Possible Red Raiders: A Weekly Recruiting Update - 11/26/13

Crazy weekend in Lubbock as temperatures were blew freezing the whole time and the wreck'em city had many wrecks. However, last week for recruiting was filled with disappointment for the 2014 class and optimism for the 2015 class. A DT decommitted from Tech on Sunday, leaving Texas Tech with only 3 commitments for the front seven positions. For a team that's losing 7 in this field (3 senior DL, 3 senior LB and 1 excused LB), along with 5 more the next year, this needed position is left with only 2 DLs and 1 LB (although, Campbell, a 2013 DL commit, is coming in starting next year). Let's look at the positives though. That 2013 class Kliff was able to put together at the last second, consists of a total of 5 recruits listed as LB on the Texas Tech roster, some of them being big enough to play a rushing LB like Pete Roberson occasionally does. Poet Thomas was originally a DT in high school, and maybe Kliff sees if he can move him around. Plus you have a lot of JUCO guys that will be stepping up from the 2013 and 2014 class. It looks bad, but it's not beaten. This wouldn't have been a problem if some of Tuberville's DL guys left before the season started, but these things happen and we need to move on. With that being said, lets look at 2014 JUCO PF Deng Deng and 2014 K Clayton Hatfield

Deng Deng - Power Forward (Lee College, Baytown, TX)

Height: 6'8" Weight: 215 lbs

Ratings: NR by 247 / NR by ESPN / 3-Stars by Rivals

Interest: LSU (Warm), Auburn (Cool), Arizona State (Cool), Texas Tech (Cool)

Deng Deng was originally committed to LSU September 2012, but has decided to open up his recruitment again and is getting a lot of attention from other schools. A little information about Deng, he is originally from Melbourne, Australia, and went on to play at Lee College. He was going to go to LSU after his freshman year, be decided to open up his recruitment again to see what other programs he could go to. Below is a film of Deng Deng during his junior year in Australia. Deng has a lot of athletic ability to him, which I think is the main reason why colleges are looking to obtain his talents. He can throw down dunks and block opposing shots, showing off his athletic ability. Also in his video, he shows his transition and passing game, a feature that most big men lack. Plus is helps he has long range like current Tech big man Aaron Ross. This season he is averaging 10 points and 7.5 rebounds a game for Lee College. Not much more info on him, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Clayton Hatfield - Kicker (Champion HS, Boerne, TX)

Height: 5'10" (why does it matter, he's a kicker) Weight: 155 lbs

Ratings: NR by 247 (no one else has a profile)

Interest: TEXAS TECH COMMIT

To be honest, I did this late at night, a lot later than I usually do, and there was no one I really wanted to review this week, so here's a kicker. A pretty good one too, he was elected to play in the U.S. Army All-American game. Anyway, the only stats that myself or anyone on VTM could find were these horrible stats found on maxpreps.com. According to them he is 8-59 on the year. You'd think he'd accidentally make one in. Obviously those aren't accurate (I hope), but what we did find were some stats from kicking competitions. He finished 1st in several Kick Off, punting and FG competitions, along with 2nd in some too. Anyway, here is his hudl (yes, it is a bunch of kicks). He has to ability to kick the ball out of the endzone on kick offs, kick the ball far on punts, and make 40 yards field goals too, looking like he could go farther. With the special teams struggling at times this year, this could help us avoid those chances of screwing up. He has made long field goals in field goal competitions, so we might see longer field goal trys (Sorry SARR). In all seriousness though, glad he picked the Red Raiders and hope he can make a positive impact.

Here are some other updates:

Football 2014:

• Owen Williams changed his commitment from Texas Tech to Tennessee on Sunday. He visited Tennessee last weekend, and I was afraid after visiting a program like Tennessee he might flip, and he did. This leaves only 2 DL and 1 LB in this class, not a good sign.
• Zaycoven Henderson, 89 rated DT from Longview, will be making his college decision some time in early December. Most of the recruiting gurus, along with myself, think that Henderson will pick Texas. Let's hope not.
• Terrell Clinkscales, 96 rated JUCO DT, will be visiting Nebraska. They are a major threat to get Terrell with a visit this weekend and the fact they have Suh on their resume. Plus the Cornhusker fans are praising him like crazy on twitter. Thank god Tech fans aren't doing that.
• Trey Lealaimatafao decommitted from Texas this week. Tech offered him back in September, but hasn't scheduled an official visit with us. I don't think he's thinking Tech, but he's on Tech's radar according to 247, so you never know.
• Recruiting analyst are starting to submit their predictions, and a lot of guys are thinking Sebastian Tretola is going to OU and Fahn Cooper is heading here. We'll see what happens.

Basketball 2014:

• Josh Gray committed to LSU and is heading back home. I'm not sure why I keep on bringing him up, but I'm happy he picked to go back home. That means we might play him in 2014-2015.

Football 2015:

• A bunch of our 2015 recruits got rated. Here are our main targets ratings: Justin Gamble - 87, Ryan Newsome - 90, Ronald Jones - 89, Sam Tecklenberg - 85.
• The Fehoko brothers apparently have two cousins that play football too. They are from Salt Lake City, one of which was a 75 rated 2014 DB Tech recruit (SJ Fehoko)and another is an 85 rated 2015 LB recruit (TJ Fehoko). Just a fun fact.
• Chris Warren III, 91 rated ATH from Rockwall, has named his top 3. With schools like Clemson, Ohio State and Texas going after Warren, he has picked Alabama, Baylor and Texas Tech as his leaders thus far. Impressed that Tech has able to get on a high profiled recruits radar.