Good morning, happy Friday everyone.
As always, the Friday Flare is brought to you by our friends at Gator's Bayou. Need an adult beverage to round out your week? Head over to the patio at Gator's Bayou and have a few this afternoon.
Later this summer, they will be hosting live music. Check out their website and follow them on social media for more upcoming events.
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WEEKLY CLICKS
...a quick list of links from the various stories posted on RRS this week.
Texas Tech wins Lubbock Regional
Takeaways: Red Raiders head to another Super Regional
Texas Tech "feels like family" for Davis
TTU targeting another long outside WR for 2021
Who does Texas Tech turn to in TE recruiting?
Victory Bells: Matt Clare discusses the latest in TTU recruiting
Around the Bases - Super Regional Edition
Red Raiders prep for Big 12 battle in Super Regional
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RECRUITING RANKINGS - HEAT CHECK
The Rivals national team released the updated recruiting rankings for the 2020 class this week, which led to the DMN blog where Texas Tech was listed No. 8 out of several other programs in the region...basically next to last, right above SMU and behind North Texas.
Cause for concern?
Here are a few quick notes from reviewing the updated Rivals Team Rankings for the 2020 class...this includes every Big 12 program and any other program located in the state of Texas.
Oklahoma - No. 12 overall, 10 commitments
Texas A&M - No. 15 overall, 8 commitments
Texas - No. 23 overall, 6 commitments
Oklahoma State - No. 25 overall, 9 commitments
TCU - No. 30 overall, 7 commitments
Iowa State - No. 34 overall, 8 commitments
Kansas State - No. 39 overall, 8 commitments*
Kansas - No. 42 overall, 7 commitments*
West Virginia - No. 47 overall, 5 commitments*
UTSA - No. 50 overall, 6 commitments
Baylor - No. 55 overall, 5 commitments
Rice - No. 67 overall, 7 commitments
North Texas - No. 69 overall, 10 commitments
Texas Tech - No. 72 overall, 3 commitments*
Houston - No. 84 overall, 1 commitment*
What does this tell us in the first week of June? Well, not much in my opinion, but the results do speak for themselves.
While things do not look great at the moment, it is worth noting that the past two recruiting classes - 2018 and 2019 - both had six (6) new verbal commitments in the month of June.
* = new head coaches
The new head coaches at Kansas and Kansas State are seeing a good start to their 2020 recruiting classes with seven (7) and eight (8) verbal commitments in the door already so far.
Texas Tech and Houston both have new coaches, and the programs have three (3) and one (1) verbal commitment respectively.
So where is the new coach recruiting bump? When is it coming?
I still firmly believe the month of June will see another 3-4 commitments added to the 2020 recruiting class. The coaches added one earlier this week, and they are hosting over a dozen official and unofficial visitors in a few weeks - full details.
My suggestion is to wait and see how the rest of June plays out, the coaches can add 3-4 three-star prospects and land inside of the Top 50 and then continue climbing from there.
No alarm bells here, but that doesn't mean the concern from others is not warranted.
----------
RIVALS 250 - 4-STAR OPTIONS FOR TTU?
With the updated rankings this week, the Rivals 250 was released and the newest version of the nation's top prospects included 36 total prospects from the Lone Star State.
Of the 36 prospects from Texas, 19 of them are already committed with nine (9) of those verbal commitments being to local programs and that number includes Oklahoma for conference/proximity reasons.
10 of the 19 prospects are verbally committed to out of state programs.
That leaves 17 other uncommitted prospects in the Rivals 250, but.....none of these uncommitted prospects are looking at Texas Tech, or seriously considering the Red Raiders.
Not the end of the world, and things can change...but when reviewing the updates earlier in the week, this was a takeaway and something I wanted to write about.
However, the national team also updated the four-star prospects outside of the Rivals 250 and there are a couple of Tech targets in that group...
CB Christian Gonzalez
Gonzalez has visited campus this off-season and remains in contact with the Tech coaches. He has added quite a few new offers, so time will tell, but a potential four-star prospect the Tech coaches can work to add for the 2020 class.
WR Ja'Lynn Polk
Polk included the Red Raiders in his Top 4 recently, and the new four-star prospect will be visiting campus this summer.
----------
NEW 2020 COMMIT
The coaches landed a new 2020 commitment earlier this week when South Oak Cliff safety Jonathan Davis announced his verbal commitment to the Red Raiders.
The three-star prospect chose Texas Tech over 15 other offers, including Arizona, Colorado, Purdue, Georgia Tech, Kansas and several others.
Davis is the No. 117 overall prospect on the Rivals.com Texas Top 150 for the 2020 recruiting class.
----------
NEW OFFERS
Not a big week for new offers, only one (1) 2021 offer went out this week...
CB Cale Sanders Jr.
The underclassman plays both offense and defense for New Caney. Texas Tech is the first offer for Sanders Jr., who checks in at 5-foot-10, 170-pounds.
----------
JUNG GOES TOP 10
By now, everyone knows that Josh Jung was taken No. 8 overall by the Texas Rangers in the MLB Draft.
There were a total of seven (7) Red Raiders taken in the MLB Draft this year...
There were 16 total players drafted from the state of Texas.
From Day One of the draft...
4 year college players - 51
High school players - 25
Junior college players - 2
This stat caught my attention because baseball is the only sport where high school kids can leave school and jump straight into professional baseball.
But, based on these numbers, that does not appear to be the path unless you are a high pick or can negotiate a lucrative signing bonus.
Yes, college isn't going anywhere and these kids usually get school paid in these contracts, but that is all relative when considering taking the money or enrolling in college.
The numbers are encouraging for Tim Tadlock and his peers. He nearly cried talking about how Josh Jung was drafted out of high school and how we could have skipped Texas Tech all together, but Jung made a choice and worked hard to become a Top 10 pick.
----------
IS CULVER NEXT TOP 10 DRAFT TALENT FROM TTU?
The Red Raiders should have another Top 10 draft pick in another sport soon.
Jarrett Culver is working out for multiple teams inside of the Top 10, and many NBA Draft beat writers believe he will not make it past No. 7 at the very worst.
The NBA Draft is being held on Thursday, June 20th and Culver could go as early as No. 3 to the Knicks or as 'late' as pick No. 7 to the Bulls.
----------
"3RD QUARTER" VIDEO
The majority of the 2019 recruiting class is moved in and now the "3rd Quarter" starts, which I assume means preparing for the season.
----------
FAMILY TWEET
Not much, but a pretty good video of Texas Tech defensive line coach Paul Randolph greeting 2019 signee Tony Bradford and his brothers to the football facilities once they arrived in Lubbock for the move-in last weekend.
----------
WVU LOSES ALL-BIG 12 DEFENDER
The Mountaineers had a starting safety, First Team All-Big 12 selection Kenny Robinson Jr. enter the transfer portal earlier this week.
Robinson was second on the team with 77 tackles and led the team with four (4) interceptions last season.
You hate to see it.
-----------
WHOA
I don't think he liked the pitch, or the call...the ump was not liking it for sure.
MCLOVIN TURNS 38 YEARS OLD
As always, the Friday Flare is brought to you by our friends at Gator's Bayou. Need an adult beverage to round out your week? Head over to the patio at Gator's Bayou and have a few this afternoon.
Later this summer, they will be hosting live music. Check out their website and follow them on social media for more upcoming events.
----------
WEEKLY CLICKS
...a quick list of links from the various stories posted on RRS this week.
Texas Tech wins Lubbock Regional
Takeaways: Red Raiders head to another Super Regional
Texas Tech "feels like family" for Davis
TTU targeting another long outside WR for 2021
Who does Texas Tech turn to in TE recruiting?
Victory Bells: Matt Clare discusses the latest in TTU recruiting
Around the Bases - Super Regional Edition
Red Raiders prep for Big 12 battle in Super Regional
----------
RECRUITING RANKINGS - HEAT CHECK
The Rivals national team released the updated recruiting rankings for the 2020 class this week, which led to the DMN blog where Texas Tech was listed No. 8 out of several other programs in the region...basically next to last, right above SMU and behind North Texas.
Cause for concern?
Here are a few quick notes from reviewing the updated Rivals Team Rankings for the 2020 class...this includes every Big 12 program and any other program located in the state of Texas.
Oklahoma - No. 12 overall, 10 commitments
Texas A&M - No. 15 overall, 8 commitments
Texas - No. 23 overall, 6 commitments
Oklahoma State - No. 25 overall, 9 commitments
TCU - No. 30 overall, 7 commitments
Iowa State - No. 34 overall, 8 commitments
Kansas State - No. 39 overall, 8 commitments*
Kansas - No. 42 overall, 7 commitments*
West Virginia - No. 47 overall, 5 commitments*
UTSA - No. 50 overall, 6 commitments
Baylor - No. 55 overall, 5 commitments
Rice - No. 67 overall, 7 commitments
North Texas - No. 69 overall, 10 commitments
Texas Tech - No. 72 overall, 3 commitments*
Houston - No. 84 overall, 1 commitment*
What does this tell us in the first week of June? Well, not much in my opinion, but the results do speak for themselves.
While things do not look great at the moment, it is worth noting that the past two recruiting classes - 2018 and 2019 - both had six (6) new verbal commitments in the month of June.
* = new head coaches
The new head coaches at Kansas and Kansas State are seeing a good start to their 2020 recruiting classes with seven (7) and eight (8) verbal commitments in the door already so far.
Texas Tech and Houston both have new coaches, and the programs have three (3) and one (1) verbal commitment respectively.
So where is the new coach recruiting bump? When is it coming?
I still firmly believe the month of June will see another 3-4 commitments added to the 2020 recruiting class. The coaches added one earlier this week, and they are hosting over a dozen official and unofficial visitors in a few weeks - full details.
My suggestion is to wait and see how the rest of June plays out, the coaches can add 3-4 three-star prospects and land inside of the Top 50 and then continue climbing from there.
No alarm bells here, but that doesn't mean the concern from others is not warranted.
----------
RIVALS 250 - 4-STAR OPTIONS FOR TTU?
With the updated rankings this week, the Rivals 250 was released and the newest version of the nation's top prospects included 36 total prospects from the Lone Star State.
Of the 36 prospects from Texas, 19 of them are already committed with nine (9) of those verbal commitments being to local programs and that number includes Oklahoma for conference/proximity reasons.
10 of the 19 prospects are verbally committed to out of state programs.
That leaves 17 other uncommitted prospects in the Rivals 250, but.....none of these uncommitted prospects are looking at Texas Tech, or seriously considering the Red Raiders.
Not the end of the world, and things can change...but when reviewing the updates earlier in the week, this was a takeaway and something I wanted to write about.
However, the national team also updated the four-star prospects outside of the Rivals 250 and there are a couple of Tech targets in that group...
CB Christian Gonzalez
Gonzalez has visited campus this off-season and remains in contact with the Tech coaches. He has added quite a few new offers, so time will tell, but a potential four-star prospect the Tech coaches can work to add for the 2020 class.
WR Ja'Lynn Polk
Polk included the Red Raiders in his Top 4 recently, and the new four-star prospect will be visiting campus this summer.
----------
NEW 2020 COMMIT
The coaches landed a new 2020 commitment earlier this week when South Oak Cliff safety Jonathan Davis announced his verbal commitment to the Red Raiders.
The three-star prospect chose Texas Tech over 15 other offers, including Arizona, Colorado, Purdue, Georgia Tech, Kansas and several others.
Davis is the No. 117 overall prospect on the Rivals.com Texas Top 150 for the 2020 recruiting class.
----------
NEW OFFERS
Not a big week for new offers, only one (1) 2021 offer went out this week...
CB Cale Sanders Jr.
The underclassman plays both offense and defense for New Caney. Texas Tech is the first offer for Sanders Jr., who checks in at 5-foot-10, 170-pounds.
----------
JUNG GOES TOP 10
By now, everyone knows that Josh Jung was taken No. 8 overall by the Texas Rangers in the MLB Draft.
There were a total of seven (7) Red Raiders taken in the MLB Draft this year...
There were 16 total players drafted from the state of Texas.
From Day One of the draft...
4 year college players - 51
High school players - 25
Junior college players - 2
This stat caught my attention because baseball is the only sport where high school kids can leave school and jump straight into professional baseball.
But, based on these numbers, that does not appear to be the path unless you are a high pick or can negotiate a lucrative signing bonus.
Yes, college isn't going anywhere and these kids usually get school paid in these contracts, but that is all relative when considering taking the money or enrolling in college.
The numbers are encouraging for Tim Tadlock and his peers. He nearly cried talking about how Josh Jung was drafted out of high school and how we could have skipped Texas Tech all together, but Jung made a choice and worked hard to become a Top 10 pick.
----------
IS CULVER NEXT TOP 10 DRAFT TALENT FROM TTU?
The Red Raiders should have another Top 10 draft pick in another sport soon.
Jarrett Culver is working out for multiple teams inside of the Top 10, and many NBA Draft beat writers believe he will not make it past No. 7 at the very worst.
The NBA Draft is being held on Thursday, June 20th and Culver could go as early as No. 3 to the Knicks or as 'late' as pick No. 7 to the Bulls.
----------
"3RD QUARTER" VIDEO
The majority of the 2019 recruiting class is moved in and now the "3rd Quarter" starts, which I assume means preparing for the season.
----------
FAMILY TWEET
Not much, but a pretty good video of Texas Tech defensive line coach Paul Randolph greeting 2019 signee Tony Bradford and his brothers to the football facilities once they arrived in Lubbock for the move-in last weekend.
----------
WVU LOSES ALL-BIG 12 DEFENDER
The Mountaineers had a starting safety, First Team All-Big 12 selection Kenny Robinson Jr. enter the transfer portal earlier this week.
Robinson was second on the team with 77 tackles and led the team with four (4) interceptions last season.
You hate to see it.
-----------
WHOA
I don't think he liked the pitch, or the call...the ump was not liking it for sure.
MCLOVIN TURNS 38 YEARS OLD
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