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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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Castaneda talks TTU 2017 recruiting class:
If you could imagine, there was a time when the 2017 class had more commits than the 2016 class. This was in large part due to 2017 Round Rock (TX) offensive line recruit Tyler Castaneda who committed to Texas Tech in October of 2014 and has been in contact with the Tech coaches ever since.
“Things are going great. My brother goes there, so it has been fun to watch him play and progress. He got to play a little bit of tight end and guard in the last game,” he said. “The coaches direct message me all the time through twitter, and I talk with Coach Morris and Coach Hays the most. Coach Hays is the offensive line coach, so I definitely want to establish a good relationship with him.”
Castaneda really enjoys getting the chance to build a relationship with his future offensive coaches.
“I really like Coach Hays; he recruited my brother, so I got the chance to get to know him a lot through that. I love getting to talk to him. He is a really nice guy and a great man and coach,” he said. “And I love Coach Morris. He is so enthusiastic. When he sends me a direct message, he is always like ‘What’s up big dog?’ and it is really awesome.”
September 1 was the first official day of contact between coaches and 2017 recruits, and Castaneda woke up to a surprise direct message from his future head coach at midnight that night.
“Coach Kingsbury sent me a direct message at midnight. It was awesome, and I was very excited when he messaged me. It was really cool.”
The three-star guard will be taking a quick trip to Austin this weekend to watch Texas take on Rice but feels like a visit to Lubbock could come in the weeks afterwards.
“I’ll definitely be up there to watch my brother play. I’ll probably go see the Tech vs. TCU game and will definitely go and watch when Tech plays Texas on Thanksgiving. I’ll probably make the Baylor game. I’ll probably try and come watch as many games as I can since my brother isn’t a redshirt anymore.”
At the moment, Castaneda and Cibolo Steele QB Xavier Martin are the only two commits for the 2017 class. Martin and Castaneda have developed a strong bond and are both hitting the recruiting trail hard to add some prospects to their class.
“Oh yeah, Xavier and I are real good friends. Right from the start, we followed each other on twitter and we clicked. I really love Xavier’s style of play. I watched his film and he is awesome. I love it,” he said.
“We are both working on getting other recruits committed like Jack Anderson, he is a good buddy of ours. When I went to the Rivals camp, I hung out a lot with Grayson Reed too. I was talking with him and we hung out a lot and we did the combo tackle/guard drills together and it was great. We did really well. I love playing next to him and would love to do that in college.”
Castaneda has been committed to Tech for almost a year now and is very solid to the Red Raiders. Having his future school in place is no cause for slacking for the 6-foot-4, 305-pound prospect as he has many goals set for his future and wants to get better at his position.
“I got two more years to work my ass off. I still need to work on my footwork, my hand placement, and I have a problem of hopping a bit, so I want to work on that. My speed, my strength, and the rest of my basic skills are other areas I want to work on too.”
Castaneda is rated as the No. 9 junior offensive guard prospect in the nation and the No. 44 player in the state of Texas for the 2017 class.
-Kohnle
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DFW-area 2017 recruit visiting this weekend:
With the 2015 football season underway at all levels, new targets are starting to emerge as athletes showcase their abilities each week. One 2017 prospect to keep an eye on is Dallas Parish Episcopal running back Dominic Williams.
Last week Williams picked up his first offer from Kansas during an unofficial visit and is also receiving interest from Baylor, Washington, Tulsa and others.
“They say they like my vision and they like how I can make plays whenever there’s nowhere to go,” Williams said.
Texas Tech could be in contact soon as well. Williams plans to visit the South Plains this weekend to watch the Red Raiders play UTEP.
“My coach that helps me with recruiting says they like me a lot,” Williams said.
-Wright
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Red Raiders keeping tabs on Nwangwu:
Texas Tech has a few prospects they will be keeping tabs on throughout this season. If a spot ever opens up, it is nice to have these relationships built up with various other prospects. One prospect on Tech’s radar is Frisco Heritage (TX) RB Kene Nwangwu. He camped with Tech in Lancaster and turned some heads based off his performance. Now, the RB hears from Coach Curtis every week.
“I talked to the defensive backs coach, Coach Curtis about a week ago. He was just asking what I’ve been working on and the things I’m trying to do to make sure my team will have a good year,” he said. “When we talked, that was our first ever phone call, but we direct message each other about two to three times a week.”
While Nwangwu plays running back at Heritage, the Tech coaching staff is actually recruiting him at corner back. Coach Curtis and the two-star recruit usually talk about general topics when they get together, but the corner back position has been a conversation topic over the last few weeks.
“Sometimes he (Curtis) will give me some quotes for the week or something motivational. We haven’t talked about a visit yet, but we do talk a lot about the corner position. We talk about technique and stuff and things to work on. During practice I play corner and during games I usually get in some at corner too.”
While an offer doesn’t seem like a possibility anytime soon, Nwangwu will be visited by a coach sometime this season and things could be re-evaluated down the road.
“I’m not really sure where they stand, but the coaches have been telling me that they are going to come watch one of my games,” he said. “I hear from Coach Chiaverini sometimes. He wishes me good luck for my games and was the one who told me that a coach was going to come see me.”
Nwangwu’s speed and size are his best attributes as he stands at a solid 6-foot and recently ran a 10.71 100m dash. Out of the schools that are showing him the most interest, Texas Tech is the only school looking at him as a defensive back. Each of his six offers are all for the running back position.
“I’m not attached to the running back position. I just want to go where I am needed and wanted. I’ll change positions to be a defensive back if I’m needed, that’s why I work so much at defensive back during practice so I could be ready for the switch.”
The running back would be very high on Tech if they were to ever come with an offer and his situation will be one to watch in the coming months. In two games so far this season, Nwangwu has already racked up 33 carries for 366 yards and 6 touchdowns on offense.
-Kohnle
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Stringer talks future at TTU:
Last weekend during his unofficial visit to Texas Tech, Cypress Ranch linebacker and Red Raider commit Brayden Stringer sat down with a few coaches and got a glimpse of what to expect with his future team.
“They didn’t bring up the putting on weight situation yet, I’m sure they’ll bring it up closer to summer,” Stringer said. “In their opinion, they want me to come out early and have an important role on the field as a defensive player pretty soon. The defense didn’t play terrible, there’s some stuff they need to fix after just the first game, but they see me having an important role pretty soon.
“They want to keep me inside right now, will linebacker, that’s their plan. The coaches at Tech cross train and make us learn every position in case someone gets hurt. Right now they want to keep me at Will, my main position.”
-Wright
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.
----------
Castaneda talks TTU 2017 recruiting class:
If you could imagine, there was a time when the 2017 class had more commits than the 2016 class. This was in large part due to 2017 Round Rock (TX) offensive line recruit Tyler Castaneda who committed to Texas Tech in October of 2014 and has been in contact with the Tech coaches ever since.
“Things are going great. My brother goes there, so it has been fun to watch him play and progress. He got to play a little bit of tight end and guard in the last game,” he said. “The coaches direct message me all the time through twitter, and I talk with Coach Morris and Coach Hays the most. Coach Hays is the offensive line coach, so I definitely want to establish a good relationship with him.”
Castaneda really enjoys getting the chance to build a relationship with his future offensive coaches.
“I really like Coach Hays; he recruited my brother, so I got the chance to get to know him a lot through that. I love getting to talk to him. He is a really nice guy and a great man and coach,” he said. “And I love Coach Morris. He is so enthusiastic. When he sends me a direct message, he is always like ‘What’s up big dog?’ and it is really awesome.”
September 1 was the first official day of contact between coaches and 2017 recruits, and Castaneda woke up to a surprise direct message from his future head coach at midnight that night.
“Coach Kingsbury sent me a direct message at midnight. It was awesome, and I was very excited when he messaged me. It was really cool.”
The three-star guard will be taking a quick trip to Austin this weekend to watch Texas take on Rice but feels like a visit to Lubbock could come in the weeks afterwards.
“I’ll definitely be up there to watch my brother play. I’ll probably go see the Tech vs. TCU game and will definitely go and watch when Tech plays Texas on Thanksgiving. I’ll probably make the Baylor game. I’ll probably try and come watch as many games as I can since my brother isn’t a redshirt anymore.”
At the moment, Castaneda and Cibolo Steele QB Xavier Martin are the only two commits for the 2017 class. Martin and Castaneda have developed a strong bond and are both hitting the recruiting trail hard to add some prospects to their class.
“Oh yeah, Xavier and I are real good friends. Right from the start, we followed each other on twitter and we clicked. I really love Xavier’s style of play. I watched his film and he is awesome. I love it,” he said.
“We are both working on getting other recruits committed like Jack Anderson, he is a good buddy of ours. When I went to the Rivals camp, I hung out a lot with Grayson Reed too. I was talking with him and we hung out a lot and we did the combo tackle/guard drills together and it was great. We did really well. I love playing next to him and would love to do that in college.”
Castaneda has been committed to Tech for almost a year now and is very solid to the Red Raiders. Having his future school in place is no cause for slacking for the 6-foot-4, 305-pound prospect as he has many goals set for his future and wants to get better at his position.
“I got two more years to work my ass off. I still need to work on my footwork, my hand placement, and I have a problem of hopping a bit, so I want to work on that. My speed, my strength, and the rest of my basic skills are other areas I want to work on too.”
Castaneda is rated as the No. 9 junior offensive guard prospect in the nation and the No. 44 player in the state of Texas for the 2017 class.
-Kohnle
----------
DFW-area 2017 recruit visiting this weekend:
With the 2015 football season underway at all levels, new targets are starting to emerge as athletes showcase their abilities each week. One 2017 prospect to keep an eye on is Dallas Parish Episcopal running back Dominic Williams.
Last week Williams picked up his first offer from Kansas during an unofficial visit and is also receiving interest from Baylor, Washington, Tulsa and others.
“They say they like my vision and they like how I can make plays whenever there’s nowhere to go,” Williams said.
Texas Tech could be in contact soon as well. Williams plans to visit the South Plains this weekend to watch the Red Raiders play UTEP.
“My coach that helps me with recruiting says they like me a lot,” Williams said.
-Wright
----------
Red Raiders keeping tabs on Nwangwu:
Texas Tech has a few prospects they will be keeping tabs on throughout this season. If a spot ever opens up, it is nice to have these relationships built up with various other prospects. One prospect on Tech’s radar is Frisco Heritage (TX) RB Kene Nwangwu. He camped with Tech in Lancaster and turned some heads based off his performance. Now, the RB hears from Coach Curtis every week.
“I talked to the defensive backs coach, Coach Curtis about a week ago. He was just asking what I’ve been working on and the things I’m trying to do to make sure my team will have a good year,” he said. “When we talked, that was our first ever phone call, but we direct message each other about two to three times a week.”
While Nwangwu plays running back at Heritage, the Tech coaching staff is actually recruiting him at corner back. Coach Curtis and the two-star recruit usually talk about general topics when they get together, but the corner back position has been a conversation topic over the last few weeks.
“Sometimes he (Curtis) will give me some quotes for the week or something motivational. We haven’t talked about a visit yet, but we do talk a lot about the corner position. We talk about technique and stuff and things to work on. During practice I play corner and during games I usually get in some at corner too.”
While an offer doesn’t seem like a possibility anytime soon, Nwangwu will be visited by a coach sometime this season and things could be re-evaluated down the road.
“I’m not really sure where they stand, but the coaches have been telling me that they are going to come watch one of my games,” he said. “I hear from Coach Chiaverini sometimes. He wishes me good luck for my games and was the one who told me that a coach was going to come see me.”
Nwangwu’s speed and size are his best attributes as he stands at a solid 6-foot and recently ran a 10.71 100m dash. Out of the schools that are showing him the most interest, Texas Tech is the only school looking at him as a defensive back. Each of his six offers are all for the running back position.
“I’m not attached to the running back position. I just want to go where I am needed and wanted. I’ll change positions to be a defensive back if I’m needed, that’s why I work so much at defensive back during practice so I could be ready for the switch.”
The running back would be very high on Tech if they were to ever come with an offer and his situation will be one to watch in the coming months. In two games so far this season, Nwangwu has already racked up 33 carries for 366 yards and 6 touchdowns on offense.
-Kohnle
----------
Stringer talks future at TTU:
Last weekend during his unofficial visit to Texas Tech, Cypress Ranch linebacker and Red Raider commit Brayden Stringer sat down with a few coaches and got a glimpse of what to expect with his future team.
“They didn’t bring up the putting on weight situation yet, I’m sure they’ll bring it up closer to summer,” Stringer said. “In their opinion, they want me to come out early and have an important role on the field as a defensive player pretty soon. The defense didn’t play terrible, there’s some stuff they need to fix after just the first game, but they see me having an important role pretty soon.
“They want to keep me inside right now, will linebacker, that’s their plan. The coaches at Tech cross train and make us learn every position in case someone gets hurt. Right now they want to keep me at Will, my main position.”
-Wright
