In an effort to build on one of the most successful football seasons in school history, UH head coach Kevin Sumlin announced Wednesday the 25 high school seniors and two junior college players who have signed national letters of intent to join the team in the fall.
Texas once again proved the most fruitful source of recruits, yielding 22 players. From the Dallas area comes wide receivers Dominique Sanders (Fort Worth Dunbar) and Langston Williams (Arlington Bowie), quarterback David Piland (Southlake Carroll), and defensive lineman Rodney Williams (Dallas Skyline).
Central Texas was an area of emphasis this year for Sumlin and his staff, and their hard work paid off with the signings of wide receiver DeAndre Perry (Austin Bowie), defensive lineman Eric Braswell (Killeen Shoemaker), and defensive back D.J. Jones (Cibolo Steele).
Their recruiting visits to East Texas also proved successful, landing them defensive lineman Jeremiah Farley and all-purpose athlete Aaron Johnson (Longview), Austin Lunsford (Garrison) and linebacker Austin Wilson (Tyler Lee).
The Cougars’ greatest success, however, came from the greater Houston area, where they signed 10 players, each of who was a member of the Houston Chronicle’s All-Greater Houston Top 100. Sumlin looks to bolster the Cougars’ secondary with the additions of defensive backs Kent Brooks (Humble Atascocita), Alton Demby (North Shore) and Zachary McMillian (Fort Bend Dulles). Linebackers Efrem Oliphant (Langham Creek) and Jon Witten (Clear Lake) will solidify their run defense.
To add support for quarterback Case Keenum and the Cougars’ top-ranked offense, Sumlin inked the running back tandem of Xavier Brown and Darian Lazard (Pearland Dawson), tight end Kenneth Bibbens, Jr. (Fort Bend Kempner), offensive lineman Chris Hill (Yates) and wide receiver Jordan Jolly (Fort Bend Elkins).
The cream of the crop, though, is College of San Mateo defensive lineman Matangi Tonga, the 22nd-ranked junior college player, and first-team all-state quarterback Terrance Broadway, who comes from Capital High Academy in Baton Rouge, La. Broadway threw for more than 2,000 yards and 20 touchdowns as a senior. Tonga and Broadway are both rated as four-star recruits.
