Recruiting Roundup — H-Town Takeover?

Catching up with some of the latest recruiting headlines across Texas.There's something happening in Houston, Texas. It's called a recruiting shift and its trending towards the Houston Cougars after securing some of the state's and nation's best last week in a whirlwind of momentum and popularity. We focus on the white-hot Houston Cougars in this week's Recruiting Around the State.  HOUSTONCall it the H-town Takeover.The University of Houston and football tasker Tom Herman are doing just that. With the new coach coming from the Urban Meyer and Mack Brown coaching trees, you might expect a level a success early on. Last week, was a great start.The Cougars landed their highest profile recruit since the star rankings became a common standard in high school recruiting coverage 20+ years ago. Spring Westfield senior DT Ed Oliver verbally committed to UH on Wednesday becoming the school's first 5-star. The 6-foot-2, 260-pound bowling ball is the top rated defensive player in Texas for 2016 and one of the best in the nation. He'll attend the prestigious Nike football camp, the Opening in Oregon, in July. Oliver will be rejoining former Westfield HC Corby Meekins, who is now a member of the UH staff.Oliver held offers from virtually everyone, including Alabama, Ohio State, and LSU, as well as in-state powers Texas, Baylor, TCU, and Texas A&M.If landing Oliver wasn't big enough, Houston Westside 4-star Jordan Elliott joined the fray two days later. The 6-foot-4, 290-pound defensive tackle verbally committed to Herman and the UH staff on Friday afternoon. Elliott was a former Baylor pledge, recently re-opening his recruitment and dropping a Top 8 of his college finalists that included UH, Southern California, Texas, and Alabama among others. The explosive interior defender paired with Oliver will form as impressive a DT haul as any in the country. Both Elliott and Oliver had their choice of any school in the nation. They picked Houston.To cap the recruiting hat trick, UH landed 3-star OL Dixie Wooten from nearby Houston Lamar. Wooten, 6-foot-5, 315 pounds, announced his commitment on Twitter on Friday. He had taken unofficial visits to Baylor and Texas A&M, while boasting offers from Miami, Illinois, and UTSA. Wooten is more of an under-the-radar type that with proper development and focus could blossom into the steal of his class.Perhaps this is just the beginning. UH and Herman are in on a number of the state's best prospects. In fact, Fort Bend Hightower OLB/DE Michael Johnson will be announcing his future college home on Wednesday after his team's Spring game. Houston is in his final three (along with Texas Tech and Washington) for the 6-foot-3, 230-pound edge rusher and is known to favor the hometown Cougars.All are joining 3-star southpaw Bowman Sells, who verbally pledged to UH recently after holding offers from Texas, Ohio State, and Clemson, and Richmond Foster safety Patrick Rosette. The Lucas Lovejoy QB took the plunge to jumpstart his signing class, displaying a sure sign of leadership. Rosette was the first commit for the Class of 2016 in April.With the newest commits hailing from the Houston area, UH is looking to secure the city's borders. This is an exceptional start and beginning of the Herman regime. Maybe it's a takeover. Justin Wells is an editor of InsideTexas.com and a TexasFootball.com contributor.