When it comes to five star recruits, high school coaches are lucky to have one on their team, or lucky to have one on their team ever throughout their career. Try being head coach Steve Leisz at Bellaire Episcopal high school and having two five star players on the same team for the past few years.
Marvin Wilson and Walker Little are two of the best players in the entire country and probably the best players at their respective positions in the entire country. While it is rare enough that Wilson and Little ended up on the same team in high school, it would be even more rare if the five star duo ended up playing their collegiate careers together. If you have followed recruiting long enough you are aware that each recruitment is different and comes with its own set of dynamics and is never the same.
Wilson’s and Little’s recruitments are no different, except that there is a common denominator between the two: Texas. Charlie Strong and his staff have been on both Wilson and Little since early in their recruitments before they both became household names among recruiting networks and college coaching staffs. Texas was actually Little’s first FBS offer, which was made by former Texas offensive line coach Joe Wickline, who has since moved on to West Virginia. Since Strong has arrived in Austin, Texas has not been prone to extending offers early on unless players are absolute no brainers and it is safe to say that Wilson and Little fall into that category. Both players were correctly identified early on as must haves for the Texas staff and they have been working overtime to try to make sure that both end up in Austin since then.
Photo by 247sports.com
Even though they reside in Texas and were offered early, how likely and realistic is it that Walker and Wilson will end up at Texas? In my opinion it is not as farfetched as you would think. Texas has long been said to be in the top grouping of schools for Little that also consists of Stanford and Ole Miss. Little has already been accepted into Stanford, so the importance of academics has been thoroughly stressed, hence why Texas and Stanford have been mentioned so frequently. The most recent rumblings on the recruiting trail have this recruitment as being a battle between the home state Longhorns and the nerds of Palo Alto, with both expected to get official visits this fall. Little has already unofficially visited both programs several times, and it is looking like this one is becoming too close to call.
As for Wilson, he grew up rooting for the Longhorns, but out of state programs like Alabama, Florida State, and LSU have put themselves right in in the thick of things in this recruitment, with the Seminoles getting significant buzz throughout the summer. As for Wilson and Texas, the main thing that he wanted to see from the Longhorns is progress on the field and he made that clear this spring and summer. Wilson has plenty of love for the Texas program and head coach Charlie Strong, but he wants to make sure the program is heading in the right direction.
Texas has a legitimate chance to keep the five star duo in state and send a statement to programs around the country that they are locking down their borders and keeping elite talent home, but these recruitments seem like they are going to be dependent how Texas fares on the field this fall. While Charlie Strong and his staff were able to close strong in February and then again this summer despite subpar results on the field in 2015, they are going to have to fare much better on the field this year if they want to be able to repeat that kind of success. What is clear is that players like Little and Wilson love and want to play for Charlie Strong, but they want to make sure he will be in Austin for the long haul before they sign on the dotted line come February. I think if any team has a chance at landing the five star duo it’s Texas, but there is still a lot of open road between now and the first Wednesday of February and there is plenty of work to be done on the recruiting trail for all teams in pursuit of Little and Wilson.
