Fact or Fiction: Texas leads for three top-100 wide receivers
Rivals national recruiting analyst Marshall Levenson is joined by TrojanSports.com's Ryan Young, DeathValleyInsider.com's Jefferson Powell and OrangeBloods.com's Jason Suchomel to tackle three topics and determine whether they believe each statement is FACT or FICTION.
MORE FACT OR FICTION: Malachi Goodman is set to become a Rivals250 prospect
*****
CLASS OF 2024 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State
CLASS OF 2025 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State
CLASS OF 2026 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | State
TRANSFER PORTAL: Latest news | Transfer search | Transfer tracker/player ranking (football) | Transfer team ranking (football) | Transfer tracker/player ranking (basketball) | Transfer team ranking (basketball) | Rivals Portal Twitter
*****
1. Texas leads for three top-100 WRs in Dakorien Moore, Jaime Ffrench and Kaliq Lockett.
Suchomel: FACT. This is a tricky one to answer. If we take them individually, I would call Texas the leader for each. Jaime Ffrench has said as much. It feels like Texas is definitely the team to beat for Dakorien Moore. Kaliq Lockett plays things close to the vest but I'd slightly favor Texas in that race. That being said, if we look at the group as a whole, it will probably be tough for Texas to reel in all three of them, especially after taking a four-man receiver class in 2024.
Levenson: FACT. I agree with everything Suchomel says here. On an individual basis, it would be hard to say any school other than Texas is leading for these elite prospects. What will be interesting, as Suchomel points out, is whether they can close on all of them. There is a chance that one of them could be deterred from joining a busy wide receiver class, especially going into a premier room in college football. The feeling would be Texas would like them all together with Moore being atop the wish list. There is no timeline for when they may start to pop off the board, but as it stands right now, Texas would be the likely choice for all three if they had to choose.
*****
2. LSU can still land the No. 1 class after losing Dakorien Moore.
Powell. FACT. There's enough talent still on the books for the 2025 class that LSU is more than capable of making a strong push for the No. 1 overall class in 2025. Is losing Dakorien Moore a major blow to those efforts? Absolutely. But, it's not quite time to fire up the trumpets and play "Taps" in honor of their fallen efforts just yet. The Tigers still have a strong core to their 2025 class, which includes five-stars Bryce Underwood and Harlem Berry and several other commits that could see some significant bumps over the next several months. Combine that with their current standing with some of the top prospects in the 2025 class and you can make a strong case for LSU that it'll be, at the very least, in that discussion down the stretch.
Levenson. FICTION. Over the last several months, LSU's dominant class has surrounded the names of Moore, Underwood and Berry. Now, outside of Underwood and Berry, LSU does not hold a commitment from any other top-100 prospects. To compete for the No. 1 class, it will likely need to land several prospects in the top 100, and likely in the top half of it. While there will be some elite prospects that LSU will be in the running for, I don't see it landing enough to beat what Ohio State, Texas, Georgia and some others may finish with.
RELATED: Moore is the biggest decommitment in the 2025 class
*****
3. USC will lands 3+ Texas prospects for a third year in a row.
Nick Lucero/Rivals.com
Young: FACT. Considering that would only require retaining the two current Lone Star State commits – RB Riley Wormley and DE Gus Cordova – and hitting on one more Texas target, I'll play the odds and say there is another still to come given how aggressively the Trojans recruit the state. Last year, of the four signees from Texas, OL Makai Saina was a major surprise after his official visit and DL Carlon Jones emerged late in the cycle. Those official visit weekends are Lincoln Riley's impressive oceanfront estate have proven very effective in recent years, and with USC expected to host a number of Texas targets (WRs Daylan McCutcheon, Andrew Marsh and Emanuel Choice, S Jonah Williams, DL Xavier Ukpono, DE Chad Woodfork and LBs Max Granville and Riley Pettijohn), odds are the Trojans will reel at least one more in.
Levenson. FACT. Riley has shown since he arrived to USC that Texas will be among the top priorities in recruiting. With two already on the board in Wormley and Cordova, both of whom are expected to stick, only one more has to be added to continue the trend of at least three in each class. Young points out several names who are among the contenders to land in the class, but I also believe there will be some who are not yet being pursued who work their way into the picture. Just as the Trojans locked onto Carlon Jones late in the cycle last year, I suspect there may be something similar later this year. Riley wants to stress landing prospects in the Lone Star State, so he will look beyond the surface level names to do so.
