Friday can only mean one thing for the discriminating Red Raider fan.
It's time for another edition of the Red Raider Confidential! The ground rules
are simple and easy to follow: everything reported in this report is not to be disclosed elsewhere. This feature is posted in the premium forum to ensure that this information stays exclusively within the
Red Raider Nation.
This will continue to be successful only if everyone
does their part and keeps the discussions limited to this board.
Rumph expected to decommit
In mid-September, Corsicana (Texas) Navarro Junior College defensive lineman Lawrence Rumph committed to Texas Tech. He pulled the trigger
just days after officially visiting the program, and seemed pretty happy with
his decision at the time.
"I did it because I was feeling Tech at the time," Rumph said. "I thought it was
the right thing at the time. I had a good time out there and I saw the
facilities and liked everything. I liked the game atmosphere and my best friend
Chris Perry plays offensive line there."
Note the key phrase there, "at the time." Rumph has since visited Kansas and
Missouri, and it appears as if he will decommit from the Red Raiders at some
point in the near future.
"Now, I think it was a bad decision (to commit to Texas Tech)," he said. "I did
it, so I have to stick with it until the end of the season. I don’t plan on
decommitting right now."
As strange at it sounds, considering the previous quote, Rumph still considers
himself a Texas Tech commitment.
"Right now I’m committed to Texas Tech but I recently took a visit to Missouri
and I took a visit to Kansas State not too long ago. I’m still confused on where
I’m going to go," Rumph said. "I’ve been asking around and looking for advice.
I’ve been looking at other schools and seeing what they have to offer."
Clearly, Rumph has some issue with the Red Raiders that has caused him to open
his recruitment back up to this extent. We asked him a dozen or so questions
during our conversation to try and to get the exact reason, but he declined to
share.
"I don’t want to tell you why I’m not happy about my decision to Tech right
now," he said. "I don’t want to talk about it because I don’t want you to put it
on the website. It’s personal."
So what would Rumph do if signing day were today?
"I don’t know. I’d be a lost soul."
Stay tuned.
What now for Bell?
Heading into last weekend, the thought was that a strong possibility
existed that Boulder (Colo.) Fairview athlete Kenny Bell would
commit to Texas Tech during his official visit.
Obviously, that did not happen.
After talking with Bell this week, it sounds like a decision could still be
several weeks away.
"I'm going to start playing again and see where it takes me, see if I can pick
up some more offers from some schools that I'm interested in," he said.
Bell, who played for the first time since Week 1 last week, is hoping to hear
from a few specific programs.
"Actually, before my injury, I was talking to UCLA, Cal, hopefully I can pick up
an offer from Oregon," Bell said. "I'm looking for Pac-10 schools. I really like
California. I was hoping to get a big offer from an SEC school, but if it
doesn't happen, that's alright with me.
"I understand that I missed a lot of my senior season, but I'll go down and play
for one of these six schools that have offered me and I'll have a great time
doing it."
So what happens if he doesn't hear from any of those schools?
"I'm really satisfied with the schools that have offered me," he said. "I'll
just settle down and make a decision."
The vibe we get is that, of the programs that have offered, Texas Tech holds an
edge over Minnesota. From what we understand, though, his mother is pretty high
on the Gophers.
Spikes looking forward to visit
Unfortunately, every update that we've posted on Dallas (Texas) Pinkston running
back Aaron Spikes this season has been about his ankle injury.
It hasn't gotten any better and is definitely limiting him during his senior
campaign.
"I played last week versus Carter but I was the usual, still limited," Spikes
said. "I really didn’t do much but we had one of our young players stepped it
up."
The frustrating thing for Spikes is that he has visited two doctors who both
told him different things. The first said that his injury required surgery, the
second said that he did not.
"They both told me that I have a torn ligament in my ankle. I’m probably not
going to have surgery by the end of the season," Spikes said. "I’m not sure
right now but I don’t think so."
Hopefully the situation gets a little clearer this weekend, as Spikes expects to
have his ankle evaluated by Texas Tech's training staff.
"Their (training) staff wants to take a look at my ankle and see what’s going on
with it," Spikes said. "They want to see what’s been going on with it and see
what’s wrong. They want to see what’s bothering me the most.
"They want their staff to determine if I need surgery and hear from their
doctors to see what’s really going on with it. Sooner or later, we will get the
right answer to see what’s really going on with it."
Spikes sounded extremely relieved to be close to discovering the exact severity
of his injury.
"I just want to verify as to whether or not I need surgery," he said. "If I
don’t, it’s real good because I will go down there and play my freshman year. If
I do have to have surgery, then I have to redshirt. I hope I don’t because I
really want to play and get out there as a true freshman and get out there and
play."
Surgery or not, Spikes does know one thing for certain.
"I will be wearing my No. 5 at Texas Tech. I already know that for a fact."
Leach on Monday
Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach will be in Bristol, Conn. on
Monday making the rounds at ESPN (they call it the "car wash"). He'll be
featured in podcasts, radio shows, ESPN.com chats and, obviously, television
segments. Expect to see him featured on ESPN First Take, SportsCenter and in a
Dr. Lou segment.
Robinson enjoyed second trip to Lubbock
Eastland (Texas) center Forrest Robinson visited Texas Tech on
Saturday, his second trip in three weeks, and is becoming more and more
comfortable with those in and associated with the men's basketball program. He
has already begun developing close bonds with head coach Pat Knight and 2011
commit Kevin Wagner.
"I mean I wanted to see the game, and I wanted to see my boy Kevin again, and I
wanted to see Coach Pat again," Robinson said. "I’m a big Coach Pat fan. I just
wanted to see my guys again, really. See campus again, watch some workouts, and
I liked it."
Robinson and Wagner discussed the possibility of playing their college ball
together.
"Basically, what it would be like if I was to go (to Tech). We determined we’d
probably be roommates and stuff like that," Robinson said. "We were shooting
around for a little bit, and we both determined we wanted to play with each
other at some point."
During his visit, Robinson also met another person associated with the program:
Bob Knight.
"You can tell he is a very smart man, and he has a lot of wisdom," Robinson
said. "And when he talks to you, you just listen by instinct, you pay attention,
you don’t have to tell yourself to pay attention to him, and you look him in his
eyes automatically. He’s easy to talk to, he’s a nice guy, and he has a lot of
good advice."
The Red Raiders' gameday atmosphere and fan support made a big impression on the
talented big man.
"I like Tech, I mean I like it a lot," Robinson explained. "It seems like a good
place to be. People are really friendly and I like that a lot. I was walking
through campus and people were yelling, ‘Commit’. It’s a nice atmosphere. You
can tell the Red Raiders are highly supported in Lubbock."
Robinson lists a top three of Iowa State, Texas Tech and Utah in no particular
order. New schools are entering the mix almost daily, and he may unofficially
visit Arkansas this weekend.
Latest on Fehoko
It is looking increasingly likely that Honolulu (Hawaii) Farrington linebacker V.J. Fehoko will announce his college decision during the 2010
Under Armour All-America Game on January 2. It will be broadcast live on ESPN.
Fehoko lists a top five of Hawaii, Texas Tech, Utah, Utah State and Washington.
He is scheduled to officially visit Lubbock in November for the Oklahoma game.
Young enjoys Texas Tech visit
Denton (Texas) Ryan quarterback Scotty Young enjoyed his official visit to Texas
Tech last weekend despite the results on the scoreboard.
"It was good. I was real excited," Young said. "I got to meet Beau
(Carpenter) and Jackson (Richards), and I thought that was good; I hadn’t
met them yet. And everything other than the game went well, I had a good time,
and I’m excited to get down there."
The four-star gunslinger had obviously visited the campus several times before,
but was able to do and see some things on his official that he hadn't in his
previous trips.
"I toured a bunch of stuff that I hadn’t seen, like the apartments and some of
the facilities I hadn’t seen," Young said. "I met a bunch of football players;
some of the redshirt freshman, and I hung out with them a lot. So, I’ll be more
familiar when I visit with them next summer."
With the Red Raiders' quarterback situation seeming like a revolving door this
season due to injuries, does Young think he might find himself in the mix next
fall?
"I don’t know," Young said, "I’ve got a lot of work to do, so I guess we will
just see how it goes."
Ryan (7-1, 4-1) plays The Colony (2-6, 1-4) tonight. On the season, Young is
157-of-247 for 2,480 yards, 35 TDs and 5 INTs.
To view previous installments of the Red Raider Confidential, you can visit the
archives by
clicking here.
Thank you for subscribing to RedRaiderSports.com!
This post was edited on 10/30 10:19 AM by A. Dickens
