4-star Texas TE target Mustapha Muhammad set to decide on Friday

One of the Texas Longhorns top remaining targets has a decision date in mind.

Missouri City Ridge Point tight end Mustpaha Muhammad has been one of the nation’s most coveted talents at his position this cycle and he’ll announce which program has earned his commitment on Friday.

A four-star prospect, Muhammad released a top five on Aug. 10 consisting of Texas, Michigan, Clemson, LSU, and UCLA.

With Muhammad’s decision looming this evening, the ‘Horns appear to be on the outside looking in for the Houston-area pass-catcher. In order to add Muhammad to what’s now the nation’s No. 2-ranked recruiting class, it was clear from the jump that Texas would need to win games. Although the ‘Horns have been within reach of potential wins over No. 4 USC and No. 12 Oklahoma, Texas fell short on each occasion and now sits at 3-3 on the season.

Considering Muhammad has a tremendous amount of interest in options such as UCLA and Michigan, it would serve as a fairly significant recruiting upset if the 6’4, 235-pounder did bypass out of state options for Tom Herman’s program.

Muhammad officially visited UCLA on Sept. 29 and had high praise for his tour of Los Angeles. He’s also scheduled to officially visit Clemson on Nov. 10, but it’s unlikely the Tigers still get to host the elite talent if he commits elsewhere.

As usual, it’s likely that Texas remains in pursuit until Muhammad officially shuts his recruitment down and cuts contact off, and the ‘Horns could certainly afford to add another tight end of his caliber to the 2018 class. As it stands, Texas holds a pair of pledges in the form of JUCO product Dominick Wood-Anderson and Houston Dekaney’s Malcolm Epps, but it’s well known that the ‘Horns will have to fight to hold onto the former’s commitment.

While it remains to be seen whether Texas is able to keep Wood-Anderson on board, there’s little reason to believe Muhammad, too, will don burnt orange this coming Friday.

All 26 of Muhammad’s Crystal Ball projections currently favor Michigan.

He’s ranked as the nation’s No. 109 player, No. 5 tight end and the No. 14 player in Texas, per the 247Sports Composite rankings.