Greyshirts, Multiple Walk-on QBs, numerous JUCO Big Uglies, and a pulled offer have all made for an interesting recruiting season and have signaled a change in business as usual for Texas Tech football.

Just a few months ago we all stared at the list of committed recruits and wondered how in the hell we could actually field a defensive line in 2014. With just a couple of unpolished highschool DL commits and one decent sized Juco DL commit it looked like gloom and doom considering we were graduating our 3 senior DL studs in Wesley, Bush & Hyder.

And then, Bam!
Thomas gets his offer pulled, Montgomery, Collier, and Clark get their greyshirt offers.
Then a few weeks ago, all of the sudden the JUCO D-linemen start pouring in, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM- Marcus Smith, Rika Levi, Brandon Thorpe, LaDarius Kidd. We love it as fans because this is what WE NEEDED ALL ALONG!
Mildren Montgomery was a long frame but not meaty enough, Catfish Noodler Ivan Thomas seemed baddass but not polished enough for big12 play, LJ Collier had not enough meat on dem bones to make an impact in the fall and Joseph Clark got injured.

What do these players have in common?
Texas Tech was committed to them by offering a scholarship for fall 2014, they in turn committed to Texas Tech to use that scholarship, and then later, Texas Tech no longer honored that said scholarship for Fall 2014.
How do we feel about this? I don't remember having a class with 4 verbal commits getting their offers pulled and it doesn't really leave me with a warm fuzzy. It feels like something that SEC schools and XeroxU would do. I can justify it and say that Kliff is playing it smart and that we are simply catching up with the times (Baylor does it, OSU does it, Bama does it, etc.) and that makes it feel a little better. But deep down, I don't like pulling kids offers and I was happy that Montgomery and Collier found a home with other schools so easily and quickly. Currently we have 25 folks committed (Joseph Clark will greyshirt so he is not really the 26th man) and there is talk of a few more folks committing (another JUCO OL and another WR/CB from Louisiana). There is also talk of Dontae Levingston not qualifiying and maybe Deonte Noel is going to UH.

Maybe we are simply "playing the game" the way all the other competitive coaches do it now.

Why should we not have plan A, B, C, D, and E? Shouldn't we account for attrition, non qualifiers, etc.?
Morality aside for the moment, Kliff and co. are really doing a number on filling the needs of this roster in the last few weeks. 3 solid DBs and 4 Juco uglies (with a few more rumored to be on the way) have found their way onto this team in the nick of time. Who is next to get the greyshirt invitation? Who is the next big name to commit?
Should we feel bad for the HS athletes that have their dreams changed in a blink of an eye?

I didn't even mention the 4 walk on QB's we will have on campus come fall... crazy!