Texas football trending for 5-Star Malik Muhammad before July decision

Big news arrived on the recruiting trail for the Texas football program as it pertains to the 2023 class. Texas saw a top defensive back target in the 2023 recruiting class and the elite five-star South Oak Cliff cornerback Malik Muhammad announce his commitment date on social media on the night of July 12.

The decision from Muhammad will boil down to three finalists including the Longhorns, Texas A&M Aggies, and Alabama Crimson Tide. But it does look like this decision from Muhammad could boil down to Alabama and Texas A&M for two big reasons.

The first and most obvious reason why Texas A&M could be fading down the stretch ahead of Muhammad’s commitment next week has to do with the timing of this announcement. Muhammad was scheduled to take an official visit to College Station to see Texas A&M on July 29.

You would figure that Muhammad moving up his decision timeline before his official visit to College Station isn’t good news for the Aggies. And that seems to be the sentiment surrounding this recruitment as of this week.

Another reason why the Aggies are facing an uphill battle with Muhammad has to do with how this recruitment was trending for the last few weeks. Alabama has heightened its push for Muhammad in the last few months. And Texas has clearly found plenty of traction with Muhammad in the last month or so. That leaves Texas A&M likely on the outside looking in among the top group for Muhammad.

Texas football now firmly trending for 5-Star CB Malik Muhammad ahead of July 20 decision

There are also quite a few analyst forecasts in place now projecting Muhammad’s commitment to Texas. Two recent expert 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions project Muhammad’s commitment to Texas with moderate to high confidence.

https://twitter.com/texcrystal_ball/status/1544854083617562627

Two On3 recruiting analysts also placed forecasts for Muhammad to Texas in the last couple of weeks. That now has the On3 recruiting prediction machine giving Texas better than a 70 percent chance to land Muhammad’s commitment.

Last but not least, the Rivals FutureCast also has more than 80 percent of their analysts and publishers picking Muhammad to land with the Longhorns.

It looks like the writing is on the wall that Texas is setting the pace in this recruitment ahead of Muhammad’s July 20 decision date.

Yet, I wouldn’t rule Alabama out completely in this one quite yet. Alabama has made Muhammad a priority this offseason, and that should never be taken lightly. We will be keeping an eye on any moves that Alabama makes late in this one.

For the time being, though, this recruitment looks to be Texas’ to lose. If Texas can haul in a commitment from Muhammad next week, that would make it four five-star recruits that head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff will have reeled in for the Longhorns 2023 class.