One of the nation\u2019s top cornerbacks in the 2026 cycle has locked in a summer commitment date.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Huntersville (N.C.) William Amos Hough<\/a> four-star CB Samari Matthews<\/a> announced via X that he will reveal his college decision on Aug. 10. The 6-foot, 180-pounder previously named a top four of Clemson<\/a>, South Carolina<\/a>, Florida State<\/a> and Oregon<\/a>, though other programs have also emerged in his process.<\/p>\n Matthews is the No. 71 overall prospect and No. 12 CB in the 2026 cycle, according to the\u00a0On3 Industry Ranking<\/a>, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He\u2019s also the No. 7 player in North Carolina.<\/p>\n Clemson (May 30), FSU (June 6), Texas<\/a> (June 13) and South Carolina (June 20) have set official visits with the blue-chipper. The Longhorns, a new contender in his recruitment, are currently trending in the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine.<\/p>\n Matthews visited Austin last month and the Texas staff made some serious strides with the rising defensive back. Things are picking up between Matthews and the SEC program.<\/p>\n \u201cThe visit\u00a0 to UT has been great though,\u201d Matthews told On3\u2019s Steve Wiltfong<\/a>. \u201cThey definitely have exceeded my expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat excites me is that they play a national schedule and knocking on the door for a National Championship and that\u2019s something I can see myself being part of,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n South Carolina has long been in the mix for Matthews. He returned to Columbia last month and raved about his latest time spent with head coach Shane Beamer and Co. when speaking with On3\u2019s Chad Simmons<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like my second family. It feels that way because since me freshman year, they have been talking to me. I kind of grew up with them, so they feel like family,\u201d he said of the Gamecocks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe relationships I have with the people there keep me going back. It is amazing, and every time I go back, it makes me love South Carolina more than the last time.\u201d<\/p>\n North Carolina<\/a> is another program that recently had Matthews on campus. The Tar Heels and new head coach Bill Belichick<\/a> will continue to push to try and keep the four-star home at the next level.<\/p>\n Matthews continues to bolster stock ahead of senior year<\/p>\n Matthews has been considered one of the nation\u2019s top 2026 corners for some time, yet he continues to impress and bump his stock with scouts, including On3\u2019s Cody Bellaire, who got a great look at him during Overtime\u2019s OT7:<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a quiet Day 1 of OT7 yesterday being hardly thrown at all afternoon, teams decided to test Samari Matthews on Sunday and they paid the price. It felt like every time you looked up Matthews was getting his hand on a pass or coming down with an interception,\u201d Bellaire wrote<\/a>. \u201cHe was dominant in the redzone as well showing off his physicality and hip fluidity in press man coverage, forbidding any receiver the chance of coming down with a touchdown when going up against him. Matthews was shutting down an entire side of the field throughout Day 2 of OT7 and made offenses pay the price for testing him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the nation\u2019s top cornerbacks in the 2026 cycle has locked in a summer commitment date. On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,9955],"class_list":{"0":"post-20589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-samari-matthews-26-william-amos-hough"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114443995301326187","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}