Longhorns Country

'Crazy' Texas Longhorns Jabbed by NFL's Garrett Wilson - Austin's Own - During Sweet 16 Move

Austin native and Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson seems a bit miffed about the Texas Longhorns athletics program.

Matt Galatzan

In this story:

The Texas Longhorns advanced to the Sweet 16 on Saturday night, taking down the Penn State Nittany Lions 71-66 in March Madness' round of 32.

And following the win, Austin's own Garrett Wilson, who played high school ball here and is a New York Jets wide receiver, decided to take that opportunity to throw a jab the Longhorns' way. ...

In particular, about the way the Longhorns value in-state athletic talent.

"I love seeing the University of Texas, value the talent in their backyard of Austin… n now they’re winning. Crazy how that work," Wilson said. "Love to see it. Hahaha"

Wilson, of course, was a five-star recruit out of Lake Travis (Austin, TX) in the 2019 recruiting class, hauling in 222 catches for 3,648 yards and 57 touchdowns in three seasons with the Cavaliers. 

But despite seemingly significant interest from Texas - where he took an official visit in April of 2018 - Wilson, who was also recruited heavily by then passing game coordinator and wide receiver coach Drew Mehringer and offensive coordinator Tim Beck, elected to sign with the Ohio State Buckeyes. 

So what exactly is Wilson talking about here?

Well, we really aren't all that sure. So let's poke a few holes in it, shall we?

First and foremost, Wilson claimed, back in a 2022 interview with Rich Eisen, that the Horns did not value him early on in the recruiting process. 

"Texas had had a few down years at that point. I was from Austin, but it wasn't like they came and started recruiting me early or tried to get in on me early," Wilson told Eisen in the interview. "They kind of came with the rest of the pack of schools that came and recruited me. When I went up to Ohio State and did that visit... the relationship there was just very special. It wasn't like something I had anywhere else at that time."

When, in reality, and with all due respect to Wilson, seems to be quite a stretch to the truth. 

However, according to multiple reports as well as the 247Sports recruiting database, (and a since-deleted tweet from Wilson himself), the Longhorns actually offered Wilson on November 29, 2017... before the Buckeyes came knocking on December 12, 2017.

Not to mention, Wilson is technically not an Austin native at all.

In fact, as he also admitted in the interview, he was actually born in Chicago and raised in none other than... Columbus, Ohio - exactly where Ohio State University is located - and he did not move to Texas until the age of 11. 

Oh, and there is also the fact that the Longhorns, have 75 players from Texas on their roster, including 11 from the city of Austin alone. 

Either way, this is all ancient history. 

Wilson chose the Buckeyes.

Meanwhile, the Longhorns (at the time) chose the higher-rated five-star Bru McCoy and four-star Jake Smith (both of whom eventually left for other opportunities), as well as five-star ATH and Texas native, Jordan Whittington, who is currently a star on the team.

So from the outside looking in, it appears as though the Longhorns' power structure that was in place at the time, simply valued other players higher than Wilson... 

And that maybe, Wilson might be a bit salty about it.

You can follow Matt Galatzan on Twitter @MattGalatzan

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Published
Matt Galatzan
MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.

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