Texas Football Recruiting 2012: Does This Class Meet the Mack Brown Standard?

Texas Longhorns football recruiting. Enough said, really. No, really, I'm serious. 

The Longhorns are dominant on the recruiting trail and have forced other schools to keep up with them, as Texas begins their recruiting basically a year before most schools.

The Longhorns recruit juniors like they're seniors, make offers to them early and get most of their recruiting done in the spring at their Junior Days. Mack Brown brings recruits in right after signing day and gets a ton of commitments at these events.

Under Brown, the Longhorns have routinely finished in the upper echelon of the recruiting class rankings each February. So the "Mack Brown Standard and Seal of Approval" has been established in Austin.

With the past two years alone, Texas has finished inside the top three classes per Scout.com. 

So that brings us to this year. Does this class fit the standards of the normal Longhorn class?

No. It exceeds them.

This 2012 Texas recruiting class has a chance to maybe, just maybe, the best all-around class Brown has brought to Austin. I know that's saying something but this class is shaping up to be an all-time great.

Brown has gotten 18 players to commit, and according to Scout.com, 14 of them are rated at least four stars, with four of those players reaching the epic five-star status. Wowsers.

The headliner is RB Johnathan Gray, who is among the very best prep RBs to ever play high school football in Texas. 5'11" and 195 pounds, Gray has a complete skill set that should work seamlessly with 2011 top RB Malcolm Brown.

QB Connor Brewer and WR Cayleb Jones, along with WR Thomas Johnson round out other top offensive recruits. Then the offensive line commits are made up of elite trench men like Kennedy Estelle, Curtis Riser and Camrhon Hughes.

Macom Brown, the DT, is the top rated defensive player as the 6'2", 280-pounder has elite snap quickness, strength and gap penetration ability. 

LB Peter Jinkens, DE Hassan Ridgeway, DT, Paul Boyette, LB Timothy Cole and CBs Bryson Echols and Orlando Thomas are other leading defensive commitments.

Toss in depth players like LB Alex De La Torre, DT Alex Norman,  DE Caleb Bluiett and PK Nicholas Jordan and you see my point.

This class is an outstanding haul and the Longhorns are still in the hunt for elite talent such as WR Dorial Green-Beckham, OT Andrus Peat and DT Eddie Goldman among others.

Surely this class does and will meet the Mack Brown standard.