Texas football gets crystal ball for 5-Star EDGE Colin Simmons

All eyes on the recruiting trail for Texas football this week lie on the impending decision of the elite five-star Duncanville edge rusher Colin Simmons. On Aug. 10, Simmons will publicly announce his commitment at 2 p.m. CT in front of the media at Duncanville High School.

Simmons is the “must-get” recruit for the Longhorns in the 2024 class. Texas has thrown the kitchen sink and everything else in the house at this recruitment this summer.

Texas will be one of the schools that Simmons decides between on Aug. 10. Simmons’ top three schools heading into his commitment date are the LSU Tigers, Miami Hurricanes, and Texas. But it’s expected that the decision will come down to Texas and LSU on Thursday afternoon for Simmons.

Momentum swings abundant in the race for Texas football priority 5-Star EDGE Colin Simmons

Simmons officially visited Texas in late June (specifically from June 23-25). Texas came out of Simmons’ late-June official visit with a ton of momentum in this recruitment. The forecasts started pouring in from the major recruiting services for Texas to land Simmons’ commitment during the official visit and in the days following the trip’s conclusion.

But LSU took back a lot of the momentum in this recruitment after Simmons unofficially visited Baton Rouge a couple of weeks ago for the Bayou Splash weekend. And when Simmons announced a commitment date for the same day as his teammate, and four-star LSU running back target/Duncanville product Caden Durham, it made sense that the Tigers had confidence ahead of the elite edge rusher’s decision.

LSU received multiple forecasts from the major recruiting services in the last 10 days, projecting Simmons’ commitment to the Tigers. Multiple On3 RPM picks, one 247Sports Crystal Ball Prediction, and a couple of Rivals FutureCasts all projecting Simmons’ commitment to LSU made it look like Simmons was trending firmly to the Tigers.

Momentum swinging back in Texas’ favor for Simmons?

Early this week, it looks like the momentum could be swinging back in Texas’ favor at least slightly. On Aug. 8, 247Sports national recruiting analyst Mike Roach entered a 247Sports Crystal Ball Prediction (with four out of 10 confidence), projecting Simmons’ commitment to Texas.

And earlier in the day, On3’s Billy Embody slightly lowered the confidence of his RPM pick for Simmons’ commitment to LSU.

Two other indications that Texas could have the edge over LSU heading into Simmons’ decision date came courtesy of Horns247 and TFB Texas. Jordan Scruggs of Horns247 doubled down on his crystal ball for Simmons to commit to Texas on Aug. 8.

Meanwhile, CJ Vogel of TFB Texas reported on Aug. 8 that he received “intel that has tilted me back over to the Texas side of things” for Simmons. Vogel’s sentiment is essentially the same as Scruggs’ right now. They both are firm on their sources, saying that Texas has confidence heading into Simmons’ decision date in a couple of days.

If recent trends in this recruitment are indicative of what’s to come heading into Simmons’ decision date, the next 48 hours could be wild. Buckle in if you’re a Texas fan.