The Red Raider Confidential is sponsored by Cardinal's Sports Center. If you
need Texas Tech gear or Under Armour apparel, the best place to go in our
opinion is Cardinal's -- they have three convenient locations in Lubbock, a
brand new store in Plano and a fantastic selection on
their website.
Cardinal's
Wreck'em Tech T-Shirts are now available for purchase! They are the only
such t-shirts endorsed by Texas Tech and the Saddle Tramps. Football season
kicks off in less than a month, so be sure to get your gameday gear in time
for the Red Raiders' season-opener against SMU.
Castleman Happy That Football Is Back
Amarillo (Texas) defensive lineman and Texas Tech commit James Castleman is
relieved to finally have actual football to focus on.
"We started two-a-days on Monday," he said. "It's been good, really hot, but
good. It's been kind of nice to get back to what brought on all of this
attention in the first place. Playing football seems simple compared to all of
the recruiting stuff."
Castleman was in Lubbock last weekend for the Red Raiders' first practice of the
fall and he came away impressed with what he saw.
"It was great. It was good to see the way they go about doing things in a
practice. It was the first of the fall, but it didn't take long for them to
start getting after it," he said. "I liked the way they ran it. The practice was
really fast paced and intense. There wasn't much time for anyone to lose focus.
I thought it was awesome."
The standout prospect has remained in frequent contact with Tech's staff, mostly
with defensive coordinator James Willis and inside receivers coach Sonny Cumbie.
"I call Coach Cumbie the most, he's my recruiting coordinator," Castleman said.
"He's a great guy. We talk about how good it felt for him to play ball in this
area in high school, and then get to continue representing the same area of the
state in college. I'm excited about it for sure.
"I also talk to Coach Willis quite a bit, every chance that I get. I talk to
Coach P (Robert Prunty) some too, not as much as the other guys, but I've had a
couple of opportunities to visit with him. They're all great guys and I'm
excited to play for them."
Castleman has not added any new offers recently, but has had one interesting
program enter the mix.
"Oklahoma State keeps coming at me pretty hard. LSU has also started talking to
me a lot lately, but they haven't offered me. That's about it," he said. "Those
guys and Tech are the ones that I talk to the most."
The 6-foot-4, 255 pounder has yet to set any dates for an official visit, and he
indicates that an official visit to Lubbock might be the only one he ends up
making.
"I haven't planned any official visits yet and I really haven't thought about it
all that much," he said. "I might take officials to other schools, but I'm not
sure. Right now I think I'll only visit Tech, but you never know so I don't want
to say that for sure.
"I'm going to get to as many home games as I can. Luckily it's (Lubbock) not too
far away so I'll try and get down there as much as possible."
- Cowan
Tolbart Lists Tech In Top Five
Fort Worth (Texas) All Saints forward Jordan Tolbart recently included Texas
Tech in his top five along with Arizona State, Colorado, Rutgers and Western
Kentucky. The Red Raiders entered the mix for the 6-foot-6 standout earlier this
summer, and he has recently spoken with several members of the team's staff.
"I've talked to Coach (Stu) Robinson and yesterday I talked to Coach (Bubba)
Jennings, and then I've talked to Coach Pat Knight, too," he said.
Tolbart admitted that he doesn't "really know much" about the Red Raiders, but
hopes to learn more next month.
"I'm trying to visit Tech sometime in September," he said. "I set up Arizona
State and Texas Tech, and I think I am going to set up a visit to Rutgers."
Look for Tolbart to make a decision in time to sign during the early period.
- Fleming
Tech Offers 2012 Linebacker
Brenham (Texas) outside linebacker Timothy Cole is starting to see his
recruiting process heat up and already holds three offers -- Texas A&M, Texas
Tech and Virginia -- as he heads into his junior campaign.
"Yeah, I have been talking to Texas Tech recently. I called Coach (Tommy)
Mainord," Cole said. "He just tells me to keep working hard and all the
recruiting process will take care of itself."
Cole isn't too familiar with the Red Raiders, but his teammate and 2011 Tech
commit Derek Edwards has already started telling the young prospect about the
South Plains.
"He tells me that it's a nice campus and that they have a good recruiting class
coming in, so they are going to be really good in a couple of years," Cole said.
"They want me to come visit sometime in the fall and see what I think about it,
so I might do that."
Cole is in no rush to name a favorite as of right now and isn't too sure yet if
he will be taking any visits this season, but he says there is still a lot of
time left and he wants to wait out the process a little bit longer.
"I don't really have any favorites right now because I still want to wait and
see what other kind of offers I get later on," Cole said.
"I don't really have a timetable set right now for when I want to make a
decision because I want to sit back and wait to see how things pan out later on
with other offers."
- Lane
Details On Red Raider Club's New Call Center
You have probably seen the posts from Kevin Pierson about the new call center
that is now located in the offices of the Red Raider Club. The center has been a
long time coming in the Red Raider Club's efforts to take a more proactive sales
role beyond just membership sales.
The sales staff works in four-hour shifts and work the phones calling potential
ticket buyers. They currently have eight part-time students working shifts;
Kevin is one of those students. This staff will focus on different games at
different times but they can sell you season tickets, etc. The difference in
this office and the ticket office is this staff makes outbound calls and now
inbound calls will be directed their way as well. The ticket office staff can
then act in more of a fulfillment role.
The call center has a board that keeps tracks of the various sales efforts. We
got a look at the board on Thursday and they had already totaled nearly $70,000
in sales in a couple of weeks!
There will be a new ticket manager for the call center on board soon. Her name
is Carly Reger and she previously worked in ticket sales for the NHL's Detroit
Red Wings. There is also a new group sales manager that works in the office.
We'll have more on this next week but we thought you'd be interested in the new
areas of sales and marketing being pursued.
- Giovannetti
?
Petteway Interested In Tech
Galveston (Texas) Ball forward Terran Petteway is coming off of a big summer.
The 6-foot-5 standout not only increased his stock in a big way, he also had a
lot of fun in the process.
"It was fun," he said. "We played almost every day in July. It was the best July
that I have ever played in my AAU life. It was crazy. All the tournaments that
we went to and the competition in Vegas, and then just all the games; it was
nonstop basketball every day."
While Petteway's Rivals profile only lists an offer from Creighton, his actual
offer list is much longer.
"Auburn, Texas Tech, Penn State, UNLV, Tulane, Colorado, Colorado State,
Bradley, Wichita State, Wright, UTEP, UH, Ole Miss, and there's a couple more
that I cant remember," he said.
Tech is in Petteway's current top seven, along with Bradley, Colorado, Colorado
State, Penn State, UNLV and Wichita State.
"I think my first three visits are going to be Tech, Penn State, and Colorado or
Colorado State," Petteway said. "I want a team that feels like a family. The
team is together; good coaching staff, and the way we play in AAU get up and
down."
Look for Petteway to officially visit next month.
- Fleming
?
Hartsfield Is Tech All The Way
Chatham (Va.) Hargrave Military Academy linebacker and Texas Tech commit Terrell
Hartsfield has been working hard this summer.
"I worked out with my high school coach every morning from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m.,"
he said. "We'd just lift weights and go through drills to make me a faster and
better player."
Hartsfield, who was ineligible to play in 2009 due to his age, has not been
pursued much by other programs since pledging to the Red Raiders in March. He
expects that to change once he returns to the field this fall, and may take a
few official visits if the opportunities present themselves.
"I know for a fact that I want to go to Texas Tech, I am already committed and I
am not going to change that for anything or anyone," he said. "But I still want
go visit other schools just to see them and take advantage of being a college
football recruit. My cousin goes to Colorado so I want to go visit him and see
how he is doing there."
The 6-foot-4, 215-pound prospect still plans to make it up to visit Lubbock and
Texas Tech for the first time this fall, but no date has been set yet.
- Hair
?
Gotcher Plans September Visit
Garland (Texas) Lakeview Centennial guard Toddrick Gotcher hasn't trimmed his
list at all, but is planning on visiting Tech next month.
"Mr. Knight and I are planning a visit for me to come up there sometime in
September and come see a football game and come see the campus," he said. "I am
pumped about that visit. I hear good things about Tech."
- Hair
?
Quick Hits
* Texas Tech commit Derek Edwards continues to be the subject of speculation
regarding his supposed interest in Texas A&M, but he recently told our
colleagues at AggieYell.com that he was "120 percent" Texas Tech.
* The updated Rivals100 and Rivals250 will be released next week. We don't
expect any major changes in terms of stars, but have reason to believe that you
all will have a positive reaction to how Tech commits fare in the update.
To view previous installments of the Red Raider Confidential, you can
visit the archives by
clicking here.
Remember, if you're looking for Texas Tech gear or Under Armour apparel, be sure
to check out Cardinal's Sports
Center!
Thank you for subscribing to RedRaiderSports.com!
This post was edited on 8/18 12:53 PM by A. Dickens
