Friday can only mean one thing for the discriminating Red Raider fan.
It's time for another edition of the Red Raider Confidential! The ground rules
are simple and easy to follow: everything reported in this report is not to be disclosed elsewhere. This feature is posted in the premium forum to ensure that this information stays exclusively within the
Red Raider Nation.
This will continue to be successful only if everyone
does their part and keeps the discussions limited to this board.
Commit coming this weekend?
It looks like the Texas Tech men's basketball program is close to picking up
their third verbal commitment for their 2010 class.
Earlier this week, we broke the news that Panama City (Fla.) Gulf Coast
Community College forward Paul Cooper will be in town on an
official visit this weekend. Cooper is very tight with Red Raider forward, and
former Gulf Coast standout, Brad Reese, and considers Reese something like "an
older brother" to him.
After hearing Reese's glowing reviews of the South Plains, Cooper admitted to us
that there was a very good chance that he would commit to Pat Knight this
weekend.
"I told Coach, 'If I like it up there, I'm going with Texas Tech,'" he said. "If
I like it, I'm doing it."
Stay tuned.
Singletary gives Texas Tech some recruiting ammo
San Francisco head coach Mike Singletary said something interesting
earlier this week during a press conference announcing the signing of former
Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree to a six-year contract. When asked if it
was realistic to think that Crabtree could make an impact for the 49ers in a
relatively short time period, Singletary gave Texas Tech a little bit of
recruiting ammo with his answer.
"I think it all depends on how we approach it," he said. "Jimmy Raye (offensive
coordinator), Jerry Sullivan (wide receivers coach), they've dealt with rookies
before. They've been around the game a long time. They know his personality.
They're going to feed him the information. As he can grasp the information. I
know he's in great shape. He's been working his tail off the whole time, so
that's not an issue. All he has to do is understand the nuances of the offense.
"Another thing that I think will help him tremendously is what he did in
college. He ran an offense where they ran a number of routes, so the passing
tree he will understand going into it. That makes it that much easier. I think
that will help him."
Later that day, we asked Texas Tech inside receivers coach Lincoln Riley, who
accompanied Crabtree to the NFL Draft in New York in April, how much something
like that would help them in terms of recruiting.
"The thing is, no guy will go to the NFL and run a route that we don't run
here," Riley said. "We run every route there is. There's not a route that they
have that we don't run. We see every defense known to man. When they get there,
it's just putting it together in their package, learning exactly the small
details of how they want it. In the overall scheme of things, he's (Crabtree)
done all the routes, he's seen all the things he's going to see. Now it's just
going to be putting it in the context of what the 49ers do offensively.
"Absolutely, we will use it in recruiting. He'll go and have success there. We
have several guys on this roster that will have a chance to. The better they do,
the more success we have. Guys like Crabtree and [Wes] Welker spearhead that
thing. Recruits definitely look at that. That's absolutely something we can walk
into somebody's living room and sell to them."
Boone taking visits?
Yesterday, a quote that was supposedly attributed to Texas Tech receiver commit
Kadron Boone made the rounds after first appearing on a Texas
A&M-related message board. In this alleged quote, Boone stated that he was
"probably going to still take a visit to Georgia, Oklahoma and Miami." While
that wouldn't be entirely unexpected, what alarmed Red Raider fans (judging by
their emails and posts) was the last sentence of the quote: "Those are teams
that are always good, not just a flash-in-the-pan, one good year team, but I
still like Tech."
We checked with Boone last night who confirmed that the entire quote is a
complete fabrication.
"No," the Rivals250 prospect said, "I never said that."
Earlier in our conversation, before checking with him about the quote, we asked
him about the possibility of him officially visiting other programs.
"There are some teams that are still showing me some interest, looking at me,
still wanting to recruit me," Boone said. "Miami, Florida, South Carolina. Right
now, I don't know (about visits). I'm still debating whether or not I want to
take a visit. I'm just talking it over with my parents right now."
The omission of Oklahoma and Georgia, two teams that Boone had previously
expressed an interest in visiting, is interesting because it was thought all
along that neither had room to take him. It looks as if that is indeed the case.
Who else will Williams visit?
Irving (Texas) Nimitz defensive tackle Damon Williams used his
first of five available official visit this past weekend to check out Texas
Tech. The 6-foot-4, 300-pound prospect already has a November visit scheduled to
Nebraska for the Huskers' home game against Kansas State, which means he can
take at most three more officials.
After talking to him earlier this week, there are quite a few programs that are
in the mix for those last three visits.
"My official visits, they're going to schools that are far," he said. "Schools
like Baylor, Tulsa, Houston -- Houston, maybe will get an official visit -- but
I'm looking for one from like Arkansas, probably either Kansas or Kansas State,
I don't know which one yet."
Williams raised the possibility when we spoke with him that he might take an
official visit somewhere this weekend, but we confirmed with him today that that
isn't going to happen.
Red Raiders targeting other JC defensive linemen
With the soft verbal commitment of Corsicana (Texas) Navarro J.C. defensive
lineman Lawrence Rumph, the Red Raiders are continuing to
identify potential defensive line targets in the junior college ranks. Two of
these possible targets are Brenham (Texas) Blinn C.C. standouts Jonathan
Mathis and Anthony Gonzales.
We spoke with Gonzales earlier this week (was in the car, couldn't take quotes)
and confirmed that both have spoken with Texas Tech coaches within the last
week. While they are teammates at Blinn, they don't seem to be extraordinarily
close and shouldn't be considered a package deal.
Gonzales told us that he was wide open and that he did not plan on taking any of
his official visits until after the season. He indicated that he was going to
graduate from Blinn in May, which may prevent him from picking up an offer from
the Red Raiders -- the thought is that they don't plan to sign a J.C. player in
this class unless they can go through spring practice.
Another offensive lineman hits the radar
While there are still a few offensive line targets out there with Texas Tech
offers -- Aleon Calhoun, Cam Feldt,
Daryl Williams -- none of them seem to be locks to commit to the Red
Raiders. As a result, it looks like activity is heating up with other potential
targets.
Enter Las Vegas (Nev.) Desert Oasis offensive lineman Cameron Jefferson,
a talented, dual-sport athlete with Division I scholarship offers in both
football (Nevada) and basketball (Eastern Washington). On the gridiron, the
6-foot-7, 258-pound prospect is lining up at offensive tackle as a senior after
playing tight end last year. Despite his rawness, Jefferson is still receiving
plenty of attention on the recruiting front.
"The schools that I have (showing interest) right now are UNR (Nevada), UNLV, U
of A (Arizona), Oregon State, Miami and Texas Tech," he said. "They've all shown
me interest. The only one that has offered me is UNR."
Of the teams in BCS AQ conferences, Texas Tech would seem to be the most
interested in Jefferson.
"I actually talked to Texas Tech," he said. "They want me to take a visit.
Oregon State just came to the school last year. UNR wants me to take a visit in
December.
"I have a feeling that Oregon State and Texas Tech are going to offer me. I have
a feeling that way."
Jefferson went on to say that he talks to Texas Tech more than Oregon State, and
that the Beavers mostly just send him letters and cards.
The Red Raiders likely found out about Jefferson through a personal connection,
much like with Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Cardinal Gibbons receiver Shawn
Corker: Desert Oasis offensive coordinator Brandon Scott knows Texas
Tech outside receivers coach Dennis Simmons.
Jefferson doesn't plan to take any official visits until after his season.
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This post was edited on 10/9 4:35 PM by A. Dickens
