New update to the commitment timeline of 4-star TE Walter Matthews
The recruitment of Hiram (Ga.) four-star tight end Walter Matthews is becoming one of the most interesting for USC this summer.
Matthews has publicly stated USC and Florida are his top and seemingly final two schools. He has now officially visited both programs this month. It is also important to note that Matthews is expected back at USC for an unofficial visit while in town for the Elite 11 Finals, according to Chad Simmons.
Over the past few weeks, there has been speculation and questions about when Matthew might want to commit and whether there would be a specific date announced.
He has never given much on the topic, but he did give me an interesting answer this go around. And it was the first time I had heard it from him.
Matthews actually tells me he is waiting to be able to commit along side some of his teammates.
This is pretty common during signing day activities, but mid summer is a bit different. But hey, who doesn’t like a team oriented guy?
Does Matthews have a school picked out? He is pretty tight lipped on giving hints and he said recently it was truly a 50/50 battle.
So, looking at some his teammates, it appears Hiram has three others being recruited power five in the 2024 class, all three-star prospects. WR Chase Tyler, IOL Jameson Riggs, and IOL Clinton Richard are the three currently ranked in 2024. Two of the three have publicly stated they want to be committed before the season starts.
This matches up pretty well with what the feeling has been with Matthews for some time.
None of the other three have announced commitment dates, but it gives us (or me at least) something to be on the look out for regarding when Matthews could make a decision.
The battle of USC vs. Florida
I try not to rely on quotes from recruits too much when deciphering recruitments. Guys say a lot of the same things and will sometimes say things that aren’t necessarily their true feelings, so many things can be taken with a grain of salt. But I did find some of Matthews’ recent comments interesting.
When talking about his Florida official visit, Matthews said “I didn’t really learn anything new or hear anything different on this visit,” Matthews told On3. “I have been there a lot, I knew everything about Florida already and I was able to get back down there to be around the people this weekend.
He also added “I really don’t feel any differently about Florida after this visit.”
Matthews did go on to compliment several parts of the visits, but he was overall neutral in his responses. There was no excess excitement nor disappointment.
This differs a bit in his comments from his USC visit, where he did express his thoughts on USC and the staff. “The visit was really, really good. I really liked coach [Lincoln] Riley,” he said.
Matthews also commented that “the environment and coaching staff” were on full display in Los Angeles and were his biggest new takeaways from the official visit.
On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine
The On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine currently has Florida as the favorite to land a commitment from Matthews at 32.6%. USC comes in at second place with 23.9% odds.
RPM was released to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college.It factors in machine learning, social sentiment, visits and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.
It factors in machine learning, social sentiment, visits and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.
On3 NIL Evaluation on Matthews
Matthews currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $97K. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.
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