When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from one to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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THE STORYLINE
Fresh off his visit to Texas where the Longhorns cleaned house and landed seven commitments during an outstanding month of pledges, Billy Walton backed off his pledge to Oklahoma State.
It looks like the Longhorns could get the three-star defensive end from Dallas South Oak Cliff at any time.
Texas was seriously in the running for Walton the first time around during the spring, but after a visit to Stillwater he picked the Cowboys over Texas, SMU and others.
This past weekend’s visit sparked something in the Dallas South Oak Cliff standout and he decided to reopen his recruitment. Sometimes, there is such momentum in recruiting - and Walton had such a great visit to Austin - and Texas now looks like the team to beat.
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LOCAL REACTION
“Walton was an excellent recruiting job by position coach Greg Richmond. Hanging on to Texas kids when the Longhorns put on a full-court press is tough. Add in the fact that Walton plays a position of medium-high need in Oklahoma State's class and the Sting Factor is definitely there.” - Jeff Johnson, OStateIllustrated.com
Sting Factor: 8
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NATIONAL REACTION
“It is never ideal to lose someone from the state of Texas, especially someone with Walton’s ability. There are no two ways around that because the Dallas South Oak Cliff prospect can play, he’s versatile and Oklahoma State was selling him on the idea of doing a whole lot of things in its defense. It’s also not a dream scenario to lose him to Texas if that’s where Walton ends up. But coach Mike Gundy and his staff always have a way of developing under-ranked players and there are already some players in the Cowboys’ class who fit that mold and assuredly more could be coming. Over the last decade, Oklahoma State has 90 wins and Texas has 70. The Cowboys’ last losing season was 2005, while Texas has four losing campaigns in the last decade. Texas absolutely has momentum in recruiting and things seem to be going in the right direction, but Gundy knows how to run his program, too.” - Adam Gorney, Rivals national recruiting director
Sting Factor: 6
