Garrett Wilson re-visits why he rejected Texas for Ohio State

With the start of the 2022 NFL Draft just hours away on April 28, there are some former Texas football recruits and players alike that are waiting to hear their names called during the festivities in the next few days. While this is a pretty thin draft class among former Texas players, there are still some names among natives of this state that will have fans talking in the next few days.

One of those is the former elite five-star recruit and Austin, TX, native Garrett Wilson. This former Ohio State Buckeyes star junior wide receiver is likely to be picked in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Thus, he’s got a pretty bright spotlight on him right now.

In the leadup to the 2022 NFL Draft, Wilson talked with Rich Eisen of the “Rich Eisen Show” this week. He talked about multiple subjects, including his recruitment and why he passed on the Longhorns for Ohio State a few cycles ago.

Wilson has discussed this matter of passing on Texas for Ohio State during his recruitment on multiple occasions for the last few years.

Former Ohio State WR and Texas football recruiting target Garrett Wilson re-visits his college decision

He essentially tabbed the main two reasons why the Longhorns didn’t get his commitment out of high school were a lack of early pursuit on the recruiting trail and the down years for the program throughout the 2010s. Texas was one of the schools in the middle of the pack in terms of those that offered Wilson out of Lake Travis High School.

It looks like one way the Longhorns could’ve stuck around in the mix of the top schools for Wilson during his recruitment was to be one of the first schools to get an offer his way. Maybe that would’ve helped to overcome the struggles on the field for Texas during that period.

Yet, there are two sides to that perspective.

Texas did offer Wilson a little less than one month prior to Ohio State offering him. That seems to be indicative of the fact that Wilson had a better relationship with former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer and current head coach Ryan Day than he had with former Texas head coach Tom Herman and wide receivers coach Drew Mehringer.

It also gives some insight into how much it mattered to Wilson that Ohio State was essentially at peak efficiency as a program during the 2010s and Texas definitely was not.

All in all, most of the reasons Wilson outlined as to why he passed on Texas for Ohio State are the same that he’s talked about in past years. There wasn’t really anything new and insightful in this regard that he mentioned in this interview with Eisen ahead of the draft.

Wilson finished up his collegiate career (where he played for Ohio State for three seasons) with just over 2,200 receiving yards on 143 catches (15.5 yards per catch), 23 receiving touchdowns, and nearly 150 rushing yards with one rushing score.