Football Recruiting - Midlands Region: Texas Tech Red Raiders
Two months ago junior college defensive end Andre Ross (Corsicana, Texas/Navarro JC) didn’t have any options. But when it was discovered he had done enough to qualify to play in 2013, he was bombarded with offers.
The defensive system of Texas Tech won out, as Ross confirmed Thursday he has committed to the Red Raiders. Ross chose Tech over finalists TCU and Oklahoma.
It was a whirlwind recruitment for Ross, who visited OU two weekends ago. He said following that visit the Sooners were his No. 1 choice. Ross then went to TCU and capped off his week with a trip to Lubbock last weekend to see Tech.
OU and TCU both saw Ross, who is 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, as a defensive end. Ross said Tech saw him as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme.
TCU recruited Ross out of Calvert (Texas) High and suggested he attend Navarro Junior College. The Horned Frogs were the favorite last month, but Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury is helping turn things around for Tech. The addition of Ross is another example of Kingsbury building something special in his first year as head coach.
Ross is the fifth linebacker for Tech’s 2013 class and 24th overall member. He has at least two years of eligibility remaining and is appealing for a third.
The defensive system of Texas Tech won out, as Ross confirmed Thursday he has committed to the Red Raiders. Ross chose Tech over finalists TCU and Oklahoma.
It was a whirlwind recruitment for Ross, who visited OU two weekends ago. He said following that visit the Sooners were his No. 1 choice. Ross then went to TCU and capped off his week with a trip to Lubbock last weekend to see Tech.
OU and TCU both saw Ross, who is 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, as a defensive end. Ross said Tech saw him as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme.
TCU recruited Ross out of Calvert (Texas) High and suggested he attend Navarro Junior College. The Horned Frogs were the favorite last month, but Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury is helping turn things around for Tech. The addition of Ross is another example of Kingsbury building something special in his first year as head coach.
Ross is the fifth linebacker for Tech’s 2013 class and 24th overall member. He has at least two years of eligibility remaining and is appealing for a third.
Brenham (Texas) High School doesn't conduct a traditional spring football practice, but like many of their fellow Lone Star State schools, the Cubs still make sure to get plenty of offseason work in.
That has helped players such as 2014 offensive tackle Austin Schlottmann, who has seen several college coaches walk through the doors of Brenham since the evaluation period began last month.
That has helped players such as 2014 offensive tackle Austin Schlottmann, who has seen several college coaches walk through the doors of Brenham since the evaluation period began last month.
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The first day back to football was a fruitful one for DeSoto (Texas) defensive back Nick Orr.
Fresh off his appearance at the Texas state track and field championships on Saturday, Orr put back on the pads and got back to work Monday. How’d it go?
“I think I had a real good practice,” Orr said.
Texas Tech’s coaching staff agreed. The Red Raiders became the fourth school to offer Orr a scholarship. They join Kansas, Missouri and North Texas on his short list.
Fresh off his appearance at the Texas state track and field championships on Saturday, Orr put back on the pads and got back to work Monday. How’d it go?
“I think I had a real good practice,” Orr said.
Texas Tech’s coaching staff agreed. The Red Raiders became the fourth school to offer Orr a scholarship. They join Kansas, Missouri and North Texas on his short list.
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With three solid pickups in the month of May, Northwestern has been hot with its recruiting. The Wildcats are hoping to add to his class with rising cornerback Verkedric Vaughns (Mesquite, Texas/Poteet).
Hearing Vaughns tell it, however, a decision isn’t even close -- no matter how difficult it is for him to think about recruiting.
Hearing Vaughns tell it, however, a decision isn’t even close -- no matter how difficult it is for him to think about recruiting.
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Inspired by Florida's "#ComePlayWRFortheJoker" campaign, our recruiting writers looked at other ways schools can sell themselves on the trail. Here's a look at recruiting pitches for the Big 12:
Baylor Bears
What they’re selling: The new 45,000-seat, $250-million on-campus stadium that will open in 2014. Recruiting is an arms race, and players like fancy stadiums and locker rooms, and Baylor’s upgrade puts them finally on the same level playing field as everybody else in the Big 12.
What they're missing: Help on defense -- specifically at defensive line and defensive back.
Iowa State Cyclones
What they’re selling: Paul Rhoads. He grew up miles from the campus and has helped turn around Iowa State with a physical and fundamentally sound style of football.
What they're missing: A true home-run threat at receiver.
Kansas Jayhawks
What they’re selling: Charlie Weis. He’s taken risks (juco infusion), repaired relationships with area high school coaches and widened KU’s recruiting pool.
What they're missing: Wins. When you’ve won only one conference game in three years, a little bit of everything is missing.
Kansas State Wildcats
What they’re selling: Bill Synder. The plan has worked for years in Manhattan. K-State doesn’t care how many stars a player has attached to his name, a player only earns an offer from K-State unless Snyder personally signs off on it after a lengthy review. It’s a plan that produced a No. 1 BCS ranking and a Big 12 championship in 2012.
What’s missing: I’ve been told by coaches for years that the most difficult position to recruit is defensive tackle. That’s why you often see even average defensive tackles rack up double-digit offers, and finding good depth at defensive tackle has been very difficult to do at K-State.
Oklahoma Sooners
What they’re selling: Oklahoma is proud of its football tradition, and few schools can match the Sooners’ track record for success, facilities and ability to prepare you for the next level.
What they're missing: A renewed focus on evaluating players. It’s what differentiated Bob Stoops’ staff when they started, and it’s how they found players like Sam Bradford, Josh Heupel, Juaquin Iglesias and Donald Stephenson. All at the time were considered to be three-star recruits but wound up being impact players for the Sooners.
Oklahoma State Cowboys
What they’re selling: Their ability to evaluate and develop offensive talent.
What they're missing: Elite players in the Lone Star State. With the best facilities in the conference, it might be just enough to get kids to visit.
Texas Longhorns
What they’re selling: Few in the nation can offer up the type of atmosphere, fan base, tradition and total student-athlete package like Texas can.
What they're missing: A true a difference-maker at quarterback. The last two Heisman Trophy winners have come from Texas high schools, and the Longhorns didn’t recruit one heavily and recruited the other as an athlete.
TCU Horned Frogs
What they’re selling: The Horned Frogs recruit to their style of smash-mouth play on both sides of the ball and don’t care how many stars a recruit has. It hurts them some in the recruiting rankings, but it helps them win a lot of ball games.
What they're missing: BCS conference depth. Heading into their second season in the Big 12 after a 7-6 season, the biggest thing the Horned Frogs need to do is to build the roster to be able to compete year in and year out in the BCS conference.
Texas Tech Red Raiders
What they’re selling: The Red Raiders went through a transition that brought Kliff Kingsbury to Lubbock, and the early reception has been nothing short of positive.
What they're missing: The Red Raiders have never had issues putting up points on people, but under Tommy Tuberville and Mike Leach there was little defense being played.
West Virginia Mountaineers
What they’re selling: WVU is a force in the Atlantic region, can recruit well in Pennsylvania and is arguably one of the best schools at identifying offensive talent in the JC ranks.
What they're missing: The 2014 class will have to be all about rebuilding in Morgantown, as the needs are mounting while several impact players have moved on.
Baylor Bears
What they’re selling: The new 45,000-seat, $250-million on-campus stadium that will open in 2014. Recruiting is an arms race, and players like fancy stadiums and locker rooms, and Baylor’s upgrade puts them finally on the same level playing field as everybody else in the Big 12.
What they're missing: Help on defense -- specifically at defensive line and defensive back.
Iowa State Cyclones
What they’re selling: Paul Rhoads. He grew up miles from the campus and has helped turn around Iowa State with a physical and fundamentally sound style of football.
What they're missing: A true home-run threat at receiver.
Kansas Jayhawks
What they’re selling: Charlie Weis. He’s taken risks (juco infusion), repaired relationships with area high school coaches and widened KU’s recruiting pool.
What they're missing: Wins. When you’ve won only one conference game in three years, a little bit of everything is missing.
Kansas State Wildcats
What they’re selling: Bill Synder. The plan has worked for years in Manhattan. K-State doesn’t care how many stars a player has attached to his name, a player only earns an offer from K-State unless Snyder personally signs off on it after a lengthy review. It’s a plan that produced a No. 1 BCS ranking and a Big 12 championship in 2012.
What’s missing: I’ve been told by coaches for years that the most difficult position to recruit is defensive tackle. That’s why you often see even average defensive tackles rack up double-digit offers, and finding good depth at defensive tackle has been very difficult to do at K-State.
Oklahoma Sooners
What they’re selling: Oklahoma is proud of its football tradition, and few schools can match the Sooners’ track record for success, facilities and ability to prepare you for the next level.
What they're missing: A renewed focus on evaluating players. It’s what differentiated Bob Stoops’ staff when they started, and it’s how they found players like Sam Bradford, Josh Heupel, Juaquin Iglesias and Donald Stephenson. All at the time were considered to be three-star recruits but wound up being impact players for the Sooners.
Oklahoma State Cowboys
What they’re selling: Their ability to evaluate and develop offensive talent.
What they're missing: Elite players in the Lone Star State. With the best facilities in the conference, it might be just enough to get kids to visit.
Texas Longhorns
What they’re selling: Few in the nation can offer up the type of atmosphere, fan base, tradition and total student-athlete package like Texas can.
What they're missing: A true a difference-maker at quarterback. The last two Heisman Trophy winners have come from Texas high schools, and the Longhorns didn’t recruit one heavily and recruited the other as an athlete.
TCU Horned Frogs
What they’re selling: The Horned Frogs recruit to their style of smash-mouth play on both sides of the ball and don’t care how many stars a recruit has. It hurts them some in the recruiting rankings, but it helps them win a lot of ball games.
What they're missing: BCS conference depth. Heading into their second season in the Big 12 after a 7-6 season, the biggest thing the Horned Frogs need to do is to build the roster to be able to compete year in and year out in the BCS conference.
Texas Tech Red Raiders
What they’re selling: The Red Raiders went through a transition that brought Kliff Kingsbury to Lubbock, and the early reception has been nothing short of positive.
What they're missing: The Red Raiders have never had issues putting up points on people, but under Tommy Tuberville and Mike Leach there was little defense being played.
West Virginia Mountaineers
What they’re selling: WVU is a force in the Atlantic region, can recruit well in Pennsylvania and is arguably one of the best schools at identifying offensive talent in the JC ranks.
What they're missing: The 2014 class will have to be all about rebuilding in Morgantown, as the needs are mounting while several impact players have moved on.
Northwestern dips into Texas for another
May, 9, 2013
May 9
3:40
PM ET
By RecruitingNation | ESPN.com
Running back Auston Anderson (Plano, Texas/West) committed Thursday to sign with the Northwestern Wildcats, multiple sources report. He is the second 2014 prospect from the Lone Star State to pick NU for 2014. Three-star safety Jordan Thomas (Klein, Texas/Collins) got the Wildcats' class started with his decision in December.
The 5-foot-9, 180-pound Anderson selected Northwestern over scholarship offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, California, Georgia Tech, Navy, Nebraska, Rice, Stanford, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, UCLA, Washington and Washington State.
ESPN believes that he possesses, "a sneaky extra gear... good feel as a zone runner... the ability to exploit smaller creases... very good balance and body control... naturally good leverage and a strong lower base."
Anderson, along with Northwestern's other ungraded commitments, will be included as part of ESPN's next rankings update. The Wildcats have eight verbals at this time.
The 5-foot-9, 180-pound Anderson selected Northwestern over scholarship offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, California, Georgia Tech, Navy, Nebraska, Rice, Stanford, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, UCLA, Washington and Washington State.
ESPN believes that he possesses, "a sneaky extra gear... good feel as a zone runner... the ability to exploit smaller creases... very good balance and body control... naturally good leverage and a strong lower base."
Anderson, along with Northwestern's other ungraded commitments, will be included as part of ESPN's next rankings update. The Wildcats have eight verbals at this time.
Darrion Johnson is getting a fresh start at Navasota, and he couldn’t be happier.
The four-star defensive back is in his second week at the Class 3A school after his abrupt transfer from Brenham (Texas) High School, and the move hasn’t hindered his recruitment much.
The four-star defensive back is in his second week at the Class 3A school after his abrupt transfer from Brenham (Texas) High School, and the move hasn’t hindered his recruitment much.
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When 2015 athlete Keke Coutee (Lufkin, Texas/Lufkin) received an offer from Oklahoma last week, he figured another big one was coming next. He was right.
“They’re rivals,” he said. “I figured they were going to offer me sooner or later.”
“They’re rivals,” he said. “I figured they were going to offer me sooner or later.”
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It’s no secret that Oklahoma has been looking to dip into the junior college waters to try to find one more recruit for its Class of 2013.
The Sooners spent a good chunk of February looking for a diamond in the rough. Turns out OU simply had to wait another two months before he emerged.
The Sooners spent a good chunk of February looking for a diamond in the rough. Turns out OU simply had to wait another two months before he emerged.
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New names continue to pop up in Texas’ quest to lock up more defensive backs for its 2014 class, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better name than Mookie Carlile.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound safety from Stephenville (Texas) High School visited Texas this spring and is drawing early interest from Texas Tech, Rice, UTEP and Colorado State.
Here’s the latest on where things stand between Carlile and Texas, plus the tale of how he ended up with his nickname.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound safety from Stephenville (Texas) High School visited Texas this spring and is drawing early interest from Texas Tech, Rice, UTEP and Colorado State.
Here’s the latest on where things stand between Carlile and Texas, plus the tale of how he ended up with his nickname.
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Texas Tech is getting a “Scooter.”
The Red Raiders picked up commitment No. 11 on Tuesday when wide receiver Byron "Scooter" Daniels (San Antonio/Madison) picked Texas Tech over offers from Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
“It feels good,” said Daniels, a 5-foot-11, 170-pound receiver. “It actually feels like a weight’s lifted off.”
The Red Raiders picked up commitment No. 11 on Tuesday when wide receiver Byron "Scooter" Daniels (San Antonio/Madison) picked Texas Tech over offers from Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
“It feels good,” said Daniels, a 5-foot-11, 170-pound receiver. “It actually feels like a weight’s lifted off.”
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Some athletes simply have recognizable nicknames. Wide receiver Byron Daniels (San Antonio/Madison) is known around his high school as “Scooter.”
“I don’t even know how I got it,” Daniels said. “I was named after my dad, and it was something my family called me. When they called for Byron, both of us turned around.’”
Daniels said his grandfather was the first to call him Scooter. What many probably didn’t know was that the name would fit as a football player. In addition to being quick and elusive, he runs with a level of power that many 5-foot-11, 170-pound athletes don’t have.
That combination of talents has made Daniels a major recruiting target for several college programs. Daniels has seven offers, and he’s looking to earn more as the spring season progresses.
“I don’t even know how I got it,” Daniels said. “I was named after my dad, and it was something my family called me. When they called for Byron, both of us turned around.’”
Daniels said his grandfather was the first to call him Scooter. What many probably didn’t know was that the name would fit as a football player. In addition to being quick and elusive, he runs with a level of power that many 5-foot-11, 170-pound athletes don’t have.
That combination of talents has made Daniels a major recruiting target for several college programs. Daniels has seven offers, and he’s looking to earn more as the spring season progresses.
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Derrick Neal (Dallas/Lincoln) has a name and a game that are slowly resonating through the college ranks. As good of a football player as he is, some think he’s an even better basketball player.
So when the 5-foot-10, 145-pound 2014 athlete verbally committed to Texas Tech on Wednesday, fans from both sports were wondering exactly what he committed for -- football or basketball? And will he play both for the Red Raiders?
So when the 5-foot-10, 145-pound 2014 athlete verbally committed to Texas Tech on Wednesday, fans from both sports were wondering exactly what he committed for -- football or basketball? And will he play both for the Red Raiders?
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Conner Dyer (Mesquite, Texas/Horn) is hoping the events of this week makes for a pleasant trend.
On Monday, the 2015 offensive tackle was without an offer. On Tuesday, Dyer landed his first offer from TCU. On Wednesday, Dyer scored his second offer from Texas Tech.
Will Thursday follow suit with Dyer’s third offer? Or third and a fourth? Or something along those lines?
On Monday, the 2015 offensive tackle was without an offer. On Tuesday, Dyer landed his first offer from TCU. On Wednesday, Dyer scored his second offer from Texas Tech.
Will Thursday follow suit with Dyer’s third offer? Or third and a fourth? Or something along those lines?
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Baylor picked up another commitment Wednesday afternoon, and in turn the Bears might have landed a player who can provide instant help on the offensive line for the 2014 season.
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RECRUITING NATION MIDLANDS COVERAGE
The Midlands Region consists of the states of Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and
Texas and is where Big 12 programs make a living recruiting. However, with the deep talent pool in the Lone Star State, teams from all over the country flock to the Midlands to find players.
More RecruitingNation blogs
RecruitingNation has the latest recruiting news from across the country:
• On The Trail
• East Region blog
• Midwest Region blog
• Southeast Region blog
• West Region blog
MIDLANDS RECRUITING CONTRIBUTORS
Sam KhanESPN Archive |
Max OlsonESPN Archive |
Bob PrzybyloESPN Archive |
Damon SaylesESPN Archive |
Mitch ShermanESPN Archive |
William WilkersonESPN Archive |
