Red Raider Gridiron | Texas Tech Signs Five JUCO Players

Texas Tech signed five JUCO players yesterday, the first day that teams could sign JUCO players:

DT Keland McElrath | VTM Profile
DT Marcus Smith | VTM Profile
WR Devin Lauderdale | VTM Profile
DB Josh Keys | VTM Profile
OL Dontae Levingston

I don't have the profile for Levingston as he committed last night.  Expect that profile in the next day or two.  Levingston is originally an SMU commit, who ended up at Santa Monica C.C. after probably not qualifying.  Texas Tech needed a JUCO offensive lineman after Drew Sarvary committed to Florida yesterday morning after being committed to Texas Tech for quite some time.  I haven't seen a lot of this here, but don't bad-mouth a kid for choosing another program like Sarvary did or bemoan the fact that kids don't know what it means to be committed.  I don't have any public confirmation of this, but Texas Tech has pulled a few offers from players after Texas Tech committed to them.  It's a two-way street.

As far as these players are concerned, they are all needed and I love the idea that Lauderdale came back to Texas Tech after just a year at Navarro JC.  You can check out Lauderdale's Hudl video from his one year at Navarro JC and I'm pretty excited about this.  I think the three defensive players and Lauderdale should come in and play immediately.  I'll reserve judgment on Levingston as I need to watch his film.

Links:

Five JUCO's: The LAJ talks with four of the five signees yesterday. Lots of quotes, so go check it out. The DMN also has a story, but they don't have the Levingston signing.

Who Runs this Place? I also saw in the comments yesterday about the possibility of IR Jakeem Grant rumbling about playing time after WR Bradley Marquez took over his starting spot against Texas.  I don't know anything, but some of the comments suggest that HC Kliff Kingsbury needs to cater to the players more and that he's still learning on the job.  I don't know about you all, but I'm sorta done with players feeling entitled that they deserve a starting spot.  Other than a handful of players, there really shouldn't be a spot that is guaranteed.  Not only that, I'm fine with a coach not promising much of anything other than an opportunity.  Players need to go out and earn that spot and if they aren't playing as best as they possibly can, then I'm fine with a coach using the only tool he has to make that player play better, which is snaps and playing time.  If a player transfers as a result, then that's fine.  Maybe I'm in the minority here, but if there are some players that don't want to compete for their job, then that says more about them, not the head coach. Do we really want players running this thing?  I just can't think that's the way to run a program for the long term.

Outkick The Coverage Podcast: I am aware of Clay Travis' podcast with Texas Tech HC Kliff Kingsbury. I'm not linking to it because I don't like Travis.  Plus he thinks Texas Tech is a shitty college.  The page views that Travis would get from VTM won't make or break his site, we're small potatoes, but it is principal for me.

Amaro is Unanimous All-American: The Football Writers of America and the American Football Coaches Association both named TE Jace Amaro as a first team All-American and Amaro has now achieved something only five other players in Texas Tech history have ever done, which is be named a unanimous All-American ( via LAJ).

Longhorn Coaching Drama: All of your friends are going to ChatSports and talking about this, so might as well link to it here.  This is supposed to be the timeline of Texas' interest in Alabama HC Nick Saban and they're still holding out hope.