DESOTO, Texas -- One of the most explosive receivers at the Dallas Nike Football Training Camp at Eagle Stadium on Saturday was unsurprisingly Aledo (Texas) product Ryan Newsome.
Out-of-state visits will help Ryan Newsome narrow his list
Two schools are already set to receive official visits from the dynamic offensive weapon.
And though he didn’t earn an invite to The Opening at the event, he did solidify his spot as one of the best at his position in the state.
After the event, he spoke with SB Nation Recruiting about where things stand in his recruiting process.
At this point, there aren’t any leaders for him right now, as the telling part of his recruitment is yet to happen.
“It’s kind of hard right now to talk about any favorites because I’m still trying to take my out-of-state visits,” he said.
Those visits will include UCLA, Oregon, and Notre Dame, with a trip to South Bend to see the Fighting Irish scheduled for this week with Allen (Texas) wide receiver. Newsome said that the two are friends.
The other visits to UCLA and Oregon in the summer will allow him to narrow his list before his senior season starts and right now, Oregon is the only school that he thinks will make his top five.
"Bralon Addison is one of my good friends, so he's told me a lot about them, how it's a great program and the coaches really care about you," Newsome said of the Ducks. "The coaches seem really genuine and they haven't stopped recruiting me yet. Coach Frost and coach Lubick are on me pretty hard and they want me out there."
Besides the effort put in by the coaching staff to get the consensus four-star prospect on campus, Newsome also sees the high-powered offense of Oregon as a major draw.
“Tailor made for me,” he said. “It’s basically about getting out there and seeing things. I’m already going to use an official on them, along with Florida State, those are ones that I definitely know.The other three I’m not sure about right now.”
Texas Tech received a recent visit from Newsome, as he made the journey out to Lubbock with a highly-rated commit who could impact his recruitment.
“Yeah I took one with Jarrett Stidham and I liked everything that I saw,” Newsome said. “The drive out there isn’t pleasant and I don’t care for that, but it’s whatever.”
Newsome is taking a look at the depth charts of schools under consideration, so the chance to catch passes from the Stephenville dual-threat quarterback is appealing.
“It’s great -- that’s what I look at, is which quarterback is going to be throwing the ball to me. What better kid to do that than Jarrett?”
"There's other great quarterbacks out there, though, so I'm going to look at the schools that I really like, schools like Oklahoma. I went there and they're going to be set at quarterback for a while -- they have Baker Mayfield, Cody Thomas, and Trevor Knight, so there are schools like that that I know are going to be pretty stable at quarterback for a while."
Another school that received a spring visit is Texas. Afterwards, the Longhorns were thought to have shot up his list and there was even some talk that they were the leader based on some of his comments. Newsome denied that.
“I like Texas,” he said. “As far as the ‘locks’ and where I’m going to go, I don’t know where I’m going to go, but I like Texas, it’s no secret. We’ll see where everything goes.”
A benefit that the Horns have is Newsome’s longtime relationship with one of the new assistant coaches.
“Running backs coach Tommie Robinson has been knowing me since I was three years old, so I’m close with everybody and the staff is bringing a different type of swagger and a different type of energy and that’s something that they needed. I like the coaches, they’re pretty energetic.”
The staff also laid out how they want to use Newsome if he were to choose Texas.
“Like Daje Johnson, a slot receiver, running back type of guy,” he said. “They want to split me out and have me do kick returns and things like that since I can make things happen with my feet.”
The particular usage envisioned by the Texas coaching staff isn’t unique, however, as Newsome’s ability in the punt and kick return games have a lot of coaching staff
In the end, the summer visits will help determine which schools make Newsome’s top five and the trip to Notre Dame and Oregon seem especially capable of launching one of those programs to the top of his list.
