Texas Football: Georgia gets key 5-Star CB Kelee Ringo over Longhorns

Potentially the most impactful miss for the 2020 Texas football recruiting class for the rest of this cycle will be 5-Star CB Kelee Ringo.

Possibly the biggest target that the 2020 Texas football recruiting class had remaining among the uncommitted high school prospects after the Early Signing Period committed to another Power Five program on Jan. 4. But it looked as if this prospect was falling out of the clutches of head Texas football coach Tom Herman near the end of the 2019 season as is.

At the Under-Armour All-American Bowl, five-star Saguaro cornerback Kelee Ringo chose to commit to the Georgia Bulldogs over the likes of the Texas Longhorns football program and Oregon Ducks. Ringo could’ve given the Longhorns their second five-star commit in the 2020 recruiting class. He would fit alongside five-star Salpointe Catholic running back signee Bijan Robinson as the second of their class even hailing from the state of Arizona.

The final set of 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions for Ringo before he announced his commitment to Georgia had 100 percent of 16 experts leaning toward the Dawgs. All of the experts that had previously picked the Longhorns flipped their choice to Georgia since the end of each team’s 2019 season.

However, Ringo is not the only key Longhorns 2020 recruit that Georgia is either eyeing or already committed to play for head coach Kirby Smart. Five-star North Shore running back Zachary Evans could very likely be taking his talents to Athens to play for the Dawgs. But the LSU Tigers could very well still be alive to land the commitment of Evans, at least as it appears now.

Four-star running back Kendall Milton, four-star cornerback Jalen Kimber, and former Texas commit and four-star offensive tackle Chad Lindberg are all signed with Georgia. That’s a lot of key Texas targets or former commits to land with an SEC East program in one recruiting cycle like Georgia.

But the writing was on the wall for Georgia trending to land Ringo. The last official visit he took before announcing his commitment was to Athens back in mid-December. His last unofficial visit on his recruiting timeline was also to Georgia, but that was back during the 2019 offseason.

Furthermore, what Georgia is getting in the 6-foot-2 and 205 pound Scottsdale, AZ, native Ringo is a very lengthy and versatile defensive back that has the skill set to make an immediate impact. Ringo played at running back and defensive back for Saguaro.

Ringo ranks as the nation’s No. 8 2020 high school prospect and the best overall cornerback. He also ranks one spot above Bijan as the top 2020 high school prospect out of the state of Arizona.

Georgia landed Ringo over offer from more than 30 other programs. The other significant programs to offer Ringo included the Alabama Crimson Tide, Oregon Ducks, Clemson Tigers, Florida Gators, Ohio State Buckeyes, Oklahoma Sooners, Texas A&M Aggies, and USC Trojans.