McKinney (Texas) High linebacker Riley Pettijohn tells OnTexasFootball that he will make an unofficial visit for the Texas Spring Game April 20. 

That will be the last of five spring visits for the 6-2, 210 pound defender out of the DFW area. 

Pettijohn will visit Florida State March 23, Ohio State March 30, USC April 6, Texas A&M April 13 prior to Texas April 20.

Headed into January, Texas and Florida State were the two schools mentioned first and second according to a source close to the recruitment. USC was the third. A January 27 Junior Day visit to Texas A&M moved the Aggies into the top group. Ohio State's Ryan Day visited McKinney High the same day in January as Steve Sarkisian. 

OnTexasFootball continues to hear the Longhorns are in a very good position headed into the spring visits.

Spring Game visitor list:
Emaree Winston, TE, Calhoun (Ga.) High #AllGasNoBrakes 
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star

Riley Pettijohn, LB, McKinney (Texas) High
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star

Michael Terry, ATH, San Antonio (Texas) Alamo Heights
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star
Texas, TCU and Texas Tech the top 3 currently. 

Rickey Stewart, RB, Tyler (Texas) Chapel Hill
OnTexasFootball ranking: 4-star
Texas leads large over Baylor, SMU and Oklahoma State.

Today, that topic is with the reload going on in the wide receiver room and how Steve Sarkisian and Chris Jackson might be able to deploy the new group of weapons.

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For this exercise, I wanted to take a look into a number of categories from the 2023 season – alignment by position (slot vs. outside), average distance of target, yards after catch and drop rate. Of course, numbers will be limited for Johntay Cook who is expecting to make a leap into the rotation fully for the first time as a Longhorn this fall, and there won't be official numbers on Ryan Wingo – more so just an education guess based off of high school tape.

But to the numbers we go, starting with overall receiving numbers.

• Isaiah Bond           – 48 rec., 668 yards, 4 TD, 13.9 YPC
• Matthew Golden   – 38 rec., 404 yards, 6 TD, 10.6 YPC
• Silas Bolden          – 54 rec., 746 yards, 5 TD, 13.8 YPC
• Johntay Cook        – 8 rec., 136 yards, 0 TD, 17.0 YPC

Following the departures to the NFL and the transfer portal after the 2023 season, Texas had just eight career receptions returning to the field among seven wide receivers expected to be on roster (four of which true freshmen). Of course, the additions to this room have been well-document as they should be. Texas is adding big time talent with a wealth of experience.

The questions as posed at the top is now, how will Texas use it?

First, a look at alignment should give an idea of how each WR was used at previous stops. We know Texas wants position-less wide receivers on roster, but this will give an idea of each player's strength so far.

Alignment:

• Isaiah Bond           – Slot (58.6%) | Out wide (40.9%)
• Matthew Golden   – Slot (34.5%) | Out wide (65.5%)
• Silas Bolden          – Slot (18.8%)  | Out wide (80.8%)  
• Johntay Cook       – Slot (17.8%)  | Out Wide (82.1%)

Biggest number here is Isaiah Bond's usage from the slot. I was a bit surprised to see Silas Bolden's split. However, if you watch Bolden's tape from Oregon State, he does not play small on the outside. He can go get just about anything and has a much larger catch radius than his frame might insist.

Ironically, Johntay Cook's most impactful plays, the 50-yard reception against Baylor and Worthy's long TD vs. Alabama, came when Cook was lined up on the interior as well.

Average Distance of Target:

• Isaiah Bond           – 12.8 yards
• Matthew Golden   – 8.3 yards
• Silas Bolden          – 12.2 yards
• Johntay Cook       – 11.1 yards

A fair balance of distance per target across the board here. The outlier being Matthew Golden who was not targeted down the field often and instead used much more in the quick, short game while at Houston.

Yards After Catch Per Reception

• Isaiah Bond           – 4.6 yards
• Matthew Golden   – 5.9 yards
• Silas Bolden          – 5.1 yards
• Johntay Cook       – 8.3 yards

Nothing too crazy here. Though you can see the shorter distance of target for Golden plays into his favor a bit in this category. Johntay's long reception vs. Baylor and catch from Arch Manning help him, though obviously without the same volume.

Drop Rate

• Isaiah Bond           –  3.6% (two drops)
• Matthew Golden   – 13.3% (six drops)
• Silas Bolden          – 3.9%  (two drops)
• Johntay Cook       –  11.1% (one drop)

Golden's drop rate might be a bit of a concern. He was not targeted down the field very often, leading me to believe there may be some concern with the quick routes here. Otherwise, a drop rate below 5.0% is consider good in the college ranks. AD Mitchell's drop rate of 1.8% last season was considered elite.

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So where does this lead us? After seeing Ryan Wingo get run in the slot during the All American week and again on his tape, it would not surprise me to see him used there at times to begin his college career. He is that much of a mismatch on the field to just throw out wide.

I do think you will continue to see Isaiah Bond in the slot. But the interesting part is Silas Bolden. The gadget term gets used often due to his height, but he is a true receiver and has proven to produce at high levels of ball when thrown outwide. This is the versatility that Texas will get to deploy next fall.

Five really talented wide receivers that will get to torment defenses any chance they can. Steve Sarkisian and Chris Jackson will be salivating this spring when getting to test out the new wheels of the offense.

https://footballscoop.com/news/sources-texas-hiring-fbs-assistant-former-dallas-area-prep-coach-as-assistant-g-m

Another Goosby on the Texas radar
Trevor Goosby is one of the up and coming offensive lineman in the Texas program with a strong possibility to be the next left tackle for the Longhorns after Kelvin Banks departs for the NFL following the 2024 season. The Longhorns are now seriously recruiting the next Goosby. Melissa (Texas) High 2026 6-5.5 shooting guard Austin Goosby is having a terrific sophomore season on the hardwood, and continues to grow with 6-7/6-8 not out the question. Rodney Terry and staff are now in contact with the Goosby camp. And so is Kansas, Duke and a growing list of others. Goosby has offers from Florida State and Texas A&M currently, but that list will expand in the spring. Goosby will likely make a visit to Texas for the Oklahoma State game. 

Jaimie Ffrench and Texas
Spoke with a long time source in the Jacksonville (Fla.) area last week, and on Monday. The word out of Jamie Ffrench's camp is that the 5-star wide receiver prospect in 2025 is planning to make a visit to Texas this spring. The Longhorns offer French (Jacksonville, Fla./Mandarin) January 29. While that is seemingly very late to the party for a coveted national prospect that was a one-time Alabama commitment, the source said Ffrench is going to take a look at Texas. Florida State got Ffrench on campus twice in January. He de-committed from Alabama January 14. If/when Ffrench gets on campus, this recruitment will truly begin for Texas. 

The weekend of April 6 is when Texas would ideally like to get Ffrench on campus. That is setting up to be Texas' offensive recruiting weekend in April (along with the spring game April 20). Dickinson (Texas) High 2025 OL Tyler Thomas and San Francisco (Calif.) St. Ignatius IOL John Mills are scheduled to be back on campus April 6. Lewisville (Texas) High 5-star OT Michael Fasusi is also targeted for April 6. Fasusi and family will make a visit to Texas this spring. 

Could a second IMG Academy 2025 prospect visit in April? 
EDGE pass rusher London Merritt (Atlanta, Ga./IMG Academy) told OnTexasFootball Tuesday that he is a maybe to visit Texas this spring. Merritt, 6-2 and 235 pounds, has more than 30 offers. The list includes Alabama, Clemson, Florida, Ohio State, North Carolina and a number of others. Texas has offered. Merritt has been on campus at Miami, Florida State and Florida in recent weeks. He has an official visit scheduled to Ohio State in June. 

Another Atlanta native and 2025 prospect Texas is working to get on campus is Jontae Gilbert (Atlanta, Ga./Douglass). The 6-1, 180 pound cornerback has 30 offers, including the Longhorns. Tashard Choice has been working this recruitment for a while, and is now getting an assist from the defensive staff. Clemson was the hot team early in this recruitment. South Carolina and Texas are receiving mention behind the scene as having legit opportunities. A June official visit to South Carolina is a lock. 

Recruiting notes at the top of the show, then we dive into the new 5+7 look look in the College Football Playoff world.

Coach Baker gets active on the trail in Georgia with an offer, plus Gerry and I discuss stops on the road we made this morning  

This was my first time seeing Mays in person and I was thoroughly impressed. He stands right now around 275 pounds, but has plenty of room to go in his 6-foot-4 frame and has already begun gaining weight since the offseason. He mentioned this morning he hopes to get up to 290 pounds by the beginning of next season.

By all accounts, Mays is an interior guy at the next level. Plenty of schools project him as a guard while several have pitched center. Interestingly, he will be play left tackle next fall, but he has experience everywhere on the offensive line and even mentioned he enjoys playing center.

Mays wants to study computer science wherever he ends up and both of his parents are engineers – safe to say he is a smart kid. The coaching staff at Weiss mentioned that immediately upon my arrival as well.

But to Texas. Mays was most recently on campus for the January 20 Junior Day a month ago but has been firmly on the radar for Kyle Flood dating back to the summer of 2023 when he camped on campus. Early on, Coach Flood has made quite the impression on Mays.

"I got to Coach Flood at the end of the (Junior Day)," Mays told me this morning. "I really like it there in general. It is in a really nice area and it is always very welcoming. I have always really liked up there at Texas.  I love Coach Flood and the way that he coaches, he is so quick and efficient with it, and he is always an energetic person."

Mays also mentioned being invited to a spring practice and hopes to make the quick trip to the 40 Acres some time in March. 

"I feel like they are going to keep going on this upward path," Mays said about the Texas program. "Especially with all of the (recruits) that they have been gaining – I check on 247Sports a lot – they have a really good recruiting class. I think they are going to be really high up next year."

It is safe to say Mays is firmly on the radar of a number of programs in the region. He holds offers from Baylor, Houston, Texas State, UTSA and SMU at the moment and the SEC programs are lurking closely behind. Mays will be visiting Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M this spring and into the summer with Ole Miss and Kansas State also on the docket.

Still a long ways to go, but Texas will be heavily involved here and will get him back on campus in the near future.

OnTexasFootball caught up with Greene County Head Coach Terrance Banks within the hour. 

Here is everything to know about Wynn:

1. Wynn is 6-3 and around 320. He's currently playing on the varsity basketball team, which begins the playoffs this week. He will go to the track after hoops season concludes. He qualified for for state in the Class 1A shot put and discus as a sophomore. 

2. The offer was made by defensive line coach Kenny Baker. Running backs coach and area recruiter Tashard Choice has ties to the Greene County coaching staff, but did not have a role in the offer. It was Baker, a Peach State native. 

3. Wynn released a top 10 Monday. That top 10 consisted of Georgia, Florida State, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Florida, N.C. State, South Carolina, Michigan and USC. 

4. Wynn made visits during the season to Florida State x2, Alabama x2 and January visits to Georgia, N.C. State and North Carolina. He had to cancel visits to Tennessee and Florida. 

5. His No. 1 interest outside of football is culinary. He wants to be a chef one day. His major could well be nutrition (natural sciences). 

Of course, with Texas sending 11 players to the NFL Combine, there were plenty of Longhorns that were mentioned during the availability and I wanted to share notable quotes and tidbits Miller shared in regards to Texas' Draft hopefuls.

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Where the Longhorns fell in Miller's latest Mock Draft:

• 16) DL Byron Murphy (SEA)
• 32) WR Xavier Worthy (KC)
• 38) WR Adonai Mitchell (TEN)
• 49) TE Ja'Tavion Sanders (CIN)
• 54) DL T'Vondre Sweat (CLE)
• 58) RB Jonathon Brooks (GB)

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Longhorn With Most to Gain at Combine

A: Byron Murphy + Xavier Worthy

"I think a lot of people aren't aware of (Byron Murphy), just because we did not see him in an All Star game and what Texas asked him to do – he was asked him to do, he played head-up on an offensive tackle in a 3-3-5 defense. So he was not asked to pin his ears back and rush the quarterback which is what he actually does very well.

"He is not the biggest guy, he is 6-1, we will see but 300-310 pounds. But his quickness and his raw strength are just jaw-droppingly good.

"I was a little surprised when he declared (for the Draft) because I had not originally heard a lot of buzz. But when guys declare, it is like, 'okay, now I need to watch them.' And as soon as I started watching him closely, it was like 'Okay, he is going to be in my top-40.' Then you watch more and now he is going to be in my top-30, then wait, now top-20 and sure enough he is now in my top-15.

"I think some of that is just getting caught up. When we watch so many games throughout the year, you are not always focused on individual players or trying to take a holistic view. Obviously you watch the quarterbacks because those guys are asked about a lot.

...

"I will throw one more name out there – Xavier Worthy. I don't know if it just because how much Texas Football I have watched, but I think he has been slept on just a little bit nationally when I see mock drafts or rankings from colleagues. I am always surprised with how low he is ranked. I think he has a great opportunity next week to come in and show, No. 1 just how fast he is. He is going to burn up the track with that vertical speed. But also to answer questions I think a lot of people labeled him as someone with drop issues because of the 2022 tape. A lot of the drop issues really went away in 2023."

*** 
WR AD Mitchell

Mentioned being in the WR group of Roman Wilson, Keon Coleman, Ladd McConkey right around the end of round one and getting into round two.

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RB Jonathon Brooks

Miller has Brooks as his first RB taken in the 2024 NFL Draft. Added that there will be some movement following the Combine and wants to see how Brooks interviews and updates in his recovery.

In this year's draft, will be two categories of running backs: the bully, downhill runners and the out-of-the backfield guys. Brooks falls into a bit of both. 

High praise heading Brooks' direction even while recovering from the ACL injury. Interestingly, Miller added it is a strong running back class in this Draft, despite the potential of a back not being taken in the first 50 picks. 

*** 

TE Perspective + Bijan Robinson

"Every time that I do a mock draft exercise, (Brock Bowers) is coming off of the board at 13, 14 or 15 because those teams in the top ten have so many needs and they are going to go most likely big positional value - QB, LT, WR or CB. Those are the top ten picks this year it feels like.

"So for a guy like Bowers, despite the fact that he might be one of the five most talented players in the draft, because he is a tight end he tends to slip a little bit in mock drafts. Honestly it is a lot like Bijan Robinson last year.

"Where it was like, we knew how talented he was as a player. But it was really hard to find a natural fit for him. The Falcons were obviously okay with taking a running back very early and they got a great player."

*** 

On Thinner Draft Crop in 2024

"I mean (the draft has) changed tremendously just off of that number alone. I think this will be one of the shallowest draft pools that I've ever covered because so many players are going back to school. We have to remember this, there's the COVID year, I think this is the final year where players are potentially benefiting from that 2020 season.

"But NIL is is huge and I personally think is a good thing for players. Instead of having to make a financial decision and going to the NFL early and maybe being a late round pick, you don't have the opportunity to go back to school you support yourself, maybe support your family if you are taking care of them and improve your draft stock. LSU QB Jayden Daniels is a fantastic example of that. Had he left college last year, he would have been a day-three pick, probably a middle of day three pick because that was a pretty good quarterback last year. He was able to go back to school thanks to NIL and now he's in line to be top three overall pick. So there are a lot of success stories – Bo Nix being another one.

"From the GM side of things, I don't want to say it's a weak draft or bad draft, but just the actual pool of players compared to last year which was probably the deepest draft ever, this will be a pretty shallow one. It is something that kind of goes in waves. Last year was incredibly deep, next year will probably be incredibly deep. I think smart general managers are always looking at least a year ahead at each position group and at the draft as a whole."

Dickinson, Texas - One of the top offensive line targets for the Texas Longhorns in the 2025 cycle is Tyler Thomas (Dickinson, Texas/High). 

Thomas, 6-5 and 320, was offered by Texas June 3, 2023 following the Longhorns Elite Camp. Since that time, offensive line coach Kyle Flood has made the Galveston County area standout a priority. And Thomas has reciprocated the Texas heavy interest with at least four visits to Texas for games and camps. 

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and Flood stopped by Dickinson High in January to meet with Thomas. 

Thomas didn't hold back his thoughts on Texas headed into the spring. 

"I really like Texas," Thomas told OnTexasFootball Tuesday. "They have been recruiting me the hardest for the longest. They have always been a special place for me. I just feel different with Texas. Coach Sark just wants me to fall in love with the culture and the thought of being a Longhorn."

Offensive line coach Kyle Flood's resume and consistency with Sarkisian stand out. 

"He's a great O-line coach. Him and Coach Sark have been together for nine years, I think they said. They are a really great duo. Coach Flood can really coach O-line."

Thomas has two April visits locked in to get back to Texas, with a third to come in June. 

"I'm going up there April 6th, and I'm getting back for the Spring Game (April 20)."

Texas A&M and LSU spring visits scheduled
Before Thomas steps foot on campus in Austin in April, he will make March visits to the two teams that are likely the biggest competition for the Longhorns. Thomas is scheduled to be at LSU March 9 and Texas A&M March 30.

Texas A&M: "Biggest takeaway (January 27 Junior Day) was how much family means to them. A lot of them were at Duke together, so they are already a family. I could feel it the second I walked in. Coach Elko said they need me. He said my class is going to be the first class because they have a lot of senior graduate. So my class is going to come in and compete early."

LSU: "Coach (Brad) Davis came to the school (in January). His message was how much he loves his players. He said he may not be the perfect coach, but one thing that never fails is how much he loves his players every day. He wants me to come be part of the brotherhood."

Texas A&M, Texas, LSU and Oklahoma are the four schools that will receive official visits. Texas A&M is locked in for June 14-16, and Texas is likely June 28-30.