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.
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Sims the secret
For a few weeks now, we’ve known about Houston DT De’Anthony Sims. He’s been the best kept secret for the Red Raiders, until there was a story that went out this week over the network.
So, how close is Sims to committing to the Red Raider? He answered that question for us within the first 30 seconds of our conversation.
“It’s looking real nice,” responded Sims regarding his recruiting process. “I might be a Red Raider. I just want to learn more about the program.”
The 6-foot-3, 300-pound defensive lineman wants to check out Tech immediately.
“I’m going to go to their second junior day in April (19th) and I keep receiving information to continue learning about the program. I also look up the academic program about their off field studies in engineering. They’re a great engineering school and that’s something else I want to look into.”
If Sims went to Tech in a month and fell in love with the campus, would he commit to Tech immediately?
“You can kind of say that, but I want to hold off on my commitment till the start of my football year. By my senior year, I will be committed solidly to a school.”
The Tech junior day will be the first school visited by Sims and he feels that’s only right since the Red Raiders jumped on him first.
“From what I understand, they watched my video and called the school right after. They offered pretty quick.”
And one has to think that will be a huge positive for the Red Raiders as other schools have not been nearly as quick to respond.
“My coach hasn’t really gotten any other phone calls from schools, no. There are some letters of interest.”
The return address on those letters has read Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Cal, UCLA, and Duke.
But the Red Raiders have been the only ones to send a letter with the all-so-important piece of paper inside. The phone conversations with Ruffin McNeill and Seth Littrell have helped Tech’s case as well.
“He’s a good coach, a nice coach,” said Sims of McNeill. “I’ve talked to him and Coach Littrell. Coach Littrell told how he used to recruit in this area. I talk to coach Littrell a lot. I call them once every now and then.”
The Tech coaching staff feels that Sims would be a great pickup and have no problem with other programs taking their time with the big man. Meanwhile, Sims doesn’t seem to mind much either as Tech has all but convinced him that it’d be the best home for him.
“It’s a great football program and it also fits the off field part of my life with engineering.”
We’ll keep an eye on Sims to find out if his name will be added to the ’09 commitment list on Tech’s April junior day.
Tech rollin’ with Rollison?
There’s been many rumors as to whether or not it even matters if Tech goes after Sulphur Springs QB Tyrik Rollison as many have wondered how he stands with his academics. In the last three conversations we’ve had with Rollison, he’s told us that his nose was currently in the books.
“I’m making mostly A & B’s,” said the honest athlete. “I might catch a couple of C’s every once in a while. But they’re going good.”
It’s that kind of effort that Rollison has been putting on the field as well.
“The off-season is going great. I lift during school and then we run after school. We go to the track and basically do what the track people do. In my class, I’m probably in the top three fastest.”
And it’s speed and quickness which is exactly what Rollison will be working on this off-season as he feels he can bring his game to another level if he does the same with his speed.
Meanwhile, the mail keeps coming in for Rollison and so do the offers: Arizona, Florida State, Houston, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas A&M, and TCU.
So, what schools have actually gotten Rollison on the horn recently?
“I talked to Florida State and they offered me a scholarship. That’s the only one that I’ve talked to recently. My coach doesn’t really tell me much about the phone calls that he gets though.”
So where are the Red Raiders in all of this?
“My coach talked to Coach Moore recently. He called Coach Owens and told him to tell me he said hi. I haven’t talked to him since I went down there. I haven’t heard much from them except from when I was down there.”
When Rollison came to Lubbock two weeks ago for junior day, the junior quarterback felt that he was sold. He couldn’t find anything to dislike about Tech and sounds like, to us, that they’re a sound leader. Though Rollison still lists Oklahoma State as his number two.
“I have talked to Coach Luper from OSU. He’s just trying to get me to come down there for one of their practices. He wants to set it up so I can come to one of their practices.
I talked to the coach and they said they were leaning towards offering me.”
It’s very possible that the Cowboys could very possibly offer once they see Rollison in person and it’s just a matter of time before that happens. It’s unknown now as to whether Tech will offer Rollison, but he remains patient and hopes that they will.
Is it possible that Rollison could be ready to commit to either school that offered him first?
“Yeah, it’s possible.”
Why the commitment from Johnson
St. Episcopal’s D.J. Johnson came onto the scene about two weeks ago and the information gathering about him by us has continued ever since.
One thing we didn’t know until now is what Johnson’s thoughts were on a few of Tech’s coaches that Johnson dealt with before and while committing.
On Coach Mitchell:
As far as since I’ve been talking to him, he seems like a great person. He’s probably someone that I can go to having a bad or good day and sit down and talk to him about anything. There’s nothing that I have to hide and can be open about certain things. He can be someone to help me and guide me along the way.
His talk with Coach Sadler when he was offered:
Previously I talked to Coach Sadler and he had informed me that I had a scholarship ready for me and all I had to do was commit. He told me that if I wasn’t able to accept it that they would run out eventually and I might have to wait. He told me straight up what could happen, what the possibilities were, and what I could be missing out on.
When he committed to Leach:
“I spoke with him. I spoke with him over the phone after I committed. He just told me that he’s glad to have me as part of the team and that they were a family and he’s happy to have me as a Red Raider and that I’m always welcome.”
Ultimately though why did Johnson commit?
“I don’t want to lose Tech. That’s the one place I don’t want to lose. It’s a great program. I don’t want to ever change my commitment from Tech. I didn’t want to not commit to Tech and then lose the scholarship if it were the best thing for me.”
Williams has a top two
It was two weeks ago when Dallas Skyline recruiting coach Derick Roberson told us that DB Steve Williams was absolutely enjoying the recruiting process. With five offers in two weeks, how could he not be?
“Yeah, it’s kind of fun,” admitted Williams. “I didn’t think I would have this many offers this early. Well, at least at first I didn’t. But now that they’ve come in, it humbles me as far as making myself better in the classroom. I always feel like they’re improvement to pull up my grades so that I can be safe.”
Meanwhile, even though Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Kansas, and Kentucky, have all sent offers within the last 13 days, Williams is still paying the most attention to the first two schools that were involved: Miami and Texas Tech.
“Texas Tech is the last school that’s come to see me and that was right before signing day. I try and call them to see what’s up. But I really don’t talk to them that much. During spring break, I’m going to try and talk to them since I don’t have to deal with school.
“I talk to Coach Mitchell. We talk about the program and how I will make an impact as far as education. He tells me about how I will get the best coaching and get taken care of up there.”
Then there are the Hurricanes.
“I relate to them and they relate to me not just as a player but as a regular person. I keep up with them as far as trying to call the coaches and stuff. I talk to the coaches every week or so. I talk to the whole coaching staff. I had called them on my birthday. My coach called me and told me to call them Coach Shannon on them.”
Who’s in the lead?
“I think it’s even between Tech and Miami.”
We had Williams break down the two schools:
Tech: “I like Tech just because they don’t have a defense full of superstars and I think I can go and change that, as far as the defense goes.”
Miami: At Miami, I like them because they have nice weather down there and they have guys that have gone to the NFL and they come back and you probably get to train with them and it’d help you overall on your whole game.
A&M is also mentioned as a top three and Williams says that he’s talked to the Aggies within the last week, since their recent offer.
At the same time, some might be wondering about Minnesota? After all, the Gophers signed four Skyline athletes this past recruiting class, including former Tech commit Keanon Cooper. Are Williams’ classmates reminding him of this at all?
“Oh yeah, my friends that are going to Oklahoma State and Minnesota? They’re trying to get me to come there, telling me that they need corner backs.”
But there shouldn’t be too much worry as Williams does not seem to be phased.
“Distance is not a big deal but its cold up there, man. I don’t like being cold. I talked to the Minnesota head coach last week. But it’s cold up there.”
Let’s take Minnesota out of the equation, at least for the time being because right now it looks like a race between Tech and Miami. Now, Williams said that if he was forced to choose a favorite between the two, then he’d be slightly leaning towards Miami. But it’s way too close to call it over at this point.
Q&A: Skyline coach Derick Roberson
After the above conversation with Skyline’s Steve Williams, we thought it would be a call to Skyline recruiting coach Derick Roberson to find out a little more on the current situation. The talk with Roberson was very telling, so read carefully.
On Williams’ recruiting process:
It’s been going real good. He’s been getting a lot of offers lately.
On Williams’ reaction of the amount of offers coming in:
Honestly, I don’t think he’s surprised by it. He’s a confident guy and you have to be that way to play corner. You can’t be temperamental or anything because a lot of times corners get beat and you have to recover from it. His confidence level was already high. I think he knew he was that good but didn’t anticipate this many offers that quickly.
But whenever we talk about, you see his face light up, which is good. That’s kind of good to see because that tells me that he really appreciates the attention that he’s getting. He could be cocky because he’s so confident in his ability. But he hasn’t bragged about it or hasn’t walked around school bragging about his offers. He’s real humble about it. But I know he likes the attention. I’m telling you, I’m getting calls daily from Miami and others. They’ll call and ask ‘What’s my corner doing?’ I’ll say he’s trying to get stronger right now.
I talked to Coach Mitchell a couple of times from Tech. I have a good relationship coaches on the college level. If they’re recruiting a kid on my team, I keep them in touch and text them if he gets an offer from another school and as soon as that happens then another school wants to talk to him to try to diffuse it.
On visiting Tech:
I don’t know if he’s going to try to make it out for the spring game or camp, I don’t know. A lot of it may depend on if I work camp or not because it depends on my schedule. When you have someone like him, everyone wants me to work their camp. I try to stay away from that stuff as possible because I don’t want anyone to think I’m helping him with his decision. I like Tech’s camp because I’ve worked it before so there’s a good chance Ill be there.
On being a Tech alumn himself:
I was hurt that Cooper didn’t go to Tech. I was sick. But I understood too because whenever he kept closing his eyes that night, he kept saying Minnesota. I was like ‘dang’ when he changed his mind.
On Tech’s recruitment of Williams:
They definitely want him. Coach Mitchell, I’ve known him for a while even when he was at BYU. He calls and checks on him from time to time to see how he’s doing and seeing who’s offered as of late. He’s expressed to me that they really want him and he has a chance to play early as a cover corner. I’m an offense guy and don’t play too much attention to their defense. But Steve can play zone and man. Especially zone, because he can run real well. Brian said, ‘We’re going to get him, we’re going to get us one out of Skyline.’ They’ve recruited Skyline real hard so that’s really good to hear.
To me, Steve really fits them too. I think about him in the uniforms and he’s a type of player that when he puts the uniform on, he’s going to make it look better than it already looks. I can see him in some black and red. We wear that color, too. It’s not a coincidence, because our colors are red and blue but we added black. I haven’t talked to Brian in a week or week and a half.
On what Williams likes about Miami:
The fact that they need corners bad. They went real receiver heavy this past recruiting season and talking to the defensive back coach, they need corners really bad and they’re sold on Steve. You’re talking about ‘the U’ and when you think of them, you think about top notch players and they’ve only offered two or three corners and Steve is one of them.
For them to come to Texas to recruit a corner, to me that is vital. Think about it, there are so many athletic kids in Florida, it’s ridiculous. The thing that attracts him to them is that they’ve been a powerhouse for years and they’re coming to Texas to get him.
But I tell you, he has his head on tight. But when I talked to him, he said Tech is still number one and he made that public. But even the Miami coach said that he has to change that. Steve’s not overwhelmed by the fact that it’s Miami and that’s good.
I think it’s a big factor of playing early. If he can get in to play early, then that’s big. Basically everyone is telling him he can do it. Though I know that a redshirt year wouldn’t hurt him because he needs to get a little stronger.
On the possibility of another school sneaking into his top picks:
Oh, it’s bound to happen. Two springs ago, we had 53 schools come through. We had Christian Scott who signed with Texas. The next year we had Spencer Reeves, Keanon Cooper, etc. We had 84 schools come through. The recruiting game has changed so much that I know there’s going to be some other schools come in and grab his interested. He’s interested in Oklahoma State and I think he mentioned Arizona. The thing he mentioned about all the schools he’s interested in, like Tech, they have a winning record every year. But OSU is on the upswing and the fact he’s interested tells me that he’s not going to a school just because they win a championship every year. That tells me that when he was younger he had these schools in his mind that he was interested in and now that he’s a senior, it’s happening and he’s able to pick the schools he wants to look at and that’ a good thing.
Dent Still Wide Open
When speaking to standout defensive lineman Randall Dent earlier this week, Dent made sure to stress over and over again that he is wide open.
“I’m open right now,” he said. “I’ve heard people say that if Texas offered, I’d commit or whatever, but that’s not true. A UT offer would definitely not end my recruiting process. I’m very open right now.”
Dent, who says location is a big deal to him, says getting his first in-state offer was a good experience for him.
“I don’t really know as much about Tech because I wasn’t able to visit and that offer just came recently,” he explained. “But that felt really good to get that offer because it’s a Texas school and being from here, that’s big. I mean, it’s a big state and there’s a lot of talent here, so I’m flattered that they want me.”
Graham Talks Academics
There has been some internet chatter in the last few weeks about whether or not there were grade concerns with do-it-all hoopster Tyree Graham. So, when we spoke with him last week, we asked him about it.
“School is going really good,” he explained. “I’m waiting on another SAT score. I took it a few weeks ago and will get that in a few weeks.”
However, the situation is not nearly as grim as re-taking the SAT would seem to indicate, and Graham actually appears to be in good academic standing.
“Well, see, the first time I took it, I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t do good,” he said. “So then, when I did really good and got a 1630, they flagged it I guess and made me re-take it to make sure it was legit. But I’m doing fine. I’ve got a 3.0 and a 2.6 core GPA, plus I’m making mostly B’s and a C this semester.”
Darden Likes Tech
When asked who’s recruiting him the hardest, Jarrod Darden didn’t have to think very hard before answering.
“Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “That’s Texas Tech. They are definitely recruiting me the hardest. I tlak to Coach Riley and Coach Mainord a lot. I don’t have like a top five or anything, but Texas Tech is definitely up there and when I get down to it, they’ll be there.”
The 6-foot-5, 208-pound standout also liked the way Tech’s coaches treated him at their junior day.
“They were really cool about it,” he said. “They knew I wasn’t looking to make a real early decision, so they weren’t trying to pressure me at all and they told me that. They said they really wanted me but that they didn’t want to pressure me. That really stood out to me.”
Q&A With Rex Burkhead
RRS: What was your favorite thing about Junior Day?
RB: Oh, that’s a tough one. I guess probably how close everything was to everything else. I’ve been to some schools where you have to ride a bus to practice and then walk a mile to the weight room and then it’s far from the locker room, and all that, and I really liked how everything from the facilities to the field to the apartments were all really close.
RRS: What was your least favorite thing?
RB: Oh, that’s even tougher. I don’t even know. There wasn’t one.
RRS: Is it safe to say that Tech helped their stock with you during your visit?
RB: Oh, absolutely. It was awesome. I really liked it and even though I don’t have a top five or anything yet, Texas Tech is one that I’m definitely interested in pursuing.
RRS: Tell us about your teammate, Kris Lott (WR), who also made the trip to Lubbock with you.
RB: Oh my gosh, he’s a freak. He’s just a playmaker. That’s all he does is make plays. He’s a great kid and he’s got great genes and he makes some great catches. He’s probably got the best hands I’ve ever seen in my life, so I think he’s going to make a great college receiver.
RRS: So when should we expect a decision from you?
RB: I don’t really know. All the schools still stand out to me, so I’m mainly trying to just take my time right now. I know this is a huge decision, so I’m just going to take my time.
Tech’s Fastest Team Ever?
Last Wednesday, Tech used the day before Pro Day to time all its underclassmen in the forty yard dash. We think you’ll like what we’ve heard. Though the times are likely a little bit fast as a result of the home field advantage, we’ve heard from several sources that there were six stopwatches clocking times and that these times are the consensus times. Here are some times we’ve heard:
Darcel McBath: 4.2
Rashad Hawk: 4.2
Taylor Charbonnet: 4.31
Jacoby Franks: 4.34
Baron Batch: 4.35
Daniel Charbonnet: 4.41
Ed Britton: 4.43
LaRon Moore: 4.44
Bront Bird: 4.7 (impressive considering Rivals had him at a 4.8 coming out of high school)
There are undoubtedly several other standout times, but those are just some we’ve heard. Now, do we really believe that anyone on this team has legitimate 4.2 speed? Probably not, but even to be in that range with a total of six stopwatches on you is very impressive.
According to one source within the program, one member of the strength and conditioning staff was overheard after the timings talking about how this could be the fastest team Tech has fielded in the Leach Era.
Potential target for TTU basketball
It's been a long and, at times, frustrating road for Montrell McDonald. Originally from Fort Worth, Texas, the talented small forward signed with Texas A&M Corpus Christi coming out of high school a few years ago.
However, McDonald ultimately decided to reclassify and left the state of Texas for Bridgton Academy, and eventually signed a Letter-of-Intent with George Washington. After a short stay there he ended up in Kansas at Cowley County Junior College.
All McDonald helped Cowley do is have their best season ever by going 30-3.
Here is an example of what McDonald means to his team, below is an excerpt from an article written after their 28th win last week which took place in their regional tourney:
The victory was the Tigers' 11th in a row and improved Cowley's record to 28-2 overall and 17-1 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Cowley earned the No. 1-seed in the Region VI Tournament and will host Butler Community College Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Sophomore Montrell McDonald finished with 21 points and a season-high 11 assists. He also added six rebounds and five blocked shots.
"When Montrell is not in foul trouble he does a lot of things for us," Cowley head coach Steve Eck said.
And another after their 30th win:
McDonald, who has been battling the flu over the last several days, cut the passing lane and rushed down the sideline for a one-handed dunk to give Cowley the lead for good.
"Any time I do something positive for the team, it gets them fired up," McDonald said. "They look forward to me coming out with a positive attitude and coming out with energy."
McDonald twice had to be treated for cramps on the sideline, including when he was assisted off the court in the waning seconds of the game. Somehow, he managed to log almost 34 minutes and record 13 points and 10 rebounds.
"I didn't want this to be my last game," McDonald said. "I'm a sophomore. I don't have a next year. I came here to win a national championship. It's just one step closer."
As you can tell McDonald is a bit of a do-it-all for Cowley and is someone that plays all five positions for them. Looking at his averages on the season to date and you can see why Tech might be interested in a player like him.
Season Averages Through 32 games:
Points - 13.2
Rebounds - 5.5
Assists - 4
Blocked Shots - 2.1
Steals ? 2
We do know that Kansas State has targeted McDonald but who else is involved with him is something at this point we just don’t know but once his team’s tournament run ends we will give Coach Eck a call regarding McDonald.
From the Texas Tech end of this thing I can tell you that while it is unclear if the numbers work as far as scholarships go this is what one source tells us:
“Not sure on the numbers yet but we’re just trying to upgrade the talent.”
Ironically it was new commitment Darko Cohedarevic and his Seward squad that knocked out McDonald and his Cowley team. Expect more on McDonald this week.
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