Recruiting on the South Plains | 2014 QB D.J. Gillins Commits to Texas Tech

RECRUITING ON THE SOUTH PLAINS Measurables D.J. Gillins Position: QB Ht: 6'3" | Wt: 185 lbs | Forty: 4.70 High School: Eagle's View Academy (Jacksonville, FL) VTM Profile Video: Clip 1 | Clip 2 Rivals N/R | Scout ESPN N/R | 24/7 Sports 97 Cumulative Ranking: INC Offers Florida Intl., Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas Tech, Troy, Vanderbilt, West Virginia

Late last night, Florida junior quarterback D.J. Gillins committed to Texas Tech (See generally his Twitter page, but do not reply to comment to commits as it is pretty much an NCAA violation.) I am surprised as I have read about how Gillins had named a top three and Texas Tech was one of the top three, but everything I had read noted that Gillins was going to commit sometime in January. Well, I guess Gillins was comfortable with where he stood and committed late last night.

Gillins is the second member of the 2014 class joining Princeton WR Jakari Dillard as part of the class and if you want to be completely honest, these are both two very good commits this early in the process.

And since the commits are not on the front page anymore, they are under the "Library" section, just below the photos on the first page and you can find the link here. It needs to be updated quite a bit, but that's not going to happen for a couple more weeks.

Depending on the service, Gillins is already thought of as a high three star to four star player. That's not bad for a guy that's just a junior as most juniors are not rated.

Stats

You will not find much, if any of Gillins' junior stats because he tore his ACL and was out for most of the year. But what you'll find that as a sophomore, Gillins completed 57.7% of his passes, for 222.3 yards a game, 31 touchdowns and 7 interceptions, while rushing for 14.4 yards a game. Gillins is listed as a dual threat quarterback, but I think generally speaking that Gillins is a passing quarterback that is mobile and can run, but I wouldn't call him a running quarterback. In fact, if you look at his best rushing game last year, it was for 42 yards. For comparison purposes Davis Webb has rushed for 79, 61, 83, 70 and 78 yards thus far this year. I don't think he's a running quarterback either, but he does obviously have some wheels.

The Player Speaks

Good stuff from LAJ's Landon Wright (he runs the Texas Tech affiliate 247 Sports site) has a good conversation with Gillins and walks through the process of being injured, but both Chad Scott and Neal Brown not giving up on him:

"Coach Scott and Coach Brown didn’t stop recruiting me even when I tore my ACL," Gillins said. "To me, that was blessing. And I thank God for everything that happened and will happen in my future."

And this:

"Coach Brown always tells me about Seth Doege how he tore his left ACL his junior year and his right one his senior year, now he’s starting," Gillins said. "When I first got my injury, I thought no college coaches would like me at all, and stop coming to me. When I tore my ACL, Texas Tech got me excited. They told me about how a running back (Eric Stephens) messed up his knee and recovered. They said I tore my ACL but I can come back even better."

Go read the whole thing, its worth your time.

Scouting Report

Daniel "D.J." Gillins QB Class of 2014 (via evafootball1)

Gillins makes very quick decisions and he's got a pretty good feel for his offense. It seems like he's already made up his mind on quite a few plays as to where he's going to go with the pass. He seems to have a pretty live arm, but I don't think he has a cannon. He's just a sophomore in the film, so there's obviously a lot of room to grow. He does seem to have good pocket presence and steps up in the pocket appropriately.

D.J., welcome to Texas Tech and Git Your Guns Up!

I probably won't get around to putting together any sort of table until after the season ends, but it is the aforementioned Dillard and Gillins as part of the 2014 class.