good morning boys and girls, plenty going on this week around TTU sports
it's Friday, let's Flare...
----------
WEEKLY LINKS
2025 Frenship WR Leyton Stone picks up offer from hometown Texas Tech
Tech looks for country road triumph at West Virginia
Tech coaches making DE Jonah-Ajonye feel like a priority
Kash's three RBI day propels Texas Tech past Gonzaga, 8-4, on Opening Day
Pop Isaacs warming up, seemingly expected against West Virginia
Apodcaca: Tyson's strong effort leads Texas Tech to win in Morgantown
Tech surges to 78-72 win over West Virginia
What Mark Adams said after win at WVU
Texas Tech nabs second over Gonzaga behind Molina's strong outing
Blessie, Bazzell power Tech to series win over Gonzaga on Sunday
2024 Atascocita CB Braylon Conley will visit Texas Tech for Junior Day
OT Bennett Warren updates his recruitment
Mark Adams talks Oklahoma ahead of a trip to Norman
Texas Tech completes sweep Gonzaga on back of Green's walk-off walk
Tech looks to boom against Oklahoma
Texas Tech is the first offer for Louisiana DL Jayden Scott
Emptying the Notebook: Observations from the Gonzaga Series
Four Keys for a Texas Tech win in Norman
Apodaca: Efficient shooting gets Tech to finish line in slugfest versus OU
Tech finds antidote against turnover bug, downs Oklahoma 74-63
What Mark Adams said after the win over Oklahoma in Norman
Ramirez: Tech continues to ride the wave with road success in Norman
McKinney cornerback Zay Gentry picks up several offers, including TTU
Texas Tech looks to stay hot during weekend set with Western Illinois
Who are the top 20 players on Texas Tech's football roster?
Mark Adams talks TCU ahead of Saturday contest
----------
TTU RECRUITING THIS WEEK
the coaches made a handful of new offers this week, the @staff posted a banger of a visitors list for the upcoming Junior Day event and plenty more in recruiting this week...
new offers
Texas Tech offered McKinney 2025 corner Zadian Gentry this week. The 6-foot-1, 165-pound standout sophomore is currently unranked and now holds eight (8) total offers from programs around the country, including offers from Auburn, Baylor, Arkansas, Purdue and the Red Raiders. As a sophomore Gentry put up 35 tackles, three (3) tackles-for-loss, an interception, 10 passes defended and a fumble recovery.
Texas Tech was the first program to offer Scotlandville (Louisiana) 2025 wide receiver Ferzell Shepard this week. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound standout sophomore is currently ranked as the No. 1 sophomore in the state of Louisiana and No. 11 in the nation for the Boys 400m.
Texas Tech was the first program to offer Archbishop Shaw (Louisiana) defensive end Jayden Scott this week. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound standout was named 1st Team Defensive Line on the District 10-4A All-District team.
Texas Tech offered Pleasant Grove safety Kaden McFadden this week. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound standout is currently unranked and now lists 14 total offers from programs across the country, including offers from Duke, Minnesota, UTSA and the Red Raiders. As a junior McFadden finished with 93 total tackles, 10 tackles for loss, four (4) forced fumbles, three (3) fumble recoveries, a sack and a blocked kick and score - earning District 7-4A All-District First Team Defense honors.
Texas Tech was the first program to offer University Laboratory School (Louisiana) 2025 corner Jayden Gloston this week. The 6-foot, 170-pound standout sophomore also runs track, listing a 11.35 second time in the 100m dash.
Texas Tech was the first program to offer Lamar Consolidated 2025 defensive tackle Chace Sims this week. The 6-foot-3, 280-pound standout sophomore was named All-District First Team as an offensive lineman and Second Team as a defensive lineman this season.
-----
recruiting edit this week
Lubbock Cooper offensive tackle and longtime Texas Tech commitment Holton Hendrix shared this edit on social media earlier in the week.
Nobody knows what it means, but it gets the people going!
-----
young Mr. Poe is going national
the Red Raiders offered Lindale offensive guard Casey Poe only weeks after Joey McGuire and James Blanchard arrived at Texas Tech in November of 2021.
the 6-foot-5, 280-pound standout now lists 20 total offers from programs across the country, including offers from Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma and several others. per the article, he will continue taking visits throughout the summer with the intention of making a decision before his senior season.
upgraded to the No. 150 overall prospect in the country, Poe received a visit from Nick Saban himself during the open contact period...his head coach, Chris Cochran, is the brother of Texas Tech LB coach Josh Cochran - so the ties to TTU and Lubbock are certainly there
now the battle really begins, Poe will continue seeing other programs throughout the off-season and will make another visit to Lubbock on March 31st
last year it was the big, bad national programs taking a commitment from the Red Raiders...if Joey McGuire & Co. can win head to head against a personal visit from Saban, then we are cooking with some hot grease my friends
-----
TTU Junior Day - next weekend
the @staff posted the confirmed list of Junior Day visitors for next weekend and you really need to look into the list, it is pretty impressive
the majority of the TTU 2024 commitments will be in town, plus 30+ uncommitted 2024 prospects and another 15 uncommitted 2025 prospects will be on the South Plains next weekend
if we are looking at prospects who could pull the trigger after this visit, then I'm looking at this group...
Peyton Morgan
Kelly "KJ" Daniels
Ashton Bethel-Roman
Jewlyen Thomas-Roberts
Travis Jackson
Cheta Ofili
Aaron Flowers
again, these are just my thoughts and no real predictions...in talking with Flowers this week, he was very high on the Red Raiders and does have a few visits left, but it sounded good for the good guys
I think the biggest difference between these weekends now vs. these weekends in the past is this...looking through this list, there are not very many PWO types or maybe offer types, it is chalked full of dudes and includes some serious underclassmen talent
think back to last year, Flowers was a kid on campus for this event and now he is a Rivals 250 prospect with tons of offers
this list includes five-star wide receiver Micah Hudson and his teammate Rivals 250 four-star DB Selman Bridges
the coaches are doing what they have said they wanted to do since day one...they are recruiting to Lubbock and getting talent on campus
will they land all of these guys, of course not...but giving yourself this many 'at-bats' as a coaching staff is a recipe for success and I'm starting to feel better and better about this 2024 class being a very quality encore for Joey McGuire and his coaching staff in the second full year of recruiting at Texas Tech
-----
The McGuire Effect
the second season of 'The Brand' debuted this month and episode two was released earlier this week...in the clip above, we see Joey McGuire double down on his "I will die in Lubbock" comment from his opening press conference as the new Texas Tech head coach in November of 2021
there is a ton that I could write about here, but the idea is simple...as a longtime Red Raider football fan, I really do KNOW it has only been a year-plus so far, but it feels time to step back and ask ourselves if we are currently experiencing a historical time in Texas Tech football history
very few programs around the country can confidently say "we have our guy" at the head coach position, and Texas Tech fans know more than most about how 'not' having that guy can really feel over the past decade plus of average to below average seasons
Joey McGuire and his staff are recruiting at a high level, the team is winning and the momentum simply feels different
not a social media person, let me help...we can look at a week in the life of Joey McGuire to see the many deposits he is making in and around the Lubbock & Texas Tech & Texas HS Football communities
it is simple math - all of this will pay dividends, all of this goodwill, energy and positive vibes from a man who apparently never stops gives you a confidence that Texas Tech football is in great hands
so let's take a look at McGuire's timeline from last Friday...
- 'THE BRAND!' - McGuire shouts out the program's tweet about Donny Anderson being honored at an event in Dallas
- retweets RRS story about 2024 receiving ratings bumps in the Rivals rankings update
- retweets the Matador Club - re: random acts of kindness
- tweets '#wreckem' in response to Chris Velasquez winning Video Coordinator of the Year
- tweets '#wreckem' in response to TTU Men's Golf video of the team teeing off
- retweets multiple tweets about LB signee Miguel Dingle Jr. and his dual sport story of playing football & track at TTU
- retweets the Matador Club - re: TTU Baseball season kick-off
- retweets Tyler Shough volunteering at the South Plains Food Bank
- tweets '#wreckem' to help promote Haydon Wiginton's concert at Blue Light
- retweets new WR Coach Justin Johnson's picture of his two young sons throwing a guns up
- retweets the TTU Softball account, winnning graphic
- retweets 2024 WR target Ashton Bethel-Roman, who tweeted about being upgraded to a four-star prospect on 247
- retweets the latest Mock Draft from The Athletic where Tyree Wilson is listed at No. 3 overall
- tweets 'Lets gooooooo!' in response to the TTU Men's Baseball win against Gonzaga
- retweets 2023 WR signee D.J. Crest, who shared a new personal record in the triple jump
- retweets the TTU Softball account, another winning graphic from the night game
- tweets 'thank you for having us' in response to a Lubbock ISD tweet thanking McGuire and his program for visiting a local elementary school for some fun and pizza with the kids
- retweets the TTU Football account's video of Haydon Wiginton performing at Blue Light, including a quick appearance from coach on stage rocking the mic
that is 18 different tweets in one day, which might seem normal or nothing to some people...for the average college football coach this is a ton of interaction on social media, it isn't all about social media, but this is who Joey McGuire is - a coach that leads by example and not only encourages his players, coaches, staff to do the same...but he expects it and the response over this past year has been completely received by everyone in the building.
I'm sure Leach attended a bar or two while in Lubbock, I'm sure Kingsbury went to Blue Light as a student back in the day...zero chance Tubs or Wells did anything even remotely like this.
the football aspect of this is obviously cool, but imagine being a student and seeing the head coach of the football team screaming 'Raider Power' into the microphone on stage...then - per sources 😎 - the head coach bought a round of shots for the entire bar
pretty freakin' cool IMNSHO...the Joey McGuire Effect is real my friends
-----
New Renderings of the South Endzone project
thanks to another multi-million dollar donation from the Scovell family announced earlier this week, the South Endzone project now sits at $87 million in total donations raised thus far and the university has a goal of $100 million raised for the entire project
I mean, holy hell this thing looks cool...renderings are renderings, I get it...we have seen the Womble for the basketball program and we have heard how he likes to approve the designs/asthetic of these facilities, but this is a complete game changer for Texas Tech football
from a recruiting standpoint, you had every single coach sharing this + current players sharing this + multiple recruits/targets sharing this on social media this week.
I don't even know what this indoor practice field / video wall thing is pictured above, but it sure does look pretty badass amirite?
like I wrote earlier ITT, we might be living through one of the best times in TTU Football history...I personally cannot wait to see these facilities in person and love to see the progress for the program in general.
what are your favorite aspects of the new renderings shared this week?
-----
Recruiting - Around the Big 12
no new commitments around the conference, including the new conference members Houston, Cincinnati, BYU and UCF
Oklahoma and Cincinnati remain the only two (2) teams in the Big 12 without a commitment in the 2024 recruiting class
----------
have a great weekend everyone!
