Few recruits in the 2017 class have captured the attention of college football fans the way Marvin Wilson has.
It makes sense if you think about it. Wilson is the nation's top-ranked recruit overall and he's very personable, drawing interest from recruiting fans all over the country.
On Saturday, Wilson simultaneously added to the excitement of some fans and broke others' hearts, when he announced his 10 finalists.
As expected, the Longhorns survived the cut and Texas continues to look like a program that will factor into Wilson's recruitment until the very end.
Key quote: "Texas is just Texas, that’s the thing. Coming from the home state, I always loved Texas, grew up watching Colt McCoy and Vince Young, especially with Vince being another guy from Houston," Wilson said. "He was the number one player in his class, I’m the number one player in my class and I might go to Texas, so you never know."
Staying in constant contact: Wilson talks to Texas head coach Charlie Strong and defensive coordinator Vance Bedford quite a bit. The UT coaches have delivered a pretty specific message to Wilson, and it's carrying some weight with the five-star defensive tackle.
"The fact that at Texas you can come play for your home state team and blow it up," Wilson said of UT's recruiting pitch. "It’s the same thing like Malik (Jefferson) did, staying in state, now I can come up there and do the same thing he did.
"That resonates with me. I talk to Malik when I go up there to visit. Me and him playing together, me handling it up front and him cleaning up my mess, that’s a great thing to chill out to him."
Business to take care of: If Texas wants to win out on the Wilson sweepstakes, there's one big thing Wilson will need to see over the next six months. The Houston Episcopal product has been pretty open that he wants to see the Longhorns win some games in the 2016 season and while he doesn't have a set number that UT needs to reach, he wants Strong's program to show him it is heading in the right direction.
"I just want to see them win a decent amount of games. That’s all I want to see," Wilson said. "If they’re successful, I just want them to do well. I just want to see progress."
Upcoming visits: Wilson plans to visit Ohio State this week, Florida State the following week and Southern Cal after that. He recently visited Alabama, which made a strong impression.
"That was great. I got to meet (defensive line) coach (Karl) Dunbar for the first time, check it out, see what he’s about, see what Bama is about," Wilson said. "I got to see the players work out, watched some videos, sat in some sessions with them. It was a great visit overall."
FSU making a push, and a familiar name is leading the charge: Wilson doesn't have a pecking order among his top 10, but there is a lot of chatter of late that Florida State is a school that will receive a lot of consideration. Former Texas assistant coach Tim Brewster is helping lead the charge for FSU.
"He’s one of the best recruiters I’ve met," Wilson said.
Return trip to Austin in the works?: Wilson said he'll probably take a summer visit to Texas, possibly for the Longhorns Under the Lights camp in July.
