Texas football WR commit Jonah Wilson playing like a 5-Star in 2022

Wide receiver recruiting has taken center stage of late on the trail for Texas football and new wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator Brennan Marion. Texas could be one step away from rounding out the wide receiver recruiting in the 2023 class, which this staff is hoping will come from the highly touted four-star Longview wideout Jalen Hale.

While there is a focus right now on the Longhorns rounding out the wide receiver recruiting in the 2023 class, there are some current commits at the position standing out in a big way this fall. Among those wideout commits for the Longhorns trending up this fall are the elite five-star DeSoto product Johntay Cook and the touted four-star Spring Dekaney product Jonah Wilson.

Wilson might be the biggest surprise so far this season for Texas high school football among the fast risers in the Longhorns 2023 class. He’s off to a stellar start for Dekaney this fall, despite the 1-2 record for his squad.

Through just three games this season, Wilson has racked up 28 catches for 518 yards (18.3 yards per catch), good for five touchdown catches. He’s also average more than 170 receiving yards per game this season.

It’s just the box score stats that highlight the effectiveness of Wilson for Dekaney early this season. The way he’s got this done so far is what’s really impressive. Dekaney has found different ways in the passing game to utilize Wilson as a weapon.

Texas football commit Jonah Wilson playing like a 5-Star wideout to start this season

While Wilson has always presented a potent threat on the outside in the passing game, as he stands at 6-foot-3 with excellent vertical ability, he’s done damage in other areas as well. Wilson has excelled at making defenders miss in space and turning on the afterburners when he has room to run downfield. He’s showed a newfound potency as a weapon in the screen game and on some short and intermediate routes between the numbers and down the seam.

A piece from Mike Roach of Horns247 highlights just how well Wilson is performing out of the gates this season. Roach notes that Wilson is on pace for nearly 100 catches for 1,800 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns this season. And that projection assumes that Dekaney doesn’t make much noise in the postseason.

Granted, Dekaney has some work to do this season to start finding more success in the win column. Wilson has definitely done his part to help Dekaney win more games this season. In Dekaney’s 10-point loss to Humble last week, Wilson eclipsed 230 receiving yards, with two scores. He kept his hot streak alive in a big way.

The way Wilson is playing so far this season puts him on a path that almost ensures a rating jump in the next few months. Wilson is currently classified as a low-to-mid tier four-star prospect. But he’s truly shown some five-star traits to start his senior season. He’s off to the hottest start of the trio of wide receiver commits in the Longhorns 2023 class this fall.

That says a lot given that Wilson’s counterparts at wideout in the Longhorns 2023 class are Cook and the highly touted four-star Aldine Eisenhower speedster Ryan Niblett.

I believe his stock will continue to trend up as the weeks progress this fall.

Texas currently holds commitments from 22 recruits in the 2023 class as of Sep. 15. That number could soon become 23 if the Longhorns can secure a commitment from Hale when he announces on Sep. 21.