Longhorns News: Just In Texas Longhorns Head Coach Just Confirm The Signing of Three-star LB Who commits to Texas over TCU, Utah. See More…

Three-star LB Jonathan Cunningham commits to Texas over TCU, Utah.

In a Friday announcement, Fort Worth North Crowley linebacker Jonathan Cunningham committed to the Texas Longhorns over the TCU Horned Frogs and Utah Utes.

The 6’2, 195-pounder took an official visit to the Forty Acres on June 14, in addition to taking paid trips to see the Horned Frogs, Utes, and Jayhawks, who failed to make his final three. Among the 19 offers for Cunningham, Texas entered his recruitment relatively late, extending an offer on February 1, joining the likes of Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Miami, Missouri, Oklahoma State, and Oregon State.

With Gary Patterson no longer the head coach at Fort Worth, defensive evaluations from the Horned Frogs don’t carry the same weight from coordinator Andy Avalos, but the offer and pursuit of Kyle Whittington and the Utes speaks favorably of Cunningham as a prospect.

There’s no question that Cunningham brings an intriguing level of positional versatility because of his ability to play in space, whether it’s serving as something of a big nickel on the strong side at linebacker or in more of a box safety role — there’s evidence of his ability to operate in space after taking coverage drops.

The major area of improvement for Cunningham is adding strength and muscle mass to a lean, rangy frame. Whether Cunningham can comfortably add 25-30 pounds or eventually lands in the 210-215 pound range could determine he could project as an SEC inside linebacker The latter certainly seems more likely based on his frame. In high school, the lack of functional strength for Cunningham shows up most often as a tackler, where he lacks ideal thump and often resorts to dragging down opponents.

Considering the number of impactful special teams plays made by Cunningham on his junior highlight reel, the floor for the North Crowley prospect looks like a special teams contributor, perhaps even early in his college career. How many years Cunningham is willing to devote to his physical maturation on the Forty Acres could ultimately determine his ceiling and whether he has a chance to become a contributor on defense thanks to a projected longer-term developmental timeline reflected by the recruiting rankings.

A consensus three-star prospect, Cunningham is ranked as the No. 461 player nationally and the No. 47 linebacker, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. With the Horns recently missing on the nation’s No. 4 linebacker, Riley Pettijohn, to the Buckeyes, Cunningham joins Dallas Skyline’s Elijah Barnes in the 2025 Texas class, which now features 14 pledges and slots at No. 16 nationally after moving ahead of Rutgers in the 247Sports Composite team rankings.