Friday can only mean one thing for the discriminating Red Raider fan: time for another edition of the Red Raider Confidential. As always, we begin this session with the ground rules. Everything that is reported in the Red Raider Confidential must stay well… confidential. That's the way this deal works. The Red Raider Confidential is posted in the premium forum to ensure that this information stays exclusively within the Raider Nation.
This will continue to be successful only if everyone helps out, so let’s all work together and keep the discussions limited to this board.
Oklahoma State wouldn’t quit
When we spoke to Broderick Marshall on Thursday night, he had some interesting things to say about the way in which Oklahoma State recruited him.
“Well, they’ve finally quit calling because I told them so many times to stop, and I guess they finally got tired of it,” he said. “Right before Christmas break they were all over me, but I finally figured out what they were up to. It was like every time they talked to me, all they wanted to do was one-up Tech. They would ask how long Tech was willing to wait on me, and then I’d tell ‘em and they’d be like, ‘Oh, we’ll wait longer, we won’t hang you out to dry and they might if you don’t do exactly what they want,’ and all this stuff and it finally just got to me.”
Finally, after months of listening to them for a while Marshall fired back.
“The worst was when they’d do this thing, they’d ask me what my dream was, even though they already knew the answer,” he chuckled. “So I’d tell them it was playing in the NFL, and every time they’d be like, ‘Oh, well if you want to go to the league, you need to come here, Tech don’t put people in the league, just look at them, they never put people in the NFL,’ and all that, and they kept saying to keep an eye on them. Basically they were just hating on Tech all over the place, so finally I just hit ‘em back with the loyalty thing. I said, ‘Hey, Tech’s been loyal to me and stuck with me through the thick and the thin and their coaches have been there for me and, for that matter, you won’t hear them bashing you guys like ya’ll do them, but that’s not the point, the point is they’ve stuck with me and I’m sticking with them and I’d appreciate it if you’d stop badmouthing them.’ I told them there wasn’t anything that could stop me from signing with Tech and that they should just give it up.”
If anyone had doubts about whether or not Marshall really wants to be a Red Raider, I’d say that should clear it up.
Vaccaro Looking at Tech
Junior defensive back Kenny Vaccaro is a well-rounded guy. He carries a 3.7 GPA, boasts first team all-district honors, both on the field and in the classroom, is one of the top basketball players on his team, and can play just about any position on the football field. So it’s easy to see why Texas Tech and other schools want him so badly.
As is becoming the case more and more with incoming juniors, Tech is on Vaccaro’s radar early in the process.
“Well, even though I didn’t really follow them growing up, I really appreciate the way that Coach Riley and Coach Mainord have kept up with me,” said the standout. “They came down to see me last week and watched a basketball practice and Coach Riley said they’re almost 100% sure they’re going to offer me, but that they just need to have a meeting before they finalize it.”
Vaccaro went on to explain that the team he kept up with as a boy was none other than the Texas Longhorns. So should Tech fans be worried about an early Junior Day commit from the defensive back?
“Oh, absolutely not, no I wouldn’t commit on the spot at their junior day,” he answered. “I have to look into a lot of things. I’m not going to commit anywhere on the spot until I’ve looked at what I want to look at.”
While we’re not sure if it’s indicative of anything important, when Vaccaro listed his favorites, he did mention Tech first. Stay tuned.
Q&A With Jacob Karam
RRS: Jacob, when are you scheduled to graduate?
JK: I’m not sure actually, I’ve thought really hard about graduating early, so we’ll see.
RRS: Do you know when you want to have a final decision?
JK: Yes sir, I think I’d like to be committed before the season starts so I can focus on my team and on the task at hand.
RRS: So what are your plans for this spring? Any junior days or anything like that?
JK: So far I know I’m going to Notre Dame’s and that’s the only one that’s set right now. I’d like to hit Northwestern’s, Oklahoma’s and Tech’s though.
RRS: I noticed you’re looking at Northwestern and Notre Dame, which aren’t exactly close to Friendswood. How important is it that you stay close to home?
JK: Actually, it’s very important. I don’t think I necessarily have to stay in-state, but I know for sure I don’t want to go too far. One of the reasons Texas Tech is one of my favorites is because I’m a very family oriented person and I like how close to home it is. That would be awesome to be that close to home.
RRS: So Tech is one of your favorites right now?
JK: Oh yeah, absolutely. Texas Tech is so cool and I’ve heard so many things about they and they’re so much just a program on the rise that it’s just awesome. They’re a great school and I’ve heard so many things about Coach Leach and his work with quarterbacks. Coach Holgerson came and watched me throw the other day and I did well, which was exciting. I really want to get down there to visit and see what it’s like and if they offered I’d definitely have to take a long hard look at that.
Wright Still Undecided?
I spoke briefly to Jarius Wright on Thursday, but he was headed to an athletic banquet. Wright, who is busy dominating the hardwood right now, did have time to answer my most pressing question.
“No, sir, I haven’t made up my mind yet,” he answered. “I’m not sure when I will, but I’ll let you know when I do.”
Though we’re still calling him an Arkansas lean, you just never know in the crazy world of recruiting.
Attempts to contact Wright by several reporters within the Rivals.com network all weekend were unsuccessful.
Perry could’ve been a Sooner
It was a quick chain of events when defensive tackle Chris Perry came on the scene this year. It was a Thursday when the Tech coaches received his release letter from Miami over the fax machine. By the next Tuesday, Perry was moving in his new apartment in Lubbock.
We feel like there are more details that can be provided about Perry’s five day recruitment.
When he sent out the fax with his release letter, it was sent to three programs: Tech, UNT, and OU.
“UNT was the closest and my old head coach is now at Southlake and he got tight with Coach Dodge. So I thought I would check it out.”
After being officially released for less than 24 hours, Perry then took a visit to Denton.
“It was cool. Everything was nice. The players and coaches were cool. They were just like here, but it was real close to home.”
So if it seemed so great, why did Perry end up elsewhere?
“Mainly because I kind of wanted a little more exposure for my playing.”
A phonecall from Perry’s former high school head coach was also placed to Oklahoma, but we’ll get to that in a minute because the Red Raiders contacted the former four-star prospect immediately. Perry was on a plane Saturday morning towards West Texas.
“They’re just cool and down to earth people. They didn’t put up a front or anything when I was on my official visit. They treat the players real well here too and they care about what they think and what they do.”
The biggest evidence in showing the fact that Tech took care of their players was when Perry saw the apartment complexes the team members get to live in, begin their freshman year. So, even the University of Miami doesn’t have as nice of a living situation?
“Heck no! You stay on campus until your junior year and you have to have a 2.5 to be able to move off campus. I saw the apartments and I was like ‘this is pretty freakin’ tight.’ I respect this but that isn’t the reason I came, but it was one of the reasons I came.”
Back to the Sooners, who Perry had not heard from after sending his letter on Thursday. Sunday night, the dominant tackle returned home from his trip to Tech. He had told Carlos Mainord and staff that he would have a decision for them shortly after returning home and he it was important that he maintained his word.
So without hesitance, Perry picked up the phone and informed the Tech coaching staff that he would be on campus within the next two days.
Just five minutes later, Perry’s phone rang again ? it was OU assistant head coach Brent Venables calling to inform Perry that the Sooners had room for him on their roster.
But at that point, it was too late. Perry deleted the message and never looked back. After his one year of sitting out passes by, hopefully the Miami transfer will be able to show Oklahoma why they should not have put him off.
“Tech went 9-4 last season and they were real young. Graham is coming back and Crab is coming back. You can’t see anyway but up because everyone here is so focused. The chemistry is good, and everyone is working hard.
“Now, I just need to help make the defense as good as I can and learn the playbook like the back of my hand.”
Cooper a huge pick up
You have heard us say over and over about how much of a huge addition the Keanon Cooper commitment was since last Tuesday. The four-star Dallas Sklyine safety is without a doubt a highlight of the ’08 commitment class. But we feel that like we’ve said it enough, so we asked Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Jeremy Crabtree about his take on Cooper:
“Keanon is a monster get for the Red Raiders. Not only is he one of the hardest-hitting players in the Lone Star State, he’s one of the most physically gifted. He is so athletic and oozing with talent that it’s easy to see why so many Big 12 teams battled hard for him.”
Miscellaneous Tidbits
? The Red Raiders are up to 20 early offers for the 2009 class. We will have more on that later in the week.
? As we reported earlier regarding Brandon Reid and his academics, according to his mother he is good to go for the fall. He has qualified, been cleared by the NCAA to enroll, etc. … the reason we are reporting this is because there were some rumblings out of Missouri suggesting that his status might be in question but according to three sources we’ve spoken to about it, including Reid’s mother that is not the case. “Missouri has had his grades since June so it would make no sense as to why they would be surprised about it just now and use that as an excuse. Brandon is academically qualified and he’s fine when it comes to his grades,” she said.
? Reid’s mother added more about her son’s commitment to Texas Tech saying, “He seems very proud about Texas Tech and we’re very excited for him. We’re looking forward to him being in Texas and it’s really cold up there (Missouri) anyway. We full support him with this decision.”
To view previous installments of the Red Raider Confidential, visit the archives by clicking here.
Again, The Red Raider Confidential is a special feature for RedRaiderSports.com subscribers only. Everything that is reported in the Red Raider Confidential must stay well… confidential. That's the way this deal works. The Red Raider Confidential is posted in the premium forum to ensure that this information stays exclusively within the Raider Nation.
This will only be successful if everyone helps make it work, so let’s all work together and keep the discussions limited to this board.
Thank you all again for subscribing to RedRaiderSports.com!
This post was edited on 2/4 5:45 PM by C. Level
