Quick Thoughts on the Commitment of Lake McRee

In case you missed it last week, the Longhorns landed another offensive commitment for 2021 class in the form of Lake Travis tight end Lake McRee. The three star tight end declared his intentions Tuesday that he would be staying home and playing his collegiate ball for the hometown Longhorns.

McRee holds 15 offers, including offers from TCU, Texas A&M, and USC. McRee continues the recent trend of Lake Travis standouts committing to Longhorns that includes, Cade Brewer, Cameron Dicker, and Hudson Card.

Quick Takeaways

At 6’4, 217 pounds, McRee possesses a solid frame for the position that will continue to fill out as he continues to mature and eventually gets into a college weight room program. McRee currently mans the Andrew Beck role (H-back/TE) for Lake Travis that requires him to be in motion as well as lineup in-line to execute a variety of blocks from different angles. While McRee is still a work in progress from technical standpoint and lacks good play strength at this stage in his development, he consistently shows a willingness to block and always gives good effort in this department. Both technique and play strength can be fixed in time, so it isn’t something that I am too alarmed about currently. As a pass catcher, McRee shows solid hands for the position, but does have a tendency to body catch a times. He’s not totally reliant on catching with his body, as he does show the ability to be a hands catcher, but it’s something he will have to improve going forward. Whether it is after the catch or in the open field without the ball, McRee shows that he has good athleticism and moves well in the open field. McRee doesn’t possess a ton of wiggle at this point, but he does manage to get himself open in his routes. Overall, there is a lot of good, unmolded clay to work with and with so much development ahead of McRee, it is easy to see why coaches are bullish on his potential.

Final Thoughts

I know when folks started hearing that a 2021 recruit was about to pop they assumed it would have to be an elite given the timing, but I have no issue with taking McRee’s commitment. Every take the staff makes isn’t always going to be sexy, but you still have to make sure you are finding ideal fits for what you do in your scheme, and given that Lake Travis more or less runs what Texas runs offensively, that makes the McRee pickup make even more sense. McRee possesses good upside for the position and now sets the floor for position in the 2021 if the staff opts to take two.

So while you may have been expecting more fireworks, I encourage you to be patient because Texas is setting themselves up well for a very nice 2021 recruiting class.