Sting Factor: Evan Stewart backs off pledge to Texas
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 1 to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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THE STORYLINE
Texas has been on an outstanding run of recent commitments, a lot of credit going to first-year coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff for targeting elite prospects and convincing them that the future for the Longhorns is bright.
Evan Stewart was one of those players. The speedy four-star receiver from Frisco (Texas) Liberty made his pledge to Texas in February, one of a handful of top-notch prospects to load up the Longhorns’ recruiting class early, giving momentum to Sarkisian and his staff as the rebuild gets going in Austin.
But on Thursday, less than a month after he made his pledge, Stewart reopened his recruitment, saying he has taken no visits and met no college coaches and wanted to wait until after the dead period is lifted (probably at the end of May) to see schools and get a better grasp of everything that’s available to him.
To figure out where Stewart’s recruitment goes from here is difficult since basically all the national powers had been involved before his Texas pledge. Plus, visits and in-person meetings with coaches will be crucial to his next decision.
Texas is definitely not out of it, but the Longhorns will have to get him back in their class. Sometimes, that’s even more difficult the second time around.
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LOCAL REACTION
This one is a big hit for Texas for a few reasons. First off, Stewart is arguably the top wide receiver prospect in what is a very deep and talented year for receivers in the state of Texas. Secondly, he's one of the country's premier overall athletes and has the type of speed and explosiveness that Sarkisian needs in his offense. Texas has a few talented skill players committed in this class so it's not catastrophic, but it's definitely a big hit in the overall talent level on UT's commitment list. - Jason Suchomel, OrangeBloods.com
Sting Factor: 8
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NATIONAL REACTION
Momentum is so important in recruiting, especially for a new coaching staff that’s selling a very appealing vision, and Texas just lost some of that momentum with Stewart’s decommitment. It’s not the end of the world, though, since the Longhorns have a lot of irons in the fire when it comes to receiver recruiting and a lot of fallback options since the state is so loaded at the position this year. Texas has some ground to make up, though, with Brenen Thompson probably leaning to Clemson, Caleb Burton committed to Ohio State and Jordan Hudson committed to Oklahoma, although the Longhorns are working on flipping some guys as well as some uncommitted recruits who could work well in Sarkisian’s offense. Stewart was a big piece, but I’m not counting Texas out for him yet, since there were reasons he committed in the first place and after seeing other schools I still think he could end up in Austin. - Adam Gorney, Rivals national recruiting director
Sting Factor: 7