Buzz around Colin Simmons on eve of decision day

LSU and Texas are awaiting a decision from 2024 Duncanville (Tex.) EDGE Colin Simmons, who announces at 2 p.m. CT on Thursday. The Five Star Plus+ prospect is one the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine is split on, but clarity is emerging.

Based on what multiple sources are telling me heading into decision day, I expect the Longhorns to be the pick for Simmons, as of now. Now, there’s a chance that this could flip back LSU’s way, but I expect things to tighten down on Simmons’ end as he and his family prepare for his announcement. I haven’t moved my On3 RPM pick yet, but if I don’t hear positivity by Thursday morning, I will.

Simmons is a prospect that wasn’t going to go far from home, we knew that. That’s a reason why LSU stayed in this race. LSU also had some strong relationships here working in its favor, but didn’t have everyone in the camp fully on board.

For Colin, he feels he’ll be a guy who is three-and-out wherever he goes. Tough to blame him for feeling that way, but LSU did put together a great plan for him on the field as well. I think there’s more trust in LSU on Simmons’ end to execute that plan, in a sense.

I’ve said this for a while now, but as you get into the final schools, most players are comfortable with any school in the top group. I feel that way about Colin, save for Miami. He could see himself in Baton Rouge or Austin. Both NIL packages are extremely strong.

I do see Texas having an endless pocketbook when it comes to making it happen with Simmons, which was always going to be tough to overcome for LSU. Simmons has a brother with autism and one of the biggest factors for him is his comfort. That’s why programs like Texas and Texas A&M were well-positioned. If the family didn’t want to move, they wouldn’t have to.

What worked against Texas throughout this recruitment is relationships elsewhere for Simmons might’ve been a bit better. The plan for Simmons and his family though seems to have come together in Austin.

LSU set up a situation that’d be extremely strong and included pitching his family on what a life in Baton Rouge would look like. This isn’t one of those races where LSU peaked too early, but rather made it very difficult down the stretch on Texas. There was confidence that Simmons was set to shut things down after his June visit to Austin.

Instead, LSU buckled in and pressed. The Tigers got the whole family down to Baton Rouge to take things in for a multi-day trip around Bayou Splash.

We’ll have much more in my full behind the scenes piece, but as Shea and I put our On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine picks in, we wrestled with this question, “should we wait?” This is why we could’ve certainly waited, but in reality, LSU sat in a tremendous spot for Simmons when he announced his commitment date. It seemed like boxes were checked, but on our end we knew there was still time.

Anyone saying this recruitment was done after the Texas official visit in June would be mistaken. Same for LSU in the aftermath of hosting him for the Bayou Splash.

While we knew and posted this would be a battle until decision day and beyond, we didn’t want to put our picks in at the last second. We had good information and we submitted our predictions. As we posted, it wasn’t a celebration of sorts on our end, but a feeling of where things stood on our end.

As you’d expect for a prospect like Simmons, the heat was turned up by both sides even more. Roughly 24 hours from his decision, it looks like the Longhorns will keep him in-state.

There’s going to be a lot of different angles to unpack once this one ends, but that’s where I see things with Simmons right now.

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