Plano West linebacker Mohamed Sanogo has had a pretty impressive run of camp performances, and there's a good chance those showings will lead to an increase in the number of scholarship offers he's holding.
Sanogo earned MVP at The Opening regional camp a few weeks ago. He was terrific at the Rivals Camp Series Dallas event two weeks ago, showing well in pass coverage and in positional drills.
Sanogo hasn't earned as many headlines as some other linebackers in the state, but the recent camp showings shouldn't exactly come as a surprise ... he did earn linebacker MVP at last summer's Texas Under The Lights camp.
Despite the impressive camp performances, the offers have been a tad slow to roll in for Sanogo. He has been offered scholarships by Indiana and Rice, while a number of other schools are set to evaluate him further this spring.
One of those programs wanting to get a closer look is the Texas Longhorns.
Key quote: “I just like the program as a whole. It’s a nice program, it’s in Texas, it’s close to home," Sanogo said. "I used to live down in Austin and I know some of the players down there. I was talking to Patrick Vahe a bit so that was cool.”
Other visits: Along with Texas, Sanogo has visited Baylor and SMU this spring. He'll be at Texas A&M on April 1.
Where Texas fits: Sanogo is keeping things pretty open as he waits to see what offers will come in, but the Longhorns are a program that has always been high on his list.
"They fit up pretty high because I like the education part. It’s a great business school," Sanogo said. "If I get the offer, or when I do, I’m just going to really go out there and make a decision, find the best place for me."
Not in a rush: The 6-2, 230-pound Sanogo doesn't have a timeline for when he'd like to make a recruiting decision. He's taking the advice of a former teammate Soso Jamabo, who took his recruitment all the way to National Signing Day.
“One of my friends, Soso Jamabo, he told me to take my time and don’t make a quick decision because you don’t want to be in a situation where you regret it or go to a place where you don’t want to be,” Sanogo said.
Don't look for Sanogo to necessarily follow Jamabo's footsteps and announce his decision on NSD, but he will likely wait a while to see if other programs enter the mix in the spring or summer.
My thoughts: Sanogo was terrific at the RCS Dallas event. Baron Browning won linebacker MVP honors and he deserved it, but Sanogo's performance wasn't too far off. He showed good hips in pass coverage and ran well, providing good coverage on both underneath routes and when running backs would try to test him deep.
Sanogo is a pure middle linebacker who is at his best playing within the tackle box, but if he can show college coaches this spring that he has the ability to play sideline to sideline, I expect his offer list to grow dramatically.
As for Texas, the Longhorns have Sanogo in "wait and see" mode. If Texas does decide to extend an offer down the road, the Longhorns will instantly become the favorites and an early commitment would be a strong possibility.
