{"id":387438,"date":"2026-07-27T04:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T04:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/387438\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T04:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T04:49:12","slug":"5-star-longhorns-commit-easton-royal-hints-at-final-decision-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/387438\/","title":{"rendered":"5-star Longhorns commit Easton Royal hints at final decision Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Updated July 26, 2026, 9:15 p.m. CT<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The long drawn out saga of five-star wide receiver commit <a href=\"http:\/\/longhornswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/longhorns\/recruiting\/2026\/07\/10\/expert-predicts-whether-texas-commit-easton-royal-will-flip-to-lsu\/90878793007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Easton Royal appears to be coming to an end<\/a> on Wednesday. The <a data-autotag=\"d0aef51d-3248-4c0c-bbcc-b01ab386ce2f\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/sports\/college-sports\/sec\/texas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Texas Longhorns<\/a> pledge, <a href=\"http:\/\/longhornswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/longhorns\/recruiting\/2026\/07\/18\/new-prediction-five-star-texas-commit-easton-royal-will-flip-to-lsu\/90966066007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who has continued to shop his talents<\/a> even after committing to Texas, hinted in a midnight Tweet that a final decision will happen this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/easton-royal-46154901\/high-school-328203\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">New Orleans native out of Brother Martin<\/a>\u00a0High School is a five-star prospect and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/season\/2027-football\/compositerecruitrankings\/?InstitutionGroup=highschool\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">consensus No. 6 player in the class<\/a>. It looks increasingly\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/longhornswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/longhorns\/recruiting\/2026\/07\/05\/will-5-star-wr-commit-easton-royal-flip-from-texas-longhorns-to-lsu\/90812801007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unlikely Royal ends up in Burnt Orange<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a href=\"http:\/\/longhornswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/longhorns\/football\/2025\/11\/29\/longhorns-football-adds-elite-wide-receiver-to-their-2027-class\/87527959007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Royal committed to Texas in late November<\/a>. Despite his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/texas-longhorns\/3488\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Longhorns<\/a>\u00a0pledge, he never seemed like he was 100% in on Steve Sarkisian&#8217;s program in Austin.\u00a0After his round of official visits, the SEC powerhouse in his home state is starting to look more and more likely to flip the speedy WR.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Many recruiting experts are predicting Royal will end up at LSU.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;How often have we seen this with a kid that grew up 30 minutes from New Orleans? Originally, you know, it&#8217;s Bama. It&#8217;s Florida State. It&#8217;s Miami. Whatever. But they sign with LSU.&#8221; &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/fbscout_florida\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">Locked on recruiting expert Brian Smith<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SWiltfong_\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Rivals&#8217; Steve Wiltfong<\/a> logged a prediction for Royal to flip his commitment from Texas to LSU. The &#8220;Fong Bomb&#8221; is most likely the result of solid intel from Royal or Royal&#8217;s camp. In fact, Royal even responded to the Tweet and it wasn&#8217;t a denial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Royal said he hasn&#8217;t talked to any coaches over the past month: He and his family have been in decision mode.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cHonestly, this past month, I haven\u2019t talked to a single coach or anybody from any school. Me and my mom have been sitting down, weighing out all the pros and cons, to make sure I make the best decision for me.&#8221; &#8211; Five-star WR Easton Royal<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">But the five-star admits LSU is trending. Royal said LSU made a significant jump during his official visit to Baton Rouge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cAll day at school, all of my friends are pushing me to flip to the\u00a0LSU Tigers. You only get this process once \u2013 so I\u2019m committed to Texas, but I\u2019m still trying to figure out if that\u2019s the best decision for me. The ultimate end goal is to make the best decision for my family and me. Coach Lane [Kiffin] and I are building a relationship. He texts me often, just telling me to have a good week &#8211; sending me videos, motivating me, and recruiting me to be an LSU Tiger.\u201d &#8211;\u00a0Five-star WR Easton Royal<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Texas has always seemed like a placeholder. Committing to a program early, but continuing the recruiting process as if uncommitted is a longtime strategy with some of the highest ranked recruits. Especially in the NIL and player compensation era when you&#8217;re trying to drive up your price. It&#8217;s part of the game if you want to try to sign five-stars. The placeholder school, if the prospect ends up elsewhere, always feels betrayed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Royal might be the best wide receiver recruit Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has ever gotten to commit to the <a data-autotag=\"822d9954-d86b-4626-bf51-6dd81a3c1a32\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/texas-longhorns\/3488\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Longhorns<\/a>. But it&#8217;s could also become Sark&#8217;s biggest loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated July 26, 2026, 9:15 p.m. CT The long drawn out saga of five-star wide receiver commit Easton&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33,103858,125904,34233,44,45,126725,40,42,39,43,46,8950,688,4928,4929,27,29,28,36],"class_list":["post-387438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-accessfree","tag-sourcelonghorns-wire","tag-sstssportscollegelonghornsrecruiting","tag-sstsnrecruiting","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagncaa-recruiting","tag-tagncaa-southeastern-conference","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagsec-conference-football","tag-tagsec-hub","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagsteve-sarkisian","tag-tagtexas","tag-tagtexas-longhorns","tag-tagtexas-longhorns-football","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}