Commitment around the corner for 3-Star TE Jared Wiley
TEMPLE, Tex. -- Coming out of the locker room, Jared Wiley looks every bit the part of a ready-made college quarterback prospect. Even though he’ll be taking snaps from under-center next fall, his future is at tight end, and he knows that’s the expectation from all the teams in his Top 3.
Wiley said that he’s eyeing up a commitment for the end of the month, and the odds-on favorite, Texas, has been giving him its best pitch down the stretch. Meanwhile, Houston and Missouri are looking to make one final push before he announces.
“[Texas] talks to me a lot; it’s almost an everyday thing,” he said. “They’ve shown a lot more interest than everyone else. Houston’s gotten in the mix a lot more and Missouri came out to practice the other day and I’ve talked to the coach every day since then, so I am just sitting down with my family to go through all the pros and cons about everything. It’s going to be close.”
Even after showing his chops as a tight end this spring at a Rivals 3 Stripe Camp presented by adidas earlier this spring, he’s not concerned about having to jump back into catching passes rather than throwing them after this season. Wiley enters this fall as the Wildcats’ starting quarterback after splitting time at the position last season.
“I like it, I don’t have a problem with it at all,” he said. “I enjoyed playing tight end last year … All summer I’ll be working on [tight end] and I’ll be an early enrollee, so I’ll get that back pretty quick. I went from playing quarterback from fourth grad to my sophomore year and just like that, I switched over, so I feel like I can do it again.”
Wiley hasn’t taken any of his official visits yet this offseason, but said that after he commits, that’s it for him, and he’ll only look to take an official to whichever program he decides on.
IN HIS WORDS
On Houston, where he visited for the Cougars’ spring game
“I liked what I saw,” he said. “I enjoyed how much they threw the ball around - got it in the tight end’s hands and that’s the first thing that I noticed. Coach (LaMar) Morgan, Coach (James) Casey and Coach (Kendal) Briles has started texting me more a little bit.”
On Missouri
“I’m just looking for them to keep talking to me every day,” he said. “I want to get up there on an official visit, but I don’t know if that will happen yet. They’ve been wanting me to come up early summer, but I explained that I’ll be committing before then, so we’ll see what happens.”
On Texas
“Coach (Derek) Warehime is a great guy and a great coach,” he said. “He talks with me every day, texts me about how practice went, and he keeps up with me. That’s why Texas has been one of my top picks so far.”
RIVALS REACTION
The specific date that Wiley mentioned was May 24, but that date might be closer than he realized as he was talking through his options. Texas has appeared the favorite as things have become more serious with him, and the Longhorns have tried to get creative with their signees at the position in the past few recruiting classes. Wiley is still a bit of a project, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t flash moments of natural brilliance - and after practice, he showed his physical strength when he won a one-on-one tug of war battle with a defensive player pretty handily.