As I'm delving into recruiting more and more, the thought occurred to me that in order to have an idea as to the players that might be offered, that I needed to know how many scholarships were available and I also needed to take a guess, even if the guess was wrong, as to where I could see the scholarships being utilized, by position and on offense or defense. By my count, there are 16 potential scholarships available right now because I could find 16 seniors to be next year, and there may be more available if players transfer, leave the program, etc. Let's just assume that there are 20 scholarships available. Again, attrition happens everywhere, Stefan Loucks and Chris Todd will pour one out with you.
Here's the list:
QB Seth Doege
RB Eric Stephens
IR Tyson Williams
IR Austin Zouzalik
WR Alexander Torres
WR Marcus Kennard
WR Darrin Moore
OL Terry McDaniel
OL Deveric Gallington
OL LaAdrian Waddle
DL Leon Mackey
CB Eugene Neboh
CB Happiness Osunde
CB Cornelius Douglas
S Cody Davis
S D.J. Johnson
When thinking about a recruiting class, you don't think that you're replacing the players that are leaving, you need to be at least a class or two ahead of the seniors that would be leaving. So despite there being a ton of receivers leaving this year, five and a three or four of them could start this year, Tuberville recruited four freshmen receivers in the 2011 recruiting class: Derek Edwards, Jakeem Grant, Jace Amaro, and Bradley Marquez. And three freshmen receivers in 2012: Reginald Davis, Casey Gladney and Dominique Wheeler. I know that Gladney may not make it academically and he could also play defense, but there are options.
The other item of note is that the entire starting secondary is going to graduate. One of the reasons that I'd imagine that Tuberville went fairly heaving in the JUCO players last year with the thought that they would all have a year to be in the program and then be able to make a more immediate impact this year. Those JUCO defensive backs, in case you've forgotten: CB Olaoluwa Falemi, CB Bruce Jones, S Austin Stewart.
You get the idea. You at least want to be a class ahead.
So how would the staff hand out the scholarships this year? Well, I think with the transfers of Scotty Young and Jacob Karam that you almost have to take two quarterbacks in this class. Michael Brewer and Clayton Nicholas would be the only scholarship quarterbacks on the roster. With the possible graduation of Eric Stephens, if he plays, and the dismissal of Ronnie Daniels, you'd also think that running back is a spot where you might take a couple of players because then you would only have Kenny Williams and DeAndre Washington as the only scholarship running backs.
If we look a year ahead to the juniors, then it's pretty heavy on the defensive side of the ball, in particular the defensive line, with the graduation of Aundrey Barr, Kerry Hyder, Christopher Knighton, Dartwan Bush and Dennell Wesley. That's a lot of players that are heavy in the rotation at the defensive line now and I'd guess that this will be even more so the case next year. You will also have the graduation of Terrance Bullitt, Daniel Cobb and Zach Winbush at linebacker and Tre' Porter, Shawn Corker, Derrick Mays, and Jarvis Phillips at defensive back.
Offensively, the biggest loss will be Eric Ward, but that's about it. Not to discount the graduation of Aaron Fisher, Kyle Clark and Ben McRoy, but thus far, they haven't been huge contributors, although that could change.
So, it wouldn't at all surprise me to see the 2013 class be a bit heavy on defensive backs yet again and defensive linemen. At the very least, there were a handful of defensive linemen from last year, including Lee Adams, Chase Robison, Michael Starts, J.J. Loller, and Anthony Smith. Add to that a slew of linebackers in Ryan Flannigan, Chris Payne, Will Smith, and Kris Williams.
More after the jump.
Offensively, I think the weakest spot in terms of depth is offensive line, so it wouldn't surprise me to see at least, hopefully four players commit on that side of the ball.
Quarterbacks: 2
Running Backs: 2
Receivers: 2
Offensive Line: 3
Defensive Line: 4
Linebackers: 2
Defensive Backs: 4
I think this could go a couple of different way and you could see zero linebackers and a receiver and a few more defensive backs added. I think this might even be a high number for the offense, 9 total, because of the number of quality defenders that will be lost in a couple of years. Either way, this is a guess, at best.
How would you split up the 20 or so offers?
And just in case you're keeping track at home, Texas Tech already has 2 receiver commits and 3 defensive backs commits:
Position | Commitment | Ht/Wt | School/State | Cumulative Ranking |
QB | - | - | - | - |
RB | - | - | - | - |
WR | Devin Lauderdale | 5-11/170 | Bellaire (Houston, TX) | INC |
WR | Dylan Cantrell | 6-3/202 | Whitehouse (Whitehouse, TX) | INC |
TE | - | - | - | - |
OL | - | - | - | - |
DL | - | - | - | - |
LB | - | - | - | - |
DB | Tavares Garner | 6-0/170 | Manvel (Manvel, TX) | INC |
DB | Will Barrow | 5-10/160 | Skyline (Dallas, TX) | INC |
DB | Jordan Sterns | 5-11/185 | Steele (Cibolo, TX) | INC |
ATH | - | - | - | - |
Averages | - |