Hello everyone, and Happy Friday...
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PUT SOME RESPECT ON MY DECISION
Not going to link it again, but most everyone knows that Anna ATH Abner Dubar announced his decision to reopen his recruitment last night....right in the midst of the first few picks of the NFL Draft.
From Dubar last night...
"I felt that I rushed the process and I just need time to make sure that I'm making the right choice."
On the reaction from Coach Wells and staff...
"Coach Wells was not mad, he said they will still be recruiting me and that he still wants me to be a part of the new culture they are bringing to Texas Tech."
So there you go, pretty straight forward decommit stuff.
Where it gets somewhat interesting is the 'newer' aspect of college football recruiting associated with this situation.
There are dozens of "7-on-7 teams" or groups throughout the state of Texas these days, and each organization is usually run by a local trainer and the teams combine the talents of several top athletes from the area to compete in various tournaments around the state, and really around the country at this level.
Think select baseball, does that help?
Too often what seems to happen, is that the prospects are taking advice from a trainer or their 7v7 coach...which isn't the worst thing in the world, but when the message is consistantly - "you should verbal to this school, it is a P5 offer and other offers can still come in, you can decommit and change your mind whenever".
I don't see this as a big issue, but most here can probably remember when Jimbo Fisher took the A&M job and immediately met with one of the top trainers/7v7 coaches in Houston (Ro Simon, Fast Houston).
Whether we agree with it or not, this is very much a part of the modern day recruiting process, especially at the skill positions - QB, RB, WR, DB, LB.
Time will tell what happens with young Abner, but the odds are that the coaches move on and he does the same.
----------
NEW OFFERS THIS WEEK
Sparkman holds 13 offers from programs across the country, and seems to fill a spot at outside receiver with his 6-foot-4, 200-pound frame. With another year left at the high school level, he could be a prospect that gets onto campus at 6-foot-5, 220-pounds.
The three-star prospect finished with 28 receptions for 702 yards and 10 touchdowns last season.
Ben Golan spoke with Jackson and posted an updated from the three-star prospect earlier this week. Listed as a wide receiver, it sounds like the Red Raiders see Jackson playing defensive back at the next level.
He now holds 11 total offers, including offers from the Pac 12 and Ivy League.
----------
BIG 12 RECRUITING BATTLE - BASKETBALL
Coach Beard and his staff hosted another 2019 official visitor this week - Clarence Nadolny from the Scotland Performance Institute in Chambersburg, PA.
With official visits to West Virginia, Iowa State and Texas Tech this past week alone, most are thinking that the three-star shooting guard ends up with the Red Raiders.
....and there is your basketball update of the week, brought to by Friday Flare.
...nevermind, this was pretty cool too.
Ramsey with The Answer, and yes I had the Iverson Question Mid OG Reeboks in high school...so much swag, so much drip, cannot see me with a telescope and all that.
----------
NFL DRAFT TALK
Dakota Allen and Antoine Wesley are both expected to hear their names called over the weekend in the NFL Draft.
The former Red Raider standouts each had their own 'path to the draft', but what about their path to Texas Tech?
Everyone knows Dakota's story from Last Chance U, but out of high school he was the same quiet kid that just wrecked people on the football field. It gets overlooked, in my opinion, but this was a high three-star kid who chose Texas Tech over Oklahoma and TCU...among others.
On the other side, Wesley was a very wirey kid that caught almost everything thrown his way at Cibolo Steele. At the time, he was a two-star prospect with offers from Tech and Houston. There was a Steele pipeline and it was who the coaches wanted, not much general fanfair around "we landed this guy!" or anything.
Hand up. I'm just as guilty as anyone for not necessarily believing in Wesley before the season, because he had not already shown the flashes of what he did on the field this season.But as we all know, he ended up being a go-to target for every Tech quarterback this season and just produced in every game.
Good luck to both, where does everyone think they end up being drafted?
Allen - 6th round
Wesley - 5th round
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BUT WHERE WERE THESE DRAFT PICKS RANKED BY RIVALS??!!!?!?!????
Ok, I joke...we do this every year and I thought the Yahoo Sports team put together an easy to consume overview of each 1st round draft pick last night and where they were ranked out of high school.
Cliff notes version...
First round picks by Rivals star rankings:
5-stars: 8
4-stars: 10
3-stars: 10
2-stars: 2
Unranked: 2
First round picks by conference:
SEC: 9
ACC: 7
Big 10: 7
Big 12: 3
Pac-12: 3
AAC: 1
Southwestern (FCS): 1
Independent: 1
High school states with the most first round picks tonight:
Florida: 5
North Carolina: 3
Texas: 3
Alabama: 2
Louisiana: 2
Mississippi: 2
New Jersey: 2
Washington: 2
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KLIFF AND KYLER
I'm so glad this guy tweeted this last night, because I have been trying to find this damn picture for months.
We all knew it was happening, but what a crazy time?
Kliff gets fired, then takes the USC OC job and then gets hired as the Arizona Cardinals head coach......huh???
But as Red Raiders, most everyone is pretty excited to see what he can do in the NFL.
The relationship with Kyler and Kliff goes way back to his days at A&M though. Kyler was cleary a prodigy in the making as a young starter at Allen, and the Aggies were experiencing a ton of success under Kliff and Johnny Manziel at the time.
Remember when Tech beat TCU on Thursday night in Kliff's first season?
Before addressing the team, I was told that Kliff immediately went to a phone with Haverty and called Kyler from the locker room. The story goes that Kingsbury got Kyler on the phone and said "did you like that???", then let him hear the roar of the locker room.
Yeah yeah, cool story. But I only tell it to show the relationship between Kyler and Kliff.
I'm excited to see the college approach in the NFL with Kyler at the QB position, should be a lot of fun to watch either way.
-----------
HATE TO SEE IT
Yes, the Longhorns seem to be recruiting at an elite level again and things are looking up currently...but this tweet/stat shows how rough it had been for years after Mack Brown left.
----------
RECRUITING 101
I have posted these in previous weeks, but one of our national analysts - Josh Helmholdt, published the lastest version on the late signing periods for prospects.
We now have the 'early' signing period in December, the 'traditional' signing period in early February and then the late additions/transfers that programs sign after the fact.
----------
WHOA
And you thought bat flips was a problem, wait for the full on gymnist...
YOU KNOW, AGGREVATED CYBER STALKING...IT'S A THING
Yikes, a Florida Gators assistant had a bad week...weird deal
J STOCKTON IS HEADED NORTH
Stockton was doing well in the now failed AFA league, but he found a home earlier this week in the Canadian Football League.
COVER OF MADDEN...CURSE?
I really don't even know if the Madden 'curse' is still a thing or not, and I haven't actually played Madden since during or right after college....so no jinx.
But how cool is this? Mahomes is a national name, he is every where and the Tech Football program quickly helped spread the word of him being the Madden 20 cover art last night.
----------
PUT SOME RESPECT ON MY DECISION
Not going to link it again, but most everyone knows that Anna ATH Abner Dubar announced his decision to reopen his recruitment last night....right in the midst of the first few picks of the NFL Draft.
From Dubar last night...
"I felt that I rushed the process and I just need time to make sure that I'm making the right choice."
On the reaction from Coach Wells and staff...
"Coach Wells was not mad, he said they will still be recruiting me and that he still wants me to be a part of the new culture they are bringing to Texas Tech."
So there you go, pretty straight forward decommit stuff.
Where it gets somewhat interesting is the 'newer' aspect of college football recruiting associated with this situation.
There are dozens of "7-on-7 teams" or groups throughout the state of Texas these days, and each organization is usually run by a local trainer and the teams combine the talents of several top athletes from the area to compete in various tournaments around the state, and really around the country at this level.
Think select baseball, does that help?
Too often what seems to happen, is that the prospects are taking advice from a trainer or their 7v7 coach...which isn't the worst thing in the world, but when the message is consistantly - "you should verbal to this school, it is a P5 offer and other offers can still come in, you can decommit and change your mind whenever".
I don't see this as a big issue, but most here can probably remember when Jimbo Fisher took the A&M job and immediately met with one of the top trainers/7v7 coaches in Houston (Ro Simon, Fast Houston).
Whether we agree with it or not, this is very much a part of the modern day recruiting process, especially at the skill positions - QB, RB, WR, DB, LB.
Time will tell what happens with young Abner, but the odds are that the coaches move on and he does the same.
----------
NEW OFFERS THIS WEEK
Sparkman holds 13 offers from programs across the country, and seems to fill a spot at outside receiver with his 6-foot-4, 200-pound frame. With another year left at the high school level, he could be a prospect that gets onto campus at 6-foot-5, 220-pounds.
The three-star prospect finished with 28 receptions for 702 yards and 10 touchdowns last season.
Ben Golan spoke with Jackson and posted an updated from the three-star prospect earlier this week. Listed as a wide receiver, it sounds like the Red Raiders see Jackson playing defensive back at the next level.
He now holds 11 total offers, including offers from the Pac 12 and Ivy League.
----------
BIG 12 RECRUITING BATTLE - BASKETBALL
Coach Beard and his staff hosted another 2019 official visitor this week - Clarence Nadolny from the Scotland Performance Institute in Chambersburg, PA.
With official visits to West Virginia, Iowa State and Texas Tech this past week alone, most are thinking that the three-star shooting guard ends up with the Red Raiders.
....and there is your basketball update of the week, brought to by Friday Flare.
...nevermind, this was pretty cool too.
Ramsey with The Answer, and yes I had the Iverson Question Mid OG Reeboks in high school...so much swag, so much drip, cannot see me with a telescope and all that.
----------
NFL DRAFT TALK
Dakota Allen and Antoine Wesley are both expected to hear their names called over the weekend in the NFL Draft.
The former Red Raider standouts each had their own 'path to the draft', but what about their path to Texas Tech?
Everyone knows Dakota's story from Last Chance U, but out of high school he was the same quiet kid that just wrecked people on the football field. It gets overlooked, in my opinion, but this was a high three-star kid who chose Texas Tech over Oklahoma and TCU...among others.
On the other side, Wesley was a very wirey kid that caught almost everything thrown his way at Cibolo Steele. At the time, he was a two-star prospect with offers from Tech and Houston. There was a Steele pipeline and it was who the coaches wanted, not much general fanfair around "we landed this guy!" or anything.
Hand up. I'm just as guilty as anyone for not necessarily believing in Wesley before the season, because he had not already shown the flashes of what he did on the field this season.But as we all know, he ended up being a go-to target for every Tech quarterback this season and just produced in every game.
Good luck to both, where does everyone think they end up being drafted?
Allen - 6th round
Wesley - 5th round
----------
BUT WHERE WERE THESE DRAFT PICKS RANKED BY RIVALS??!!!?!?!????
Ok, I joke...we do this every year and I thought the Yahoo Sports team put together an easy to consume overview of each 1st round draft pick last night and where they were ranked out of high school.
Cliff notes version...
First round picks by Rivals star rankings:
5-stars: 8
4-stars: 10
3-stars: 10
2-stars: 2
Unranked: 2
First round picks by conference:
SEC: 9
ACC: 7
Big 10: 7
Big 12: 3
Pac-12: 3
AAC: 1
Southwestern (FCS): 1
Independent: 1
High school states with the most first round picks tonight:
Florida: 5
North Carolina: 3
Texas: 3
Alabama: 2
Louisiana: 2
Mississippi: 2
New Jersey: 2
Washington: 2
----------
KLIFF AND KYLER
I'm so glad this guy tweeted this last night, because I have been trying to find this damn picture for months.
We all knew it was happening, but what a crazy time?
Kliff gets fired, then takes the USC OC job and then gets hired as the Arizona Cardinals head coach......huh???
But as Red Raiders, most everyone is pretty excited to see what he can do in the NFL.
The relationship with Kyler and Kliff goes way back to his days at A&M though. Kyler was cleary a prodigy in the making as a young starter at Allen, and the Aggies were experiencing a ton of success under Kliff and Johnny Manziel at the time.
Remember when Tech beat TCU on Thursday night in Kliff's first season?
Before addressing the team, I was told that Kliff immediately went to a phone with Haverty and called Kyler from the locker room. The story goes that Kingsbury got Kyler on the phone and said "did you like that???", then let him hear the roar of the locker room.
Yeah yeah, cool story. But I only tell it to show the relationship between Kyler and Kliff.
I'm excited to see the college approach in the NFL with Kyler at the QB position, should be a lot of fun to watch either way.
-----------
HATE TO SEE IT
Yes, the Longhorns seem to be recruiting at an elite level again and things are looking up currently...but this tweet/stat shows how rough it had been for years after Mack Brown left.
----------
RECRUITING 101
I have posted these in previous weeks, but one of our national analysts - Josh Helmholdt, published the lastest version on the late signing periods for prospects.
We now have the 'early' signing period in December, the 'traditional' signing period in early February and then the late additions/transfers that programs sign after the fact.
----------
WHOA
And you thought bat flips was a problem, wait for the full on gymnist...
YOU KNOW, AGGREVATED CYBER STALKING...IT'S A THING
Yikes, a Florida Gators assistant had a bad week...weird deal
J STOCKTON IS HEADED NORTH
Stockton was doing well in the now failed AFA league, but he found a home earlier this week in the Canadian Football League.
COVER OF MADDEN...CURSE?
I really don't even know if the Madden 'curse' is still a thing or not, and I haven't actually played Madden since during or right after college....so no jinx.
But how cool is this? Mahomes is a national name, he is every where and the Tech Football program quickly helped spread the word of him being the Madden 20 cover art last night.
