Take Two: Can Texas land Kelee Ringo?

CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

MORE TAKE TWO: Will Tennessee focus more on in-state prospects in Year 2 under Pruitt?

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling an issue in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

Five-star Kelee Ringo is going to stay in the conversation for being the top-rated cornerback in this class because he’s had an exceptional offseason including at the Rivals 3 Stripe Camp presented by adidas in Los Angeles among many other events.

Ringo is special. So is No. 1 cornerback Elias Ricks, who committed to LSU early and has put his recruitment on the back burner. For Ringo, his top schools are just coming into focus with Texas, Georgia and Ohio State leading the way but Oklahoma, Washington and others cannot be counted out, either.

The Scottsdale (Ariz.) Saguaro standout has given Longhorns fans a lot to consider. He’s been to Austin numerous times, he’s spent a lot of time on campus and a return trip to Texas is also expected. Still, others are right there as the five-star cornerback has loved his time at Georgia and Ohio State can never be counted out of any recruitment.

Can Texas go back to the state of Arizona for another outstanding prospect and keep that West Coast pipeline alive by getting arguably the top cornerback in the 2020 class to make a commitment?

“It’s safe to say Kelee Ringo is one of Texas’ top priorities in this class regardless of position. You could put him, Zachary Evans and Justin Flowe in the same category. Texas is in a great spot early on with Ringo since he’s taken three unofficial visits to Texas already including one which was a week-long stay. He told me he would be returning for an official visit as well. He hasn’t named a leader but I do think Texas could be the team to beat at this early stage.”

“It would be huge to get him because Texas needs to recruit nationally. Under Mack Brown the Longhorns recruited more regionally than anything and he mostly stayed in-state. He won a national championship that way but it certainly helped having Vince Young.

“In this day-and-age, you have to recruit nationally. To see them get Bru McCoy from L.A., Jake Smith from Arizona, who was state player of the year, they have a little bit of momentum. Oklahoma is usually the program that goes out West and steals some kids away but I think Texas is starting to see that works for it and why wouldn’t it work for Texas? He’s probably their No. 1 target, the SEC is tough to beat at times so we’ll see how far away he wants to go from home but I don’t think he’s staying out West.”