Texas Football: Wednesday night recruiting updates on 5-Star Colin Simmons

We are on the eve of the announcement of the “must-get” recruit for the 2024 Texas football recruiting class, the elite five-star Duncanville edge rusher Colin Simmons. Texas has made the No. 1 ranked edge rusher recruit in the nation in the 2024 class, Simmons, its top priority this cycle throughout the summer.

And it looks like the Longhorns are starting to trend as the favorite in the race to land a commitment from Simmons less than 24 hours from his decision date. Simmons will announce at the Duncanville High School gymnasium on Aug. 10 at 2 p.m. CT.

Simmons will decide between the LSU Tigers, Miami Hurricanes, and Texas on Aug. 10. But the decision has long been expected to come down to Texas and LSU.

Where does Texas football stand with 5-Star EDGE Colin Simmons on the eve of his commitment date

As recent as last weekend, it looked like LSU was trending as the pick for Simmons over Texas and Miami. Most of the forecasts for Simmons’ commitment entered last week favored LSU over Texas.

However, a few of the factors that always favored Texas over LSU in this recruitment were the proximity to home and NIL. Simmons is the “must-get” recruit in the 2024 class for the Longhorns. Texas clearly was going to be outspent by LSU, or anyone, in this recruitment.

Texas holds momentum heading into Simmons’ decision date

Geaux247’s Sonny Shipp reported on Aug. 9 (paid content) that he believes “he NIL factor is too life-changing to pass up and will push the Horns over the top”. Shipp also stated in this report that he is considering flipping his crystal ball from LSU to Texas ahead of Simmons’ commitment date on Aug. 10.

Shipp specifically mentioned 247Sports national recruiting analyst Mike Roach entering a crystal ball for Simmons’ commitment to Texas early this week in his Aug. 9 report. Roach put in a crystal ball for Texas to land Simmons on Aug. 8 (with four out of 10 confidence).

But he upped the confidence to six out of 10 with his crystal ball on Aug. 9.

Roach wasn’t the only analyst/reporter from the major recruiting services forecasting Simmons’ commitment to Texas in the last 24 hours. On the morning of Aug. 9, Rivals’ Landyn Rosow entered a FutureCast for Simmons’ commitment to Texas. Rosow flipped his FutureCast from LSU to Texas for Simmons.

Steve Wiltfong update

247Sports director of recruiting Steve Wiltfong is often viewed as the ultimate deal when it comes to forecasting commitments. Wiltfong reported on Aug. 9 that the “majority of the intel is starting to really favor Texas” over LSU and Miami.

The Wiltfong report on the eve of Simmons’ commitment date stated that the confidence is higher on the Texas side than for LSU.

Steve Sarkisian has helped Texas in a big way with Simmons’ recruitment

It’s not often that Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is so heavily involved in the recruitment of a defensive prospect as he has been with Simmons. This just goes to show how important of a recruit Simmons is for Sark and the Longhorns staff in the 2024 class.

Gerry Hamilton of Inside Texas/On Texas Football mentioned in a Simmons “decision primer” on Aug. 9 that Sark is doing an excellent job selling in-recruits on the vision of building Texas back up to its national contender status. Hamilton mentioned that this pitch of Simmons being able to make an immediate impact on Texas along the defensive front while elevating the program’s status multiple years into the future appealed to him.

Texas is the trendy pick for Simmons on the eve of his decision date

All these reports and forecasts from the different major recruiting services add up to Texas grabbing the momentum from LSU in the final stretch of this recruitment before Simmons’ commitment date. I’m confident in saying that Texas is the favorite to land Simmons’ decision over LSU on Aug. 10.

Stay tuned on Hook’em Headlines for updates on Simmons’ commitment date, as we will be on-site at Duncanville High School for his announcement ceremony.