On Texas Football: Building a Texas football team from inside-out ahead of SEC move

Steve Habelby:Steve Habel06/29/23

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In the latest video episode of On Texas Football, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton and Gerry Hamilton get us caught up on recruiting news, with added input on the courting of wide receiver Ryan Wingo of St. Louis, Missouri and a focus of the needs in the trenches, among other items.

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Burton opened the discussion by that there has been a lot of movement with recruits in the last few days.

“We’re going to focus almost exclusively in this recruiting update on the situation along the trenches on both the offensive and defensive line,” he said. “Because as Texas goes to the SEC that has taken on renewed importance if it wasn’t already important all the time.”

Wingo is one of the top recruits in the country according to On3 and others. One of the recruiting services came out and gave Texas the nod in the recruiting battle for Wingo over Missouri, Georgia. Michigan and others. Wingo visited the 40 Acres on the weekend of June 16 and it’s been a big time recruitment for Texas thus far.

“The interesting thing is ever since Wingo’s visit – and even leading into the visit – we talked about the feeling that Texas has a legitimate shot in his recruitment,” Hamilton said. 

“I talked to Ryan a few weeks ago, and the things he said about you know, liking Austin because you can have a life outside of football all aligned with what [Texas freshman quarterback] Arch Manning used to say in his recruiting. And then lo and behold, Arch Manning is Wingo’s host on the visit. And so Arch is obviously putting in work.

“That’s important because those aren’t normal things you hear from kids,” Hamilton continued. “Then they have somebody host him that said the same things during his recruitment. So Texas obviously has a really good feel for this.”

Hamilton also opined that the path taken on the recruitment shows that Texas coach Steve Sarkisian likes his chances of landing the 5-star receiver. 

“Sark stayed on Wingo through his wide receiver coaching chain that has stayed on him ever since the unofficial visit last June,” he said. 

Burton said that the question both expert have is: Will Wingo make a decision prior to his senior season?

“Look, Texas has something to sell to Ryan Wingo,” Hamilton said. “If AD Mitchell has a good season, he goes pro. If Xavier Worthy as a good season, he goes pro. The quarterback room is stacked. Texas obviously has a good feel for what is important to Ryan Wingo. Things line up pretty well for Texas. We’ll see if they can get to the finish line.”

Burton opened the discussion about recruiting players for the lines by calling it “trench warfare.”

“That’s the way of the SEC,” Burton said. “With all due respect, teams in that conference are very detail oriented and these are the ‘big boy’ recruitments that we’ve mentioned. Right? Every single one – offense and defense, it doesn’t matter, is highly competitive with another team that has been in the top 25, that has a national profile, that has 80,000-100,000 people in the stands.”

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Check out the video in its entirety for info on the players Texas is recruiting for the lines.

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