I'm work-shopping the title here, so share all of your much better ideas below.
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:HEART EYES EMOJI:
Pat Mahomes, the NFL MVP, can really do no wrong these days. I mean, his teammates probably asked him what the hell this 'dance' was, but maybe not. This could very well become the next cool thing for young aspiring NFL MVPs to emulate.
The former Texas Tech standout seems to be all over the place lately and his agent boasted about his marketability off the field earlier this week...
He’s the hottest player in professional sports right now in some ways. He’s new. He’s gifted. He’s a wonderful person. Given the fact that he’s the MVP of the league in his first year of starting, we’ll have intense curiosity of how he got there.
You could see he was an extraordinarily gifted talent at Texas Tech. What some people failed to accurately project was they only looked at the Air Raid offense and thought he was a gunslinger. Well, Texas Tech’s defense was such that if he had to score 50-plus points a game. It put tremendous pressure on him to score every drive. But his skill set and freakishly gifted arm, his intelligence, his athletic temperament, made him an ideal franchise quarterback prospect. And, if you liked him as a player, you loved him as a person.
Patrick is a national phenomenon. People are excited about him in Los Angeles and New York and all across the country.
Full story (FWST) - LINK
Kind of a ricochet shot comment on the Tech defense there, but c'mon Steinberg, lets focus on Pat and not the Red Raiders' defense.
I noticed this discussed earlier in the week, and we were all thinking it - soooooooo, when is Mahomes going to visit Tech or maybe shout out the program on social media?
I still side with mountain meet molehill on this one, but it is pretty simple to share something on social and that is exactly what Mahomes did during the Tech basketball game the other night...sparking the conversation yet again.
The main issue for most is just how electric Mahomes is these days, he could tweet "man, I love Chick Fila chicken nuggets" and thousands of people would comment or share the post.
The guy turned his love of ketchup into more money than most of us make in a calendar year...
WE LOVE YOU PATRICK, PLEASE PROVE YOUR LOVE FOR US!!!!
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YOU HATE TO SEE IT
I mean, talk about how easy it is to post something on social media...yikes.
For those that don't know, google "LSU number 7" and learn more about this annual tradition...but in short, guys like Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu and Leonard Fournette have worn the No. 7 at LSU in the past, just to name a few.
Giles was crowned as the new No. 7 around this time last year and finished the season with 10 receptions for 59 yards with no scores.
I'm not here to pick on the kid for having a down year. For those who have followed recruiting for a while, I attended a ton of Giles' games in high school and he was amazing...he even had a great sophomore season at Tech with over 1,100 yards and 13 touchdowns.
But why tweet this? Not a good look.
The comments are all from his teammates with messages of encouragement, seems like a very soft move for such a prestigious program...IMO.
----------
Wilson Long Decommits
This is one that everyone expected or could see coming, but I wanted to share a few thoughts...
I watched Long at the recent Rivals Camp in Houston and I was impressed. It was super awkward talking with him about Texas Tech, because in his words, the coaches had not responded to him and he figured it was 'the writing on the wall'.
I realized there would be strong opinions in both directions, but ultimately decided to let the kid share the news himself and not get involved in 'what I'm hearing' here on the board.
The joke with other Rivals analysts in attendance was a very sarcastic..."yeah, that Kingsbury guy didn't know anything about evaluating quarterbacks"
Long says that coaches from Indiana, Baylor, UTSA, Kansas, Brown and a few other programs have been in contact over the past month.
But anytime a new coaching staff comes in, they usually go with 'their guys' and Donovan Smith is that guy for the 2020 class.
Although the calendar reads March and the program has already hosted the first junior day event with 30+ prospects, these coaches have still only been around for 3-ish months.
The plan at quarterback for the 2020 class could change over the next week, because in reality the coaches held their very first practices with the team this week and might decide to add another 2020 prospect at quarterback.
Smith, the son of new running backs coach DeAndre Smith, is moving to the South Plains with his family and we are told he plans to enroll at Frenship for his senior season.
So local Red Raider fans can keep a close eye on the future this upcoming season.
----------
Wells on the Twitter machine
New head coach Matt Wells tweeted five times this week, please credit me with this exclusive report.
I know, I know, whatever that's not a big deal. Well, it is when the previous head coach barely tweeted five times for an entire year.
Wells and his staff are certainly not batting 1.000 per say, but the new Red Raiders head coach does not mind sharing on social media. He touts the program and shares content from the TTU FB account frequently.
A lot was made of his tweet on Monday with Tech alumni and founder of Yeti coolers, Roy Seiders.
I'm sure others know more granular information on Mr. Seiders' pocket book, but it is a pretty safe bet to say he has a lots of the monies.
Wells was seen sitting next to the founders of Double Eagle Energy at the Tech basketball game against TCU last weekend in Fort Worth as well. That after holding court with local Tech alumni at Reata for a few hours.
The guy "gets it" from that standpoint and the early results are very encouraging.
----------
GALBAN BACK ON THE FIELD
First Day Out = first day out of prison/jail/etc, a term made famous in the hip hop community by artist Tee Grizzley in the year 2016 and a beat or concept adapted by several other rappers since the original release.
After suffering a knee injury around this time last year, redshirt freshman Sterling Galban is back on the practice field - aka, his 'First Day Out'...get it?
A lot of the focus from practice takeaways this week at the receiver position seemed to surround T.J. Vasher, Erik Ezukanma and McLane Mannix.
When healthy, Galban is a very good route runner and can beat one on one coverage with his sudden footwork. He could provide immediate depth at the slot position and special teams this next season.
Pending a transfer waiver, Mannix is most likely the guy ahead of Galban on the roster, but remember Galban as the off-season progresses into summer and fall practices.
----------
NEW 2020 OFFERS THIS WEEK
South Oak Cliff DB Jonathan Davis
Anna ATH Abner Dubar
Madison Prep (LA) DB Joel Williams*
Lancaster DB Lorando Johnson*
Cibolo Steele WR Daniel Jackson
Highland C.C. (KS) DB Brian George
* = Rivals 250 prospect
This was the week of the defensive back for Kerry Cooks and Juice Brown, the two Tech assistants offered five (5) new prospects this week.
Abner and Williams are linked to updates from earlier this week, we are working to get full interviews with the other new offers.
Texas Tech now lists 96 documented offers out to 2020 prospects.
The program's next junior day is scheduled for Saturday, March 30th.
----------
MODERN RECRUITING
I realize that Lorando Johnson, a national recruit with 20+ offers is not the 'best' example, but this is just a look into what I deem 'modern' recruiting in the year 2019.
If the goal is to recruit at a high level, there are a lot of things to consider and it makes sense to look around the region to see what other programs are doing to stay 'relevant' to prospects during the recruiting process.
I heard a quote from Lincoln Riley earlier this week where he described how his staff does 'post recruiting' interviews with the players they sign each year. The Oklahoma staff asks them questions like 'what made OU stand out during the process' and 'what were some of the things you really liked that other programs did'.
In short, they are constantly examining how to be better and how to relate to 17-18 year old prospects. And this is Oklahoma, a blueblood program who usually lands the kids with 20+ offers.
What I have noticed about the latest trend is that programs are sending weekly edits to their top targets on social media. The first post is from the Arkansas recruiting department, a staff that recruits Texas hard and a program that Tech frequently competes against on the recruiting trail.
The videos and photos from practices are gold, but those posts are usually marketing season ticket sales and specific audiences.
These edits are directly aimed at the prospects and the norm is becoming weekly or bi-weekly...
The...brace yourselves...Baylor coaching staff took things a step further by taking content from Johnson's own social media page and incorporated his "Clamp Juice Movement" mantra into an edit.
Johnson and a group of area DBs he trains with refer to themselves as the Clamp Juice Movement, I know cool story.
But that isn't the point, the point is that means something to the average 17-18 year old and can help keep your program in the mix for a visit, a shoutout, etc/etc.
It is not required and some may have another opinion on the topic, but some of the largest and most successful programs in the country are doing it...
I don't know who creates these or how Tech accomplishes this for the program's top targets, but you can take most 2020 recruits and skim their profile to find several edit examples from other programs.
----------
WHOA...
This kid is the next Ray Allen, doesn't miss a shot.
Kyler Murray's agent, and Tech alumni Erik Burkhardt, fired back at NFL "Dinosaur" Charlie Casserly after he shared his negative feedback from NFL teams who met with Murray at the NFL Combine...
As always, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle with this whole situation...
Does some team with ties to Casserly want to spread the word that Murray did not do well in the hopes another team passes and he falls into their lap? (maybe)
Is Casserly at fault here for how the message was conveyed? (probably)
Does this now mean Murray going No. 1 to Kingsbury and the Cardinals is more likely???
We have 48 more days until the NFL Draft, so expect to hear about this for about 48 more days.
Go Gary!
I cannot tell you what this is, but I can tell you that I watched this video about 4-5 times in a row.
----------
:HEART EYES EMOJI:
Pat Mahomes, the NFL MVP, can really do no wrong these days. I mean, his teammates probably asked him what the hell this 'dance' was, but maybe not. This could very well become the next cool thing for young aspiring NFL MVPs to emulate.
The former Texas Tech standout seems to be all over the place lately and his agent boasted about his marketability off the field earlier this week...
He’s the hottest player in professional sports right now in some ways. He’s new. He’s gifted. He’s a wonderful person. Given the fact that he’s the MVP of the league in his first year of starting, we’ll have intense curiosity of how he got there.
You could see he was an extraordinarily gifted talent at Texas Tech. What some people failed to accurately project was they only looked at the Air Raid offense and thought he was a gunslinger. Well, Texas Tech’s defense was such that if he had to score 50-plus points a game. It put tremendous pressure on him to score every drive. But his skill set and freakishly gifted arm, his intelligence, his athletic temperament, made him an ideal franchise quarterback prospect. And, if you liked him as a player, you loved him as a person.
Patrick is a national phenomenon. People are excited about him in Los Angeles and New York and all across the country.
Full story (FWST) - LINK
Kind of a ricochet shot comment on the Tech defense there, but c'mon Steinberg, lets focus on Pat and not the Red Raiders' defense.
I noticed this discussed earlier in the week, and we were all thinking it - soooooooo, when is Mahomes going to visit Tech or maybe shout out the program on social media?
I still side with mountain meet molehill on this one, but it is pretty simple to share something on social and that is exactly what Mahomes did during the Tech basketball game the other night...sparking the conversation yet again.
The main issue for most is just how electric Mahomes is these days, he could tweet "man, I love Chick Fila chicken nuggets" and thousands of people would comment or share the post.
The guy turned his love of ketchup into more money than most of us make in a calendar year...
WE LOVE YOU PATRICK, PLEASE PROVE YOUR LOVE FOR US!!!!
----------
YOU HATE TO SEE IT
I mean, talk about how easy it is to post something on social media...yikes.
For those that don't know, google "LSU number 7" and learn more about this annual tradition...but in short, guys like Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu and Leonard Fournette have worn the No. 7 at LSU in the past, just to name a few.
Giles was crowned as the new No. 7 around this time last year and finished the season with 10 receptions for 59 yards with no scores.
I'm not here to pick on the kid for having a down year. For those who have followed recruiting for a while, I attended a ton of Giles' games in high school and he was amazing...he even had a great sophomore season at Tech with over 1,100 yards and 13 touchdowns.
But why tweet this? Not a good look.
The comments are all from his teammates with messages of encouragement, seems like a very soft move for such a prestigious program...IMO.
----------
Wilson Long Decommits
This is one that everyone expected or could see coming, but I wanted to share a few thoughts...
I watched Long at the recent Rivals Camp in Houston and I was impressed. It was super awkward talking with him about Texas Tech, because in his words, the coaches had not responded to him and he figured it was 'the writing on the wall'.
I realized there would be strong opinions in both directions, but ultimately decided to let the kid share the news himself and not get involved in 'what I'm hearing' here on the board.
The joke with other Rivals analysts in attendance was a very sarcastic..."yeah, that Kingsbury guy didn't know anything about evaluating quarterbacks"
Long says that coaches from Indiana, Baylor, UTSA, Kansas, Brown and a few other programs have been in contact over the past month.
But anytime a new coaching staff comes in, they usually go with 'their guys' and Donovan Smith is that guy for the 2020 class.
Although the calendar reads March and the program has already hosted the first junior day event with 30+ prospects, these coaches have still only been around for 3-ish months.
The plan at quarterback for the 2020 class could change over the next week, because in reality the coaches held their very first practices with the team this week and might decide to add another 2020 prospect at quarterback.
Smith, the son of new running backs coach DeAndre Smith, is moving to the South Plains with his family and we are told he plans to enroll at Frenship for his senior season.
So local Red Raider fans can keep a close eye on the future this upcoming season.
----------
Wells on the Twitter machine
New head coach Matt Wells tweeted five times this week, please credit me with this exclusive report.
I know, I know, whatever that's not a big deal. Well, it is when the previous head coach barely tweeted five times for an entire year.
Wells and his staff are certainly not batting 1.000 per say, but the new Red Raiders head coach does not mind sharing on social media. He touts the program and shares content from the TTU FB account frequently.
A lot was made of his tweet on Monday with Tech alumni and founder of Yeti coolers, Roy Seiders.
I'm sure others know more granular information on Mr. Seiders' pocket book, but it is a pretty safe bet to say he has a lots of the monies.
Wells was seen sitting next to the founders of Double Eagle Energy at the Tech basketball game against TCU last weekend in Fort Worth as well. That after holding court with local Tech alumni at Reata for a few hours.
The guy "gets it" from that standpoint and the early results are very encouraging.
----------
GALBAN BACK ON THE FIELD
First Day Out = first day out of prison/jail/etc, a term made famous in the hip hop community by artist Tee Grizzley in the year 2016 and a beat or concept adapted by several other rappers since the original release.
After suffering a knee injury around this time last year, redshirt freshman Sterling Galban is back on the practice field - aka, his 'First Day Out'...get it?
A lot of the focus from practice takeaways this week at the receiver position seemed to surround T.J. Vasher, Erik Ezukanma and McLane Mannix.
When healthy, Galban is a very good route runner and can beat one on one coverage with his sudden footwork. He could provide immediate depth at the slot position and special teams this next season.
Pending a transfer waiver, Mannix is most likely the guy ahead of Galban on the roster, but remember Galban as the off-season progresses into summer and fall practices.
----------
NEW 2020 OFFERS THIS WEEK
South Oak Cliff DB Jonathan Davis
Anna ATH Abner Dubar
Madison Prep (LA) DB Joel Williams*
Lancaster DB Lorando Johnson*
Cibolo Steele WR Daniel Jackson
Highland C.C. (KS) DB Brian George
* = Rivals 250 prospect
This was the week of the defensive back for Kerry Cooks and Juice Brown, the two Tech assistants offered five (5) new prospects this week.
Abner and Williams are linked to updates from earlier this week, we are working to get full interviews with the other new offers.
Texas Tech now lists 96 documented offers out to 2020 prospects.
The program's next junior day is scheduled for Saturday, March 30th.
----------
MODERN RECRUITING
I realize that Lorando Johnson, a national recruit with 20+ offers is not the 'best' example, but this is just a look into what I deem 'modern' recruiting in the year 2019.
If the goal is to recruit at a high level, there are a lot of things to consider and it makes sense to look around the region to see what other programs are doing to stay 'relevant' to prospects during the recruiting process.
I heard a quote from Lincoln Riley earlier this week where he described how his staff does 'post recruiting' interviews with the players they sign each year. The Oklahoma staff asks them questions like 'what made OU stand out during the process' and 'what were some of the things you really liked that other programs did'.
In short, they are constantly examining how to be better and how to relate to 17-18 year old prospects. And this is Oklahoma, a blueblood program who usually lands the kids with 20+ offers.
What I have noticed about the latest trend is that programs are sending weekly edits to their top targets on social media. The first post is from the Arkansas recruiting department, a staff that recruits Texas hard and a program that Tech frequently competes against on the recruiting trail.
The videos and photos from practices are gold, but those posts are usually marketing season ticket sales and specific audiences.
These edits are directly aimed at the prospects and the norm is becoming weekly or bi-weekly...
The...brace yourselves...Baylor coaching staff took things a step further by taking content from Johnson's own social media page and incorporated his "Clamp Juice Movement" mantra into an edit.
Johnson and a group of area DBs he trains with refer to themselves as the Clamp Juice Movement, I know cool story.
But that isn't the point, the point is that means something to the average 17-18 year old and can help keep your program in the mix for a visit, a shoutout, etc/etc.
It is not required and some may have another opinion on the topic, but some of the largest and most successful programs in the country are doing it...
I don't know who creates these or how Tech accomplishes this for the program's top targets, but you can take most 2020 recruits and skim their profile to find several edit examples from other programs.
----------
WHOA...
This kid is the next Ray Allen, doesn't miss a shot.
Kyler Murray's agent, and Tech alumni Erik Burkhardt, fired back at NFL "Dinosaur" Charlie Casserly after he shared his negative feedback from NFL teams who met with Murray at the NFL Combine...
As always, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle with this whole situation...
Does some team with ties to Casserly want to spread the word that Murray did not do well in the hopes another team passes and he falls into their lap? (maybe)
Is Casserly at fault here for how the message was conveyed? (probably)
Does this now mean Murray going No. 1 to Kingsbury and the Cardinals is more likely???
We have 48 more days until the NFL Draft, so expect to hear about this for about 48 more days.
Go Gary!
I cannot tell you what this is, but I can tell you that I watched this video about 4-5 times in a row.
