Five-star Texas WR target Ryan Wingo set to commit on Wednesday

One of the biggest remaining targets for the Texas Longhorns in the 2024 recruiting class is set to decide as Saint Louis (Mo.) University High wide receiver Ryan Wingo recently announced a commitment date of Oct. 25.

Wingo will make his announcement at 4:15 p.m. Central.

The consensus five-star prospect originally planned on deciding in December during the early signing period, but opted to move up his announcement date. Instead, he’ll decide on Wednesday in what could be a bad sign for the Longhorns — Wingo has seen the home-state Tigers in person twice over the last month and Missouri appears to hold all the momentum for the nation’s No. 5 prospect, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

“In the beginning, I thought this would happen on Dec. 20,” Wingo told On3. “I took visits, I have been to all of those schools and I just had a change of heart. I talked it over with my family and got that feeling, so I decided to commit sooner. This is happening earlier than I expected, but things just changed.”

Officially, Wingo has five finalists, including Texas and Missouri, along with Georgia, Miami, and Texas A&M. The Bulldogs, Longhorns, and Tigers all hosted Wingo for official visits during the summer, as did the eliminated Wolverines, and Wingo also made his way back to Austin for the Wyoming game last month.

Texas was considered the leader as recently as that visit, but Missouri surged with the recent visits, the team’s on-field success with a 6-1 start to the season and top-25 ranking, and a recruiting class that includes fellow Missouri product Williams Nwaneri, an edge prospect ranked No. 4 nationally.

The momentum prompted 247Sports Director of Football Recruiting Steve Wiltfong to flip his 247Sports Crystal Ball prediction from Texas to Missouri two weeks ago with the Tigers gaining predictions in the On3 RPM as well. As of Tuesday evening, all four predictions by 247Sports and the last five predictions by On3 favor Mizzou.

Losing Wingo to Missouri would be a significant blow to Texas recruiting at the wide receiver position — the Longhorns hold pledges from Smithson Valley’s Freddie DuBose and Lucas Lovejoy’s Parker Livingstone, but seven of the top eight wide receivers in the state are committed to other schools, including the state’s No. 2 prospect, Lake Belton’s Micah Hudson, who is pledged to Texas Tech.

Earlier in the cycle, the prospect of landing Wingo reduced the sting of those in-state misses, but if he commits to the Tigers as expected, the Longhorns will not be on track to sign an ideal class in position coach Chris Jackson’s first cycle with the specter of having to replace Jordan Whittington, Xavier Worthy, and AD Mitchell looming over the program.