5-Star WR Johntay Cook affirms Texas football commitment after Oregon visit

This is a busy time of the year for head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff trying to keep together some of the core pieces in the 2023 Texas football recruiting class. Texas saw some of the highest-rated commits in the 2023 class take visits elsewhere recently. That list also now includes the elite five-star DeSoto wide receiver commit Johntay Cook.

Over the weekend, Cook took an unofficial visit to Eugene to see the Oregon Ducks when they took on the Stanford Cardinal at home at Autzen Stadium on Oct. 1. Cook utilized his bye week at DeSoto to see Oregon.

This was the first time that Cook visited Oregon since his official to Eugene back in June. It’s also the first time he’s visited another school, officially or unofficially, since he committed to Texas during the summer.

And after such a tumultuous run on the recruiting trail of late in the 2023 class at the wide receiver position, this isn’t the best news for the Longhorns. Not only did Texas’ top-rated wide receiver commit in the 2023 class take a visit to another school over the weekend, but Sark and new wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator Brennan Marion also lost the commitment of the touted and fast-rising four-star wideout Jonah Wilson on Oct. 1.

This all begs the question of what the status of Cook’s commitment to Texas is at the moment.

Top Texas football WR commit Johntay Cook takes an unofficial visit to Oregon over the weekend

According to a report from Mike Roach of Horns247 on Oct. 3 (paid content), Cook is still firm on his commitment to Texas coming out of his unofficial visit to Oregon last weekend. He reportedly went about communicating that he was taking this visit to Oregon with the Texas staff “the right way”.

And it sounds like the Texas staff is happier with the way this went down for Cook’s visit to Eugene over the weekend compared to the news of the de-commitment of Wilson on Oct. 1.

That should at least bring some sort of piece of mind to the Texas coaches and fans, respectively, that Cook was transparent about this and still seems to be firmly on board with the Longhorns. Texas had a rough stretch of late recruiting in the 2023 class at wideout, and this staff needs Cook locked in to round out this position for the cycle in the next couple of months.

Texas currently holds commitments from 21 recruits in the 2023 class following the de-commitment from Wilson last weekend. The two remaining wide receiver commits in the Longhorns 2023 class are now Cook and the highly touted four-star Aldine Eisenhower product Ryan Niblett.