Missouri City Ridge Point tight end Mustapha Muhammad is one of the top prospects in the country for the 2018 recruiting class. The 6-5, 225-pound Muhammad will have no shortage of college options when he decided to sort through the recruiting process (he already holds close to 30 offers), but th at doesn't mean Muhammad waiting around for the action to come to him.
Busy fall: Along with his commitments to his high school team, Muhammad has a busy schedule full of unofficial visits. He was in Austin for the Longhorns' season-opening win over Notre Dame and last weekend took in TCU's game against Arkansas. This week, he'll take an unofficial visit to Oklahoma to watch the Sooners host Ohio State. Further down the road, he has trips planned to LSU (against Alabama) and Ohio State (against Michigan).
On the UT visit: Muhammad said he enjoyed his experience in Austin for the Notre Dame game. He was also in attendance at a UT game last year, when the Longhorns hosted Texas Tech, but the atmosphere and excitement of this one stood out.
"It was a great experience. I had fun at the game," Muhammad said. "It was a good one. It went into overtime, UT won a thriller. I got to talk to coach (Jeff) Traylor, the tight ends coach. It was good experience at UT."
Catching back up with Texas: When we talked to Muhammad at the Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge in Atlanta over the summer, he hadn't heard from the Texas coaches in some time. The UT coach who had been recruiting him (Chris Vaughn) was no longer with the UT staff and the contact with the Longhorns had gone pretty quiet.
That changed recently, when Muhammad communicated with Texas Director of Player Personnel Mike Giglio and an invitation was extended to come to the Notre Dame game.
"Now that I've visited, showed my face on the campus, they feel that I still have some interest, and I do," Muhammad said. "I talked to coach Traylor, and he'll be the one recruiting me."
Evaluating offenses: Muhammad is a versatile tight end who specializes in making plays in the passing game. As such, he's looking to play in an offense that throws the ball to the tight ends. On the UT visit, the Longhorn tight ends did not receive a single target. Muhammad didn't get a chance to talk to the Longhorn coaches about how they'd like to use their tight ends in their ideal offense, but he said he's going to take a big-picture approach on his evaluations and not rush to judgment after one game.
"I didn't talk to the coaches about (the TEs), but I found it interesting that the tight end was on the field most of the game, but not as a receiving threat," Muhammad said.
In evaluating what he saw from the Texas offense, there are two ways Muhammad could approach things - will the lack of TE targets be the norm, or is part of the reason for the lack of targets because the Longhorns don't have a player who has the skill set Muhammad possesses?
"It's a little bit of both. Maybe their tight ends aren't the best receiving threats. Maybe that's why I have to step in," Muhammad said. "I have to keep watching them this season, see how things progress."
Keeping an open mind: Muhammad hasn't yet started to narrow his focus. Over the summer, he did take unofficial visits to UCLA and Michigan, and said both places felt like home and he could "definitely see (himself) playing)" at either place.
As for the Longhorns, Texas appeared to have made up some ground after the visit this month.
"Yes, it does," Muhammad said when asked if the visit puts Texas in a better position. "I enjoyed my time at UT. The first visit, it wasn't the best impression. This one cleared some things up, answered some questions. UT moved up."
