Elite 5-Star Texas WR target Evan Stewart commits to Texas A&M

The news cycle won’t slow down for the Texas football program early this week. The news is coming in hot for Texas on the recruiting trail, in the coaching carousel, and surrounding the NCAA Transfer Portal in the last 48 hours. But some of the latest detrimental news came the way of new head coach Steve Sarkisian and this Texas staff courtesy of the elite five-star Frisco-Liberty wide receiver Evan Stewart.

With some of the recent struggles on the field for Sark and the Longhorns to round out the 2021 campaign, it made the pitch to Stewart a tougher sell. That allowed the opportunity for the likes of the Texas A&M Aggies and Alabama Crimson Tide to rally among the top schools for Stewart.

And there was some serious momentum in favor of head coach Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies in the recruitment of Stewart in the last six weeks. But the news that felt like it was coming in the last couple of weeks from Stewart dropped in favor of the Aggies on the night of Nov. 29.

5-Star WR Evan Stewart passes on Texas football for Texas A&M

There wasn’t a scheduled decision date or time in place for Stewart at this point of his recruitment. But this news certainly does hurt the Longhorns on the recruiting trail a few weeks ahead of the start of the Early Signing Period.

Stewart was an early commit for Sark and his staff in the Longhorns 2022 class. And now Texas looks to have missed out on one of their overall top in-state targets on the board for the 2022 class at an inopportune time.

Texas also lost the commitment of the four-star Lewisville wide receiver Armani Winfield in the midst of the Black Friday (Nov. 26) win over the Kansas State Wildcats in the regular season finale. At this point, the Longhorns need to land a commitment from someone like the four-star Klein Cain wide receiver Matthew Golden in the 2022 class.

This was a major loss for second-year wide receivers coach Andre Coleman to lose Stewart to the Aggies. And this was a major win for Texas A&M wide receivers coach Dameyune Craig to ultimately beat out some previous top schools with Stewart such as the Longhorns and Florida Gators.

Stewart committing to Texas A&M feels like one of the first real misses on the recruiting trail for Sark and the Longhorns that is a direct result of the struggles on the field this fall. It was clear that Stewart didn’t want to be part of a rebuild, and he proved that point with his commitment to the Aggies early this week.

Texas sits with 20 commits in the 2022 class just a few weeks ahead of the Early Signing Period. Missing out on Stewart means that the Longhorns need to turn their full attention to winning over top remaining in-state prospects such as five-star North Shore cornerback Denver Harris and five-star Bowie interior offensive lineman Devon Campbell.