a look at the players that took the field for Texas in the game.

WATCH: Texas signees, targets at All-American Bowl practice

Anthony Hill, Ryan Niblett, Payton Kirkland and more are participating in All-American Bowl practices this week.

Several Texas signees and one primary recruiting target are participating in the All-American Bowl practices this week. Continue reading “WATCH: Texas signees, targets at All-American Bowl practice”

Texas Football: Is Cedric Baxter the beginning of a burnt orange raid on Florida?

Cedric Baxter and Payton Kirkland may not be the only elite Florida players that Texas wins.

Steve Sarkisian is recruiting Florida as well as Charlie Strong did, if not better. He’s just doing so much more efficiently.

It is easy to see what coaches like about football in that state. Florida has a reputation for being in the same tier as California and Texas for producing the best high school prospects. Albeit, the top football state on the East Coast hasn’t always been a winning battleground for Texas, until now.

In the span of about a month, Sarkisian has landed two of Texas’ top four recruits from Florida since 2010. According to the first Florida commitment of the class, there could be more on the way.

Four-star offensive lineman Payton Kirkland has his sights set on elite edge rusher Damon Wilson. Wilson, a five-star player from the Sunshine State, seemed like a pipe dream not long ago. With the growing connections to Texas within Florida, Wilson might be a realistic possibility for the Longhorns.

Here is a list of Florida prospects Texas has a chance to sign in the 2023 recruiting class.

2023 Recruiting Profile: Can Florida make late push for 5-star OT Samson Okunlola?

After missing out on most of the high-profile in-state offensive tackles, can Florida land this elite OT from the northeast?

When Billy Napier and his staff touched base with five-star offensive tackle [autotag]Samson Okunlola[/autotag] in February, the Gators were prioritizing in-state targets at the position such as [autotag]Payton Kirkland[/autotag] (Oklahoma), [autotag]Francis Mauigoa[/autotag] (Miami) and [autotag]Tommy Kinsler[/autotag] (flipped from Florida to Miami). All three of them landed elsewhere, and now Florida’s best shot at landing a blue-chip tackle might the top-20 recruit from out-of-state.

Okunlola is a big 6-foot-5-inch, 305-pounder out of Thayer Academy in Brockton, Massachusetts. He’s the kind of prep player that’s never truly been on a field of athletes that can match up to his size, and his ability has him ranked in the top 15 by most services. That’s top 15 in the class of 2023, not just at his position.

Of course, a talent like that comes with fierce competition, and the favorite to land him is the same school that’s been dominating the recruiting trail for the past couple of weeks —  Miami. The Hurricanes are a 95.3% favorite according to the On3 recruiting prediction machine, and the experts at 247Sports have also cast crystal balls in UM’s favor.

Alabama, Miami and Michigan State are the three schools that have hosted him on official visits so far, and he’s named six other schools to a top nine that he can pick from for his final two visits. Florida is one of those six schools and needs to get the official visit to make a late push.

There’s certainly a need at the position for Florida, and it would be easy to promise early playing time to a player of his caliber. Of the top 15 offensive tackles in the class, Okunlola is the highest rated at 14th overall on the 247Sports composite. [autotag]Zalance Heard[/autotag] and [autotag]Monroe Freeling[/autotag] are around the No. 60 mark and also options for the Gators.

Florida football to host top-100 OL on first recruiting visit

Billy Napier is looking at one of the top offensive linemen recruits out of Louisiana as he tries to put together the class of 2023.

After Florida missed out on four-star offensive tackle [autotag]Payton Kirkland[/autotag] on July 23, Billy Napier and his recruiting staff shifted to another blue-chip target on the offensive line, four-star tackle [autotag]Zalance Heard[/autotag] out of Neville High in Monroe, Louisiana.

Of course, Napier’s ties to the state of Louisiana are well known. He just left ULL after four years at the helm for the Ragin’ Cajuns, and local prep players are bound to have a favorable opinion of him. Mix in the fact that Napier has brought some of his former staffers along with him, and Florida is more than a reasonable threat to poach a kid out of the Bayou State.

Heard is the perfect candidate for Florida to go after. So far, LSU, Texas and Nebraska are viewed as the major players in the race for his services. Blake Alderman of 247Sports confirmed that Heard will make his way to Florida on Wednesday, July 27, for his first-ever trip to the Swamp. FSU will also get him this week, so he’s clearly opening the door for the Florida teams to join the fray.

On3’s recruiting prediction machine has the Tigers as 97.7% favorites to land Heard when all is said and done. A decision is expected ahead of his senior year, so Napier and Co. will have to move fast to pull it off.

Heard is ranked at No. 13 overall by On3’s individual rankings and is a five-star recruit according to the service. The On3 consensus, which weights all four major services’ individual rankings evenly, has him at No. 52 overall and No. 5 among offensive tackles. The 247Sports composite has him at No. 60 nationally and No. 7 at his position.

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2023 Recruiting Profile: Will 4-star S Jordan Castell commit to UF after moving decision date?

The Gators are looking to add four-star safety Jordan Castell to the class of 2023 on Saturday, July 30. He previously named Florida, Alabama and Tennessee to his top 3.

Florida missed out on consensus top-5 safety [autotag]Joenel Aguero[/autotag] on July 23 to Georgia but the Gators still have a chance to nab another four-star safety in West Orange’s [autotag]Jordan Castell[/autotag] before the month closes out.

Castell visited Florida and Tennessee in June and quickly moved up his commitment date to July 30. He named a top three of the Gators, Volunteers and Alabama Crimson Tide but hasn’t been to Tuscaloosa since the end of January.

That has many in Gator Nation believing that Castell will be picking up an orange and blue hat on Saturday, and the experts agree. On3’s recruiting prediction machine has UF as the 96.2% favorite less than a week out and 247Sports has six crystal balls logged in favor of the Gators. That’s about as sure as it gets, but we did just see four-star offensive tackle [autotag]Payton Kirkland[/autotag] pick Texas, a school he never visited, over Florida last weekend.

Nothing is official until the decision is in, but Florida seems to be in an ideal spot to add another name to the class of 2023 this week.

Florida football misses out on big in-state 4-star offensive tackle

Florida hosted four-star offensive tackle Payton Kirkland on several visits, but he ended up committing to a school he never even got a chance to tour.

Gator Nation had its eyes on three members of the class of 2023 on Saturday but none of them ended up committing to the orange and blue when all was said and done. Four-star safety [autotag]Joenel Aguero[/autotag] picked Georgia over Florida in the morning and four-star linebacker [autotag]Malik Bryant[/autotag] pushed back his commitment, leaving four-star offensive tackle [autotag]Payton Kirkland[/autotag] to decide between his top five of Florida, Alabama, Miami, Michigan State and Oklahoma.

Kirkland shocked everyone and chose Texas, a program that not only failed to make his top five in March but also failed to get him on campus during the recruiting process. Florida hosted Kirkland for an official visit and plenty of unofficials, but that didn’t matter much once Steve Sarkisian’s staff swooped in at the last minute.

Andrew Ivins of 247Sports spoke with Kirkland as he made the announcement on the site’s YouTube page. He said that the decision wasn’t an easy one to reach but it was ultimately what he felt was best for him. [autotag]Arch Manning[/autotag], the nation’s consensus top recruit, committing earlier in the month couldn’t have hurt the Longhorns’ chances with Kirkland, either.

Florida was considered a major player in Kirkland’s recruitment given the frequency in which he turned up on campus. He would have been the Gators’ highest-rated offensive line commit and things went their way. UF still has four-star interior offensive lineman [autotag]Knijeah Harris[/autotag] and three-star offensive tackle [autotag]Bryce Lovett[/autotag] to fall back on.

Kirkland is ranked No. 274 overall on the 247Sports composite and is No. 25 among offensive tackles in the class of 2023. If Billy Napier plans on adding another tackle to the class, he’s running out of blue-chip options. Samson Okunlola, Monroe Freeling and Tyree Adams are the only recruits ranked higher than Kirkland that Florida has both offered and had reported contact with.

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4-star OT recruit Payton Kirkland trolled Texas, then committed to Longhorns anyway

Did Arch Manning change Kirkland’s mind?

The recruiting circus in college football means that sometimes people might pay too close attention to teenagers’ decisions. As far as their football futures, diehard fans constantly find themselves on pins and needles, hoping they choose their favorite team.

This madness appears to be something that four-star OT recruit Payton Kirkland might have played into. As one of the country’s top high school recruits, the incoming senior at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando knew he was pretty popular.

So, just days before Kirkland made his verbal commitment to a program official, he posted the famous perplexed Russell Westbrook meme in reference to him potentially going to Texas:

Wait, why might Kirkland emphasize the second syllable of the word Texas? Ah, OK. Message received. He wouldn’t wear the burnt orange for the Longhorns and Steve Sarkisian. Life goes on. Right?

Wrong.

On Saturday, Kirkland reversed course and confirmed he would be joining the Longhorns as one of the cornerstones of their 2023 recruiting class:

Wait, isn’t there another major recruit who will play at Texas in 2023? It’s on the tip of my tongue. Oh, right: Arch Manning!

Now, this makes some sense. While there’s no way to confirm Kirkland’s initial public tweet was part of a grand scheme to mess with everyone’s heads, it made for an even bigger surprise.

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