ESPN Recruiting Nation Football

Two weeks after Demetrius Knox decommitted from Texas, his friend and teammate has followed suit.

Four-star running back Daniel Gresham (Fort Worth, Texas/All Saints) has decommitted from Texas. He’d been committed to the Longhorns since August. Gresham confirmed his decision in a text message.

"It just wasn't the right fit for me," Gresham said. "I have many reasons [for decommitting], but I don't want to get into it."

Gresham, who’d long been considered a package deal with Knox, didn’t decommit simply because the All Saints four-star offensive lineman did. He was unhappy that Texas is working to land a third running back for its top-ranked 2014 recruiting class.

The Longhorns recently offered scholarship to ESPN 150 running back Joe Mixon (Oakley, Calif./Freedom), four-star back Adam Choice (Thomasville, Ga./Thomas County) and Plano (Texas) West standout Auston Anderson.

Texas already has a longtime verbal pledge from Donald Catalon, the Houston Eisenhower back who was one of the first members of the class.

Gresham, the nation’s No. 2 fullback prospect, told HornsNation as recently as last week that he was still solid with Texas.

When he committed to Texas on Aug. 7, Gresham held only one offer. Since then, he’s landed offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida State, Louisville, Miami, Ole Miss, Ohio State and several others.

Ole Miss and Louisville appear to be the early favorites to land him, and Gresham said Florida State, Alabama, Tennessee and Miami are all on his short list now.

The 5-foot-10, 236-pound prospect was recruited to play a variety of roles in the Texas offense -- not just fullback. He’s seeking a school that will give him a chance to be a featured running back.

The loss of Gresham leaves Texas with 13 commits for its 2014 class.

Inspired by Florida's "#ComePlayWRFortheJoker" campaign, our recruiting writers looked at other ways schools can sell themselves on the trail. Here's a look at recruiting pitches for the Big 12:

Baylor Bears
What they’re selling: The new 45,000-seat, $250-million on-campus stadium that will open in 2014. Recruiting is an arms race, and players like fancy stadiums and locker rooms, and Baylor’s upgrade puts them finally on the same level playing field as everybody else in the Big 12.
What they're missing: Help on defense -- specifically at defensive line and defensive back.

Iowa State Cyclones
What they’re selling: Paul Rhoads. He grew up miles from the campus and has helped turn around Iowa State with a physical and fundamentally sound style of football.
What they're missing: A true home-run threat at receiver.

Kansas Jayhawks
What they’re selling: Charlie Weis. He’s taken risks (juco infusion), repaired relationships with area high school coaches and widened KU’s recruiting pool.
What they're missing: Wins. When you’ve won only one conference game in three years, a little bit of everything is missing.

Kansas State Wildcats
What they’re selling: Bill Synder. The plan has worked for years in Manhattan. K-State doesn’t care how many stars a player has attached to his name, a player only earns an offer from K-State unless Snyder personally signs off on it after a lengthy review. It’s a plan that produced a No. 1 BCS ranking and a Big 12 championship in 2012.
What’s missing: I’ve been told by coaches for years that the most difficult position to recruit is defensive tackle. That’s why you often see even average defensive tackles rack up double-digit offers, and finding good depth at defensive tackle has been very difficult to do at K-State.

Oklahoma Sooners
What they’re selling: Oklahoma is proud of its football tradition, and few schools can match the Sooners’ track record for success, facilities and ability to prepare you for the next level.
What they're missing: A renewed focus on evaluating players. It’s what differentiated Bob Stoops’ staff when they started, and it’s how they found players like Sam Bradford, Josh Heupel, Juaquin Iglesias and Donald Stephenson. All at the time were considered to be three-star recruits but wound up being impact players for the Sooners.

Oklahoma State Cowboys
What they’re selling: Their ability to evaluate and develop offensive talent.
What they're missing: Elite players in the Lone Star State. With the best facilities in the conference, it might be just enough to get kids to visit.

Texas Longhorns
What they’re selling: Few in the nation can offer up the type of atmosphere, fan base, tradition and total student-athlete package like Texas can.
What they're missing: A true a difference-maker at quarterback. The last two Heisman Trophy winners have come from Texas high schools, and the Longhorns didn’t recruit one heavily and recruited the other as an athlete.

TCU Horned Frogs
What they’re selling: The Horned Frogs recruit to their style of smash-mouth play on both sides of the ball and don’t care how many stars a recruit has. It hurts them some in the recruiting rankings, but it helps them win a lot of ball games.
What they're missing: BCS conference depth. Heading into their second season in the Big 12 after a 7-6 season, the biggest thing the Horned Frogs need to do is to build the roster to be able to compete year in and year out in the BCS conference.

Texas Tech Red Raiders
What they’re selling: The Red Raiders went through a transition that brought Kliff Kingsbury to Lubbock, and the early reception has been nothing short of positive.
What they're missing: The Red Raiders have never had issues putting up points on people, but under Tommy Tuberville and Mike Leach there was little defense being played.

West Virginia Mountaineers
What they’re selling: WVU is a force in the Atlantic region, can recruit well in Pennsylvania and is arguably one of the best schools at identifying offensive talent in the JC ranks.
What they're missing: The 2014 class will have to be all about rebuilding in Morgantown, as the needs are mounting while several impact players have moved on.

Running back Auston Anderson (Plano, Texas/West) committed Thursday to sign with the Northwestern Wildcats, multiple sources report. He is the second 2014 prospect from the Lone Star State to pick NU for 2014. Three-star safety Jordan Thomas (Klein, Texas/Collins) got the Wildcats' class started with his decision in December.

The 5-foot-9, 180-pound Anderson selected Northwestern over scholarship offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, California, Georgia Tech, Navy, Nebraska, Rice, Stanford, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, UCLA, Washington and Washington State.

ESPN believes that he possesses, "a sneaky extra gear... good feel as a zone runner... the ability to exploit smaller creases... very good balance and body control... naturally good leverage and a strong lower base."

Anderson, along with Northwestern's other ungraded commitments, will be included as part of ESPN's next rankings update. The Wildcats have eight verbals at this time.

Houston North Shore linebacker Zach Whitley Jr. originally wanted to take his time with the recruiting process. Even as late as last month, he said that he wanted to wait until his senior season was underway before making a commitment.

A visit to Alabama changed that.

The four-star linebacker committed to the Crimson Tide on Friday, according to North Shore recruiting coordinator Garrett Cross.

Whitley, the ninth-ranked inside linebacker in the country, had offers from Texas, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and TCU in addition to Alabama.

Earlier this year, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Whitley attended junior days at both Texas and Texas A&M but made his first trip to Alabama on April 20 for "A-Day." He is the sixth commitment in the 2014 class for the Crimson Tide and the second inside linebacker. Defense is a priority in this class for Alabama, with at least five of the six committed players projected to play on that side of the line of scrimmage.

ESPN scouts call Whitley a "tough, physical linebacker prospect who plays fast but disciplined in between the tackles." His trip to Tuscaloosa, Ala., was his first spring football game experience.

"He's what you look for in a linebacker," North Shore head coach David Aymond said. "All the attritbutes of a linebacker you want, he personifies. He has a commitment to working hard, believes the game to be physical, expects it to be physical around him. That's what you look for in a traditional linebacker -- dirty, grimy, physical and hard-working -- and that's what Zach is about. He works hard in the weight room and has good speed and quickness on the field."