Two steps forward, one step back. The step back first, which is that DT Jon Lewis has de-committed from Texas Tech and committed to TCU, and was allegedly affected by James Willis leaving the program. I'll let you digest that however you want, but defensive tackles are tough to find and Lewis had good offers from around the country. The good news is that Texas Tech received their 22nd commitment in Mesquite Horn WR Jakeem Grant and their 23rd commitment in OLB Justin Cooper. I've got a recruiting profile on Cooper scheduled for later today, but wanted to separate out both Grant and Cooper's profiles.
Let's get to it.
The Measurables:
Jakeem Grant
Position: WR
DTN Profile
Video: N/A
Rivals Profile5.5
Scout Profile
ESPN Profile
Ht: 5'7"
Wt: 157 lbs
Forty: 4.4
High School: Horn (Mesquite, TX)
The Player Speaks: LAJ's Don Williams spoke with Grant's head coach:
"When he steps on the field at Texas Tech, he will be the fastest player on the field. I can assure you of that," Webb said. "He’s the most electric player not only that I’ve ever coached but that I’ve ever seen on a high-school field."
Snip.
"Not only does he have linear speed, but he’s also got elusiveness to him," Webb said. "A lot of times those good track guys that are really fast don’t necessarily have that lateral quickness. But Jakeem is a football player with track speed.
"He’s in a small body, but he’s a powerful player, too. I’ve got multiple clips of him running people over."
According to Grant's Dallas News profile, Grant rushed for 516 yards on 66 carries for a 7.8 YPC average and 9 touchdowns while he caught 70 passes for 1,306 yards for 16.5 YPC and 16 touchdowns. That's not a bad senior season. And you can find Grant's name a lot of places as far as news is concerned. DMN's Corbett Smith talked with Scout.com's Greg Powers who had this to say about Grant:
I was sitting next to Greg Powers, Scout.com's regional recruiting manager based out of Tulsa, last night at Mesquite Horn's 48-14 win over Copperas Cove in Stephenville.
And Powers jokingly said, after the second of Jakeem Grant's five touchdowns - a nifty jet sweep that Grant took down the right sideline for 57 yards - that Grant might have just bumped himself up a star, going from a 2-star rating to 3-star, on that one play. I don't think he was joking after Grant's third, fourth or fifth score of the night. Expect to see Grant's rating change on that recruiting Web site after this weekend.
Grant looked dominant, rushing for 141 yards and three TDs, mainly on jet sweeps, and catching four passes for 41 yards and two scores in a scaled-down version of the Horn passing game, because of a gusty north wind.
He's been on quite a roll in the last few weeks. He has nine touchdowns in the last two games, besting a 4-TD performance in the regular-season finale against Mesquite with five against Copperas Cove.
Very much under the radar, I supposed, but Grant appears to have the ability to dominate a game.
Video: The only video I could find is Grant's profile on Hudl and he's not hard to find, smallest guy on the field, but he's got tremendous start-and-stop ability and he also shows some pretty nice speed against a very good Longview team. You can find a bunch of highlights there and although I've listed Grant's fake 40-time as 4.4, this Hudl profile says that he runs a 4.25 and the 100 m dash in 10.3. I'm going to need some additional verification other than Hudl.
Scouting Report: He's small, but he puts up numbers. Of course, a lot of high school kids put up good numbers, but Grant is putting up those numbers while being smaller in stature. There's a teaser from the ESPN profile, which says this:
Grant is an ultra explosive, exciting athlete as a utility offensive player with experience as a receiver, scatback and return specialist. If this kid were bigger he would be receiving a lot more attention on the recruiting front.
I suppose this is better than the profile saying that he has all of the athletic gifts in the world, but isn't producing on the field. And Grant's Scout profile has this on him:
Small wide receiver with incredible speed and acceleration. He gets up to his top speed in a few steps and if there is any daylight he will make something happen. Nothing special on the vision front but he can hit a hole so fast the defenders mis-judge the angle. Good on returns also and special teams, such as kickoff coverage.
Jakeem, welcome to Texas Tech and Git Your Guns Up!
The 2011 Class:
| Position | Commitment | Ht/Wt | High School/State |
Rivals
|
Rivals Rating |
Scout
|
ESPN
|
ESPN Grade |
| QB | Michael Brewer | 6-0/175 | Lake Travis (Austin, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 3 | 3 | 78 |
| RB | Kenny Williams | 5-10/210 | Hendrickson (Pflugerville, TX) | 4 | 5.8 | 4 | 4 | 80 |
| RB | Bradley Marquez | 5-11/180 | Odessa (Odessa, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 4 | 4 | 79 |
| WR | Derek Edwards | 6-1/163 | Brenham (Brenham, TX) | 4 | 5.8 | 3 | 3 | 79 |
| WR | Marcus Kennard | 6-4/205 | Butler County C.C. (El Dorado, KS) | 4 | 5.8 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| WR | Jakeem Grant | 5-7/157 | Horn (Mesquite, TX) | 3 | 5.5 | 3 | 3 | 75 |
| TE | Jace Amaro | 6-5/237 | MacArthur (San Antonio, TX) | 4 | 5.9 | 4 | 3 | 78 |
| OL | Tony Morales | 6-4/300 | Sam Houston (Arlington, TX) | 4 | 5.8 | 3 | 3 | 78 |
| OL | Alfredo Morales | 6-3/287 | Sam Houston (Arlington, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 3 | 3 | 76 |
| OL | Le'Raven Clark | 6-6/245 | Rockdale (Rockdale, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 4 | 3 | 79 |
| DL | James Castleman | 6-4/255 | Amarillo (Amarillo, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 4 | 3 | 77 |
| DL | Dennell Wesley | 6-3/315 | Butler County C.C. (El Dorado, KS) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DE | Kindred Evans | 6-6/215 | South Grand Prairie (Grand Prairie, TX) | 3 | 5.6 | 3 | 3 | 75 |
| LB | Terrell Hartsfield | 6-4/215 | Hargrave MA (Chatham, VA) | 4 | 5.8 | 3 | 2 | 74 |
| LB | Blake Dees | 6-0/234 | Spanish Fort (Spanish Fort, AL) | 3 | 5.5 | 3 | 2 | 73 |
| LB | Sam Eguavoen | 6-2/220 | Lakeview Centennial (Garland, TX) | 3 | 5.6 | 2 | 3 | 75 |
| LB | Justin Cooper | 6-1/205 | University School of Nova South (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) | 3 | 5.5 | N/A | 2 | 74 |
| DB | Freddie Warner | 5-9/170 | L.G. Pinkston (Dallas, TX) | 3 | 5.5 | 3 | 3 | 76 |
| CB | Jeremy Reynolds | 5-9/166 | Oak Ridge Military Academy (Oak Ridge, NC) | 3 | 5.5 | 2 | 3 | 77 |
| ATH | Ronnie Daniels | 6-1/195 | La Cueva (Albuquerque, NM) | 3 | 5.6 | 3 | 3 | 76 |
| ATH | LaDarrin Robertson | 6-3/215 | Longview (Longview, TX) | 3 | 5.5 | 3 | 3 | 77 |
| ATH | DeAndre Washington | 5-9/183 | Marshall (Missouri City, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 3 | 3 | 78 |
| ATH | J.J. Gaines | 5-11/175 | Irving Nimitz (Irving, TX) | 3 | 5.6 | 3 | 3 | 77 |
| Averages | 3.13 | 5.41 | 2.83 | 2.70 | 70.04 |