When Corona (Calif.) Centennial tight end Keawe Browne took took his official visit to the Forty Acres on June 20 as a fast-rising prospect, he seemed likely to emerge from the weekend as a pledge to the Texas Longhorns.
As Browne revealed in a statement posted to X on Sunday, that wasn’t far off from what happened.
“I appreciate the staff at Texas for offering me and bring my family on an official visit this summer. I committed to Texas and agreed to their process for postponing my announcement as they
sort out their roster with the ‘26 commits and new financial terms with the NIL landscape — however with recent changes in my recruitment and further interest from other universities I would like to official visit this fall, my family and those close to me believe it is in my best interest to re-open my recruiting. I will be moving on from the University of Texas,” Browne wrote.
The Browne saga is an unusual one in recruiting — the decommitment of a silent commit that a staff never let announce publicly.
A consensus three-star prospect ranked as the No. 1,329 player nationally and the No. 70 tight end, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, Browne has set up September official visits to Boise State and USC.
For Texas and position coach Jeff Banks, recruiting at the position is more murky — the Longhorns hosted consensus four-star tight end Kaiden Prothro and consensus four-star jumbo athlete Heze Kent in June, but Prothro committed to home-state Georgia this month and Kent committed to Florida.
With those decisions, Browne is the only tight end prospect in the 2026 class with a Texas offer who remains uncommitted following the high-profile decision by the nation’s No. 1 tight end, fellow California product Mark Bowman, to pledge to USC in late May amidst reports of a large NIL contract with the Trojans.
Across the country, tight end recruiting is especially mature in the cycle — only two of the top 50 players at the position remain uncommitted, complicating efforts by the Texas staff to fill the need at tight end for 2026, which could force the staff to evaluate more fringe prospects like Browne or address the need later in the NCAA transfer portal.
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