AUSTIN, Texas — For the second straight seasons, the Texas Longhorns have experienced significant turnover at the wide receiver position following the departures of Matthew Golden, Isaiah Bond, Silas Bolden, and Johntay Cook.
So for redshirt sophomore quarterback Arch Manning to make a smooth transition into the starting role for the Longhorns, players have to step forward in Chris Jackson’s position room, especially sophomore Ryan Wingo, who arrived on the Forty Acres last year as a huge recruiting
coup for Jackson ranked as the No. 39 player nationally and the No. 8 wide receiver, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.
It was a recruitment that Texas fell behind in early when Wingo and his family took an unofficial visit to Austin early in the cycle and didn’t receive much attention from the coaching staff. But when Jackson visited Wingo’s high school in St. Louis to establish a more personal relationship with, the bond between coach and recruit began to grow, culminating in Wingo’s commitment to Texas in late October 2023 over finalists Georgia, Miami, Missouri, and Texas A&M.
“It was a genuine conversation — him as a young man, me as a coach, a father, and just really talking ball, talking life, talking what my experience was like at Texas and leaving the NFL to come to Texas, and it was just genuine conversations, and that’s all it was. It was no promising. There was no really recruiting. It was just two people talking and I think that’s what really started our relationship and got his interest into Texas,” Jackson said at the start of preseason camp.
With 29 catches for 472 yards and two touchdowns, Wingo was the fourth-leading receiver for the Longhorns as a true freshman. Most of the production came early in the season, however — Wingo recorded both of his touchdown catches and his only 100-yard performance during the non-conference portion of the schedule and didn’t have more than three catches after the Vanderbilt game despite averaging over 50 snaps per game.
Against Georgia in the SEC Championship game, Wingo had two of his four drops on the season, recording only one reception on five targets. In the Cotton Bowl loss to Ohio State, a game in which Bond and Golden were both limited by injury, Wingo recorded one catch for 22 yards on six targets, an inability to connect with Quinn Ewers that hurt Texas significantly in that game.
“He had to get better in certain areas. As big as he is, I think he gave away routes a little bit,” Jackson said. “I just think it was opportunities that he didn’t get that came very naturally early in the season.”
Wingo also admittedly had an adjustment period to college football once he got into the SEC schedule.
“I think it was a speed at first, and then, they’re way more aggressive up here, so trying to get hands off of you, they’re super handsy up here. So yeah, that speed, and then people are just stronger,” Wingo said during preseason camp.
So even though Wingo benefited from enrolling early, he was still ultimately limited by his youth as a true freshman.
“These guys come in and we can’t get them ready to do everything, so you’re just trying to put them in position to do some of the things that they do well,” Sarkisian said.
At 6’2, 214 pounds, Wingo’s most elite trait is his rare combination of size, speed, and running back-like ability with the ball in his hands — at St. Louis University, the Missouri product ran a 10.5 100-meter dash, prompting Jackson to call him a “freak.”
“We ran reverses and shots down the field with him, but all the while, we were trying to develop his game to be a more complete player,” Sarkisian said.
Wingo flashed his explosiveness in both of those areas, carrying the ball five times for 100 yards in 2024, highlighted by a 55-yard run against Michigan that nearly went for a touchdown and a 75-yard touchdown reception Arch Manning against UTSA. His average depth of target was 14 yards, the second-highest on the team behind Bond.
Sarkisian believes that if Bond and Golden hadn’t come to Austin via the NCAA transfer portal, that Wingo would have been a starter as a true freshman and would now be mentioned in the same category as elite class of 2024 wide receivers like Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and Alabama’s Ryan Williams.
“He didn’t have as many targets, but you look at the average yards per catch. You look at the explosive plays. You look at his ability to run the ball when we asked him to do that. So really high hopes for him,” Sarkisian said in an appearance on The Stampede podcast.
Now, with Bond and Golden in the NFL, it’s time for Wingo to emerge as a player who can match the production of Smith and Williams with a breakout season enabled by his combination of talent and work ethic and the rapport that he’s developed with Manning, who is known for his willingness and ability to hit the deep shots that Wingo is so good at running.
“I think that, to his credit, like Anthony [Hill], the most important thing in Ryan Wingo’s life is being a great football player,” Sarkisian said. “He pours into it every single day,and the result is he’s become a better player. Now it’s our job to try to put him in more positions to have some success.”
According to Wingo, his role is going to look pretty familiar.
“It didn’t really change too much,” Wingo said. “I’m still trying to take the top off, still getting the end arounds, everything like that. So it’s just more plays.”
