Texas Gets Verbal from Alabaman Will Glass

Verbal commitments are rolling in like crazy now, keep up with them all on the category page here.

For one reason or another, even with coaches like Brett Hawke and Dennis Pursley in-state, the rare elite recruit out of the state of Alabama always seems to escape to Austin. Two years ago, the Longhorns signed Woody Joye, the best high school swimmer ever out of the state (he has since transferred to Arizona), and now they’ve added Will Glass from the City of Mobile Swim Team on a verbal commitment.

Glass is outstanding in both the 100 and 200 yard distances of the backstrokes: an area of some need for the Longhorns going into next season. In the 100 and 200 back, respectively, he has been 48.31 and 1:45.72. He has also been a 48.46 in the 100 fly.

In the backstrokes, Texas’ primary scorer Cole Cragin will graduate after the 2012-2013 season. Texas will still bring back a big group that includes swimmers like Patrick Murphy and Kip Darmody. Still, after a smallish class last season, Eddie Reese is likely looking to just add depth everywhere in this fall’s recruiting class, in addition to filling some needs.

Glass is a very good backstroker, butterflier, and a decent breaststroker as well (58.3), so it would be good to see him work with Reese to develop possibly his 200 IM as a day-one event at NCAA’s.

Reaching a bit further, Texas’ backstroke group looks like it’s shored-up for the next few years. With the top male recruits, Jack Conger and Ryan Murphy, both being primarily backstrokers (though both are very good), it would be interesting to see how this signing affects their decisions. Of course, the Cal women are plenty of proof that top D-1 coaches can never have too many backstrokers.

Glass joins a class that already includes Longhorn legacy Clark Smith who is an elite butterflier out of Colorado.