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 a tremendous location in Lubbock (Slide and S. Loop 289), a store in Plano and a fantastic selection on their website.
If you're in the Lubbock area and looking to get into shape, but don't know where to start, check out the website for Cardinal's Fitness. You can sign up for individual classes -- no contract or membership required -- that are good for people at any fitness level.
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Cibolo Steele junior running back Travell Lumpkin made an unofficial visit to Lubbock back in July. The visit out to the South Plains resulted in his first collegiate offer from the Red Raiders. Fast forward a couple of months and the RB will be taking unofficial visit No. 2 as he will be in Lubbock when Tech hosts TCU on Sept. 26. Lumpkin still hears from a lot of the members of the Tech coaching staff.
“I hear from them every day; I hear from Coach Curtis every day. He sends me motivational quotes, asks me about my upcoming game, tells me good luck, and is always trying to get me back to Lubbock,” he said. “I’ll actually be down for the TCU game with Xavier (Martin), and I am really excited to see the players, the coaches, the crowd and the game atmosphere for the first time.”
Along with Coach Curtis, Lumpkin hears from former Cibolo Steele head coach Mike Jinks. Lumpkin recently received an offer from the University of Houston and Jinks reached out and congratulated Lumpkin on the offer.
“I hear from Coach Jinks on a weekly basis as well. I just recently received an offer from the University of Houston and he reached out and congratulated me. He always tells me good luck before my games.”
Lumpkin has various ties to Texas Tech as many of his current teammates are committed to the Red Raiders. 2016 recruits Bryson Denley and Antoine Cox-Wesley are Tech pledges and 2017 QB Xavier Martin is committed to Tech as well. Lumpkin and Martin spend a lot of time talking about maybe playing together in the future and Lumpkin is very interested in the Red Raiders.
“We talk about Tech a lot, and he is wants me to commit so we can play together. I really like Tech, the coaches, the team, the players. I like the coaches a lot.”
-Kohnle
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Defensive line commit Ivory Jackson made his second straight trip to the South Plains last weekend and was in the stands for Tech’s 69-20 victory over UTEP. Jackson was also in town the week before when Tech took on Sam Houston State. He gave his thoughts on what he saw from his future team from his view in the stands.
“I feel like the offense played great and the defense really stepped up. We are a lot better than we were last year, and we are really underrated this year, and I feel like we are going to really surprise some people,” he said. “They definitely handled the run game a lot better. The first game they were missing assignments and trying to make big plays, but during the second game they were a lot more focused on doing their jobs first, and then making plays second.”
Living so close to Lubbock, Jackson –and fellow commit Emoree Giddens—have the luxury of attending as many home games as they want and have the chance to bond with multiple commits on their visits as well. This week, Jackson and Giddens got to meet DE Houston Miller for the first time and Jackson is excited for the future with him and Miller on the defensive line.
“I got to hang out with Emoree again and Houston Miller was there as well. It was really cool to meet Houston; it is crazy how fast we actually clicked. It felt like we knew each other for five years or something. He is really athletic, tall, big, and I’m excited to play next him and develop chemistry with him now, so we can make plays later on.”
The 6-foot-4, 270-pound Jackson has been dominating along the defensive line for his Amarillo High team this year. His HS coaches are making good use of his versatility and have used him at every position along the defensive line. Jackson has recorded multiple sacks from DE and DT this year. He hasn’t picked up any new offers recently but is starting to hear a lot from Boise State.
He also made note that the 2016 commits would like to be referred to as the #GunGang. Him and Miller developed the hashtag last week and has caught on with most of the 2016 recruits.
-Kohnle
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Texas Tech’s defensive secondary has played well considering it’s made up of mostly underclassmen. In fact, this group will only lose senior safety J.J. Gaines at season’s end and should be even better next year. However, that depth hasn’t made corner back commit Neiman Armstrong of DeSoto any less confident of finding his place in the rotation.
“Anytime you come to a new school, especially me being a freshmen, I’m going to have to fight for a position,” Armstrong said. “I’m going to compete for a spot right away and I’m pretty sure I have the skills and technique to take it.”
These past few months, Armstrong has also gotten more acquainted with more of his future teammates that are currently playing at Dallas Skyline.
“We have a group message on Twitter with Joe Wallace from Skyline, Da’Leon Ward, Clarence Henderson from Skyline,” Armstrong said. “We’ve been on Twitter chattin’ it up and stuff like that. This week we are playing a whole bunch of Tech commits from Steele High School. I haven’t gotten to know any of them yet, but I’ve heard a good deal about them.”
-Wright
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Missouri City (Texas) Ridge Point offensive tackle Travis Bruffy continues to be amazed by Texas Tech's offense. He was excited to see some of the subtle things that the coaching staff has incorporated into the offense to make it a well oiled machine. Bruffy has taken the initiative to study the offense, so that he'll have some understanding of how things work before arriving next summer.
"Well, I love watching their offense work. Their offense is probably one of the fastest I've ever seen there. They set the ball and they're already ready to run another play, which is amazing to me" said Bruffy. "Coach Kingsbury has that offense down to a T. He just knows the ends and outs of college football, and how to get people open and score touchdowns. It's just a beautiful sight to watch, and I'm glad to be apart of it"
Bruffy's first chance to get an upclose view of the Red Raider offense will come next week, when TCU comes to town.
-Martin
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We had an update from Houston Miller earlier in the week about his visit to Lubbock last week, which went extremely well. However, I had a few more details from the DE to share, as we went in depth with what stuck out to him.
First, he had quite the experience interacting with Red Raider fans.
"Just being in the stands, seeing how much Tech football means to all the fans, how they react, their passion for the game, it meant a lot for me to see that. Plus, I was walking to get a drink from the concessions, and a fan came up to me and asked me if I was Houston Miller. He told me that he loved watching me play, that he reads all the articles and can't wait for me to be there. It meant a lot to have the feeling of so much love and support from a person already, and not just on social media."
Miller was able to - in his eyes - get a great perspective of what to expect as a Red Raider in the future, and he couldn't be more excited to get his journey started in Lubbock.
"It was amazing experience to see everything that up close and personal. I really got to see what it's like to be in the town I will live in for four years, and I couldn't have been happier. Seeing how the fans cheer, the fight song and traditions, it got me excited to think people will do that there when I'm playing. It was also great to see how the coaches act on the field, how much fun the players are having."
-McKay
If you're in the Lubbock area and looking to get into shape, but don't know where to start, check out the website for Cardinal's Fitness. You can sign up for individual classes -- no contract or membership required -- that are good for people at any fitness level.
----------
Cibolo Steele junior running back Travell Lumpkin made an unofficial visit to Lubbock back in July. The visit out to the South Plains resulted in his first collegiate offer from the Red Raiders. Fast forward a couple of months and the RB will be taking unofficial visit No. 2 as he will be in Lubbock when Tech hosts TCU on Sept. 26. Lumpkin still hears from a lot of the members of the Tech coaching staff.
“I hear from them every day; I hear from Coach Curtis every day. He sends me motivational quotes, asks me about my upcoming game, tells me good luck, and is always trying to get me back to Lubbock,” he said. “I’ll actually be down for the TCU game with Xavier (Martin), and I am really excited to see the players, the coaches, the crowd and the game atmosphere for the first time.”
Along with Coach Curtis, Lumpkin hears from former Cibolo Steele head coach Mike Jinks. Lumpkin recently received an offer from the University of Houston and Jinks reached out and congratulated Lumpkin on the offer.
“I hear from Coach Jinks on a weekly basis as well. I just recently received an offer from the University of Houston and he reached out and congratulated me. He always tells me good luck before my games.”
Lumpkin has various ties to Texas Tech as many of his current teammates are committed to the Red Raiders. 2016 recruits Bryson Denley and Antoine Cox-Wesley are Tech pledges and 2017 QB Xavier Martin is committed to Tech as well. Lumpkin and Martin spend a lot of time talking about maybe playing together in the future and Lumpkin is very interested in the Red Raiders.
“We talk about Tech a lot, and he is wants me to commit so we can play together. I really like Tech, the coaches, the team, the players. I like the coaches a lot.”
-Kohnle
----------
Defensive line commit Ivory Jackson made his second straight trip to the South Plains last weekend and was in the stands for Tech’s 69-20 victory over UTEP. Jackson was also in town the week before when Tech took on Sam Houston State. He gave his thoughts on what he saw from his future team from his view in the stands.
“I feel like the offense played great and the defense really stepped up. We are a lot better than we were last year, and we are really underrated this year, and I feel like we are going to really surprise some people,” he said. “They definitely handled the run game a lot better. The first game they were missing assignments and trying to make big plays, but during the second game they were a lot more focused on doing their jobs first, and then making plays second.”
Living so close to Lubbock, Jackson –and fellow commit Emoree Giddens—have the luxury of attending as many home games as they want and have the chance to bond with multiple commits on their visits as well. This week, Jackson and Giddens got to meet DE Houston Miller for the first time and Jackson is excited for the future with him and Miller on the defensive line.
“I got to hang out with Emoree again and Houston Miller was there as well. It was really cool to meet Houston; it is crazy how fast we actually clicked. It felt like we knew each other for five years or something. He is really athletic, tall, big, and I’m excited to play next him and develop chemistry with him now, so we can make plays later on.”
The 6-foot-4, 270-pound Jackson has been dominating along the defensive line for his Amarillo High team this year. His HS coaches are making good use of his versatility and have used him at every position along the defensive line. Jackson has recorded multiple sacks from DE and DT this year. He hasn’t picked up any new offers recently but is starting to hear a lot from Boise State.
He also made note that the 2016 commits would like to be referred to as the #GunGang. Him and Miller developed the hashtag last week and has caught on with most of the 2016 recruits.
-Kohnle
---------
Texas Tech’s defensive secondary has played well considering it’s made up of mostly underclassmen. In fact, this group will only lose senior safety J.J. Gaines at season’s end and should be even better next year. However, that depth hasn’t made corner back commit Neiman Armstrong of DeSoto any less confident of finding his place in the rotation.
“Anytime you come to a new school, especially me being a freshmen, I’m going to have to fight for a position,” Armstrong said. “I’m going to compete for a spot right away and I’m pretty sure I have the skills and technique to take it.”
These past few months, Armstrong has also gotten more acquainted with more of his future teammates that are currently playing at Dallas Skyline.
“We have a group message on Twitter with Joe Wallace from Skyline, Da’Leon Ward, Clarence Henderson from Skyline,” Armstrong said. “We’ve been on Twitter chattin’ it up and stuff like that. This week we are playing a whole bunch of Tech commits from Steele High School. I haven’t gotten to know any of them yet, but I’ve heard a good deal about them.”
-Wright
----------
Missouri City (Texas) Ridge Point offensive tackle Travis Bruffy continues to be amazed by Texas Tech's offense. He was excited to see some of the subtle things that the coaching staff has incorporated into the offense to make it a well oiled machine. Bruffy has taken the initiative to study the offense, so that he'll have some understanding of how things work before arriving next summer.
"Well, I love watching their offense work. Their offense is probably one of the fastest I've ever seen there. They set the ball and they're already ready to run another play, which is amazing to me" said Bruffy. "Coach Kingsbury has that offense down to a T. He just knows the ends and outs of college football, and how to get people open and score touchdowns. It's just a beautiful sight to watch, and I'm glad to be apart of it"
Bruffy's first chance to get an upclose view of the Red Raider offense will come next week, when TCU comes to town.
-Martin
----------
We had an update from Houston Miller earlier in the week about his visit to Lubbock last week, which went extremely well. However, I had a few more details from the DE to share, as we went in depth with what stuck out to him.
First, he had quite the experience interacting with Red Raider fans.
"Just being in the stands, seeing how much Tech football means to all the fans, how they react, their passion for the game, it meant a lot for me to see that. Plus, I was walking to get a drink from the concessions, and a fan came up to me and asked me if I was Houston Miller. He told me that he loved watching me play, that he reads all the articles and can't wait for me to be there. It meant a lot to have the feeling of so much love and support from a person already, and not just on social media."
Miller was able to - in his eyes - get a great perspective of what to expect as a Red Raider in the future, and he couldn't be more excited to get his journey started in Lubbock.
"It was amazing experience to see everything that up close and personal. I really got to see what it's like to be in the town I will live in for four years, and I couldn't have been happier. Seeing how the fans cheer, the fight song and traditions, it got me excited to think people will do that there when I'm playing. It was also great to see how the coaches act on the field, how much fun the players are having."
-McKay
