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Eli Lederman, ESPN Staff Writer
Texas and Miami battled to the finish before four-star wide receiver Jaime Ffrench, No. 17 in the 2025 ESPN 300, committed to Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns on Friday morning during a pep rally at Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, Florida.
Ffrench is the second-ranked wide receiver in the 2025 class and No. 3 player in the state of Florida in this cycle. A former Alabama commit, Ffrench entered Friday with finalists Texas, Miami, LSU and Tennessee following visits to each school in the spring. The skilled playmaker is now the second-ranked member of the Longhorns’ rising 2025 class, which sits at No. 17 in ESPN’s latest team rankings for the current cycle.
Ffrench told ESPN that a tight recruitment ultimately came down to Texas and Miami in recent days. The Hurricanes fought into the final hours of the process, pitching a Power 4 experience closer to home, before Ffrench decided on the Longhorns, swayed by Texas’ recent success in the 2025 class, the program’s development track at wide receiver and a strong relationship with wide receivers coach Chris Jackson.
“The people and the coaching staff — they show you why they want you,” Ffrench said. “And what they’ve built as a class is really appealing.”
Ffrench’s commitment continues a monumental month for Texas on the recruiting trail.
He follows four-star wide receiver Kaliq Lockett (No. 23 in the ESPN 300) and five-star defender Jonah Williams (No. 8) as the third top-30 prospect to pick the Longhorns since Aug. 7. Ffrench is now the top offensive pledge in a Texas class that includes Lockett, quarterback K.J. Lacey (No. 110), tight end Nick Townsend (No. 196) and running backs James Simon (No. 287) and Rickey Stewart (No. 295). The Longhorns now have 11 ESPN 300 prospects committed in the current cycle.
Ffrench will become the third of his brothers to reach major college football when he joins Texas in 2025. Maurice Ffrench broke Larry Fitzgerald’s single-season reception record at Pitt in 2019 before stops in the NFL and CFL. Another brother, James Tarver, signed with UCF in the 2019 cycle.
Ffrench’s own recruitment took off after he caught 44 passes for 671 yards and five touchdowns in a productive sophomore season at Mandarin. He committed to Alabama in July 2023, then pulled his pledge and reopened his recruitment following Nick Saban’s retirement in January, eventually narrowing his finalists to Miami, Texas, LSU and Tennessee, taking official visits to each school between May 31 and June 21.
Ffrench, who spent a portion of his childhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said he felt the pull of LSU. The Tigers offered an opportunity to play in front of family and a chance to work with LSU wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton, who first offered Ffrench as an assistant at Georgia. In Tennessee, Ffrench saw an appealing offense scheme and held a relationship with coach Josh Heupel, who had recruited Tarver to UCF in 2019.
Ffrench established a strong connection with Jackson, Texas’ second-year wide receivers coach, and the Longhorns emerged as front-runners in his recruitment in the final week of the process.
However, a late push from Miami centered on connections with Hurricanes wide receivers coach Kevin Beard, along with a pitch to remain close to home, nearly turned Ffrench up to his commitment to Texas Friday morning.
“I wanted to play in the SEC,” Ffrench said. “I’m excited to close it up and be done with it all, committed to the place I want to be.”
Ffrench recorded 62 catches for 1,247 yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior last season. He caught four passes for 116 in Mandarin’s season-opener Aug. 23. The fourth-ranked Longhorns open the 2024 season against Colorado State at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday.