Texas Football: Junior Day visit ‘really impressed’ 5-Star Colin Simmons

A big weekend for head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program wrapped up a couple of days ago. Among the big events that took place on the Forty Acres last weekend was the second Junior Day of the offseason, which included an open scrimmage and a cookout.

Sark and the Longhorns hosted more than two-dozen visitors during the Junior Day festivities last weekend, none of which was bigger than the elite five-star Duncanville edge rusher Colin Simmons. The edge rusher that is rated by most of the recruiting services as the top prospect at his position in the nation in the 2024 class was on campus for the second time in the last four or five months.

And it looked like Simmons got the priority treatment during his Junior Day trip to Austin last weekend. He got to ride on the infamous golf cart around campus with Sark during the day of the open practice/scrimmage on March 25.

We all know about the golf cart treatment for priority Longhorn recruits in past years. Some other top recruits that also road around campus on the golf cart during some of their visits were running back Bijan Robinson and quarterback Arch Manning.

It’s also worth noting that Simmons and his family stayed on campus for multiple days over the weekend, which is a good sign of how well he connected with the coaches, Texas players, and some of the other visiting recruits.

Texas football makes a strong impression on 5-Star EDGE target Colin Simmons and his mom at Junior Day

Simmons’ mom, Monica McCarley, talked about the experience for her and her son on the Junior Day trip to the Forty Acres last weekend in a piece published by Jason Suchomel of Orangebloods on March 28 (subscriber content). She stated that she and Colin were “really impressed” last weekend by the trip and the treatment from the Texas staff.

McCarley even noted that Texas is “definitely in the race” among the top group of schools for Simmons this spring coming out of the successful weekend trip to Austin.

Simmons tweeted out the hook’em hand sign emoji with the hashtag on the night of March 27, which was a little more than one day after his trip to the 40 concluded last weekend.

All in all, it sounds like Texas made a sizable move in this recruitment with how well the visit went for Simmons on March 25 and 26. Texas had some real ground to make up compared to some of the top schools in the race to land a commitment from Simmons such as the LSU Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, and Georgia Bulldogs.

Some of those aforementioned top SEC programs seem to have the lead in this recruitment at the moment. But there is still a long way to go in this recruitment, so Texas will have plenty of time to make an even bigger move heading into the fall.

It will be important for Texas to get Simmons in for a successful official visit this summer, which it sounds like is in the works after the weekend Junior Day trip. Texas must also show that it is headed in the right direction on the field this fall before the move from the Big 12 to the SEC in 2024.

We’ve already talked on the site in the last few months about how important it is for Simmons to be able to play at the highest level of competition in college in the SEC. Texas must be able to not only check the box for Simmons of playing in the SEC but also show that he can be a part of one of the best defenses in the conference in the years to come.