Recruiting on the South Plains | Links Roundup and Recruiting Review Update

The Dallas area Recruiting Review was last night and there are a handful of links on the event. I am sure some of you were there and if you would like to post photos in the comments, feel free to upload your photo at imgur.com (it is free and does not require a log-in) and share in the comments. The official site has a photo gallery up. The DMN's Chuck Carlton and the FWST's John Henry have articles, but I didn't think there was anything in those articles that were newsworthy. More interested in hearing your stories.

A nice story from the Detroit News on new commit, DT Poet Thomas. Apparently Thomas has family in Sweetwater! Who knew? I've got Thomas' profile coming up soon.

DMN's Mike Graham grades the 2013 recruiting class. He gives the class a "B" and I'm still trying to sort out how I would grade it. I'm still watching film and figuring things out. Graham seems to give Kingsbury the "B" grade based upon what Kingsbury was able to pull together after Tuberville left and I don't know that I would do that. What Kingsbury was able to do was pretty remarkable, but you have to grade the players that actually committed, not how hard he worked to get those players. I'm a tough grader, so I'm probably not the person to ask.

Graham also wrote about three positives about the new coaching staff:

Back to the two-star point, Texas Tech has had a ridiculous amount of success with the two-stars that make it to campus. The success rate the Red Raiders have with two-star players who actually make it to campus and contribute is about 50 percent.

That’s about the same success rate across a whole recruiting class year in and year out nationally.

Morris, who played his college football at Texas Tech, was a Rivals.com two-star recruit and if star ratings had existed in 1998 there’s no doubt the absolute best Kingsbury would have been rated was a low-end three-star recruit. Both of those players starred in Lubbock and continue to pay dividends to the university.

I have tough time believing that Texas Tech has had unbelievable two-star success without seeing the numbers. I also want to know what Graham means by "contribute". When you have the same number of 3-star players vs. 2-star players (about 1,000 each), there's absolutely going to be some success stories. There are also going to be some stories where the players don't make it. Stars are important, but they're relative, just like anything else in life. CBS Sports Matt Hinton's assertion earlier this week about if you consider rankings as a baseline of talent and ability makes a lot of sense. Take the 2009 class as an example. Aundrey Barr, Matt Goetz, Chris Knighton, Derrick Mays and James Scott were all 2-star players. Barr is obviously an impact player. Mays sees the field, but it is out of necessity than anything else. Knighton has hardly contributed, but maybe that will change this year. Scott and Goetz didn't even see campus. So that's success of one or two players, if you're being generous. Of course, you also have to just imagine that half of the 2013 class will not graduate from Texas Tech. That's the harsh reality.

RRS.com's Mike Graham has a good break down of the receiver class with Co-OC Sonny Cumbie including Gary Moore, Dylan Cantrell, Devin Lauderdale, D.J. Polite-Bray and Carlos Thompson. Go read the whole thing, but here's a bit on Thompson:

"Carlos Thompson is a kid where you watch his film and you just watch his highlights over and over and over and over," Cumbie said. "You ask yourself, 'why shouldn't we take this kid?' He plays in a great district against tough people in a fast league. He never gets caught from behind, he's able to put his foot in the ground, he's very dynamic. Production wise, it's a slam dunk. He got 70 balls, 20 touchdowns.

"I think he's a guy that's going to find his way onto the field He's a tough kid, too, if you watch some of his film in terms of blocking and catching the ball in the middle of the field. I think he'll be an inside receiver at H."

RP.com's Joe Yeager writes about whether or not the 2013 class match it's needs. I've always sorta thought that unless you're talking about JUCO's that play immediately, a coach is really recruiting to after the 2013 season.

LAJ's Nick Kosmider has a terrific article on how the coaching staff is listening to critics about them being too young and that's driving them every day. Here's Co-OC Eric Morris and RB coach Mike Jinks:

"That’s something that drives us every day, people telling us we can’t do something," Morris. "I think it drove us as players and now as coaches that we really want to take it to the next level here. So that’s something that we work hard at every day."

It’s no surprise, then, that expectations for this self-assured group are highest within the walls of the coaching office.

"We’re here to win the Big 12 and play in the national championship game," Jinks said. "That’s it. Period. That’s why I come to work every day. That’s why I get up. I think you’ve got 10 guys in that (coaches) room who understand that, and we will make sure the kids play in that manner."

LAJ's Don Williams has a notebook where he reveals that spring practice starts on March 24th and the spring game will be April 20th. Mark your calendars. I also had someone to ask me to add a countdown clock to the sidebar and unfortunately, I can't add anything to the site. There's a ton of good quotes from the coaches about the commits, so go read Kosmider and Williams articles. Too much to blockquote.