Possible Red Raiders: A Weekly Recruiting Update -1/7/2014

Well the college football season is officially over, and what a year it was. Another Freshman won the Heisman, Auburn had miracle comebacks, down went Bama and the Big XII did fairly well in it's bowl games (no thanks to Texas and Baylor). So the question is, how do these bowl victories have an impact on the Big XII and Texas Tech. As I said last week, a lot of big recruits took notice of that Tech victory. Chris Clark, a 2015 TE I'll be taking about today. that "Texas Tech was looking good" and "Wonder how long Kingsbury will be there". There was another one, but I can't remember at the moment. Oklahoma was the big winner here, getting several of the top recruits interested and a top target (a Tech one also) to commit. Baylor, Texas and Oklahoma State didn't look to lose any ground, but the fact that Baylor in particular lost may help us down the line, running similar offenses and such. Let's look at some 2015 pass catchers that could be Red Raiders commits this time next year, Carlos Strickland, Malik Lovette and Chris Clark.

Carlos Strickland - Wide Receiver (Skyline HS, Dallas, TX)

Height: 6'5" Weight: 195 lbs 40 time: 4.72 Vertical: 28.7" Power Throw: 31"

Ratings: 90 by 247 / 80 by ESPN / 5.9 by Rivals

Interest: LSU (Warm), Texas Tech (Warm), Oklahoma State (Warm), TCU (Warm)

There isn't a lot of info out there on Strickland, but a story on LSU's 247 behind a paywall suggest that he is very interested in them. My guess is that somewhere in the article he mentions Tech, TCU and Okie Lite because they are all above everyone else on 247. Anyway, it is not clear who the lead pack is, but I feel like Tech has a good chance at him. He was teammates with Tech commit Derrick Dixon, TCU commit Ty Barrett and Ole Miss commit Victor Evans in high school, and two of those teams in ahead according to 247. We'll see where Strickland decides to go camp this upcoming spring and summer. Let's go into his film. As you can probably guess, Strickland was a big red zone target for Skyline. There a several red zone plays in his highlights, including a few a few corner fade routes where Strickland just simply jumps above the defenders, one being an impressive one handed catch. He also is a good route runner, not having an explosive step, but not revealing what he's going to do until the last moment. The only down side is that his 40 is a 4.72, which isn't outstanding. He's a big guy with big legs, so if he can make his stride reach full potential, maybe he can get faster. He reminds me a lot of Darrin Moore (MacArthur High School Alum!) for Tech two years ago, with not elite speed, but tall enough and good enough route running to have great stats. This could be the tall receiver that Tech decides to grab this class, and hopefully so.

Malik Lovette - Wide Receiver (Redlands East Valley, Redlands, CA)

Height: 5'11" Weight: 185 lbs 40 time: 4.51

Ratings: 90 by 247 / 3-star by ESPN / 5.8 by Rivals

Interest: Texas Tech (Warm), Texas A&M (Warm), Boise State (Warm), California (Warm)

Texas Tech was the first school to offer Lovette, followed by Boise and Cal shortly after, and Texas A&M a couple weeks later. USC also has had some interest, but haven't offered yet. Luckily with Tech being first, we have that advantage for us. There is no tweets regarding Lovette watching the game, but he watched the Alamo Bowl, so he could've left it on to watch Tech dominate the first quarter. Hopefully he did so and was impressed. No let's look at some highlights from Lovette. He has a great deal of speed from the backfield and looks to do very well on screens and short passes, so he'll probably be a slot receiver at the next level. To go with his good speed, Lovette brings good cutting moves and at one point the video does a sick spin move. And being a 5'11", he has that short play burst along with a good enough stride to keep it going. Last but not least, he can take it hit, even one highlight where the defender fell down trying to lay a hit on him. I really like Lovette on film, and if the Red Raiders can get him, I expect him to be a super star in the Red Grey and Black. If I had to compare him to one player, it would be Percy Harvin, with similar height a little lower speed, but also is great in the screen game and can take a hit. Being a California, it'll be hard to Lovette to visit unless it's an official visit, so we'll see what happens down the road.

Chris Clark - Tight End (Avon Old Farms, Avon, CT)

Height: 6'5" Weight: 245 lbs 40 time: 4.72 Vertical: 29"

Ratings: 88 by 247 / 3-Star by ESPN / 5.5 by Rivals

Interest: Boston College (Warm), Syracuse (Warm), Pittsburgh (Warm), Texas Tech (Warm)

Tech offered Chris Clark 3 weeks ago and Clark was thinking about visiting Tech sometime, maybe for their Junior Day. The info is behind a paywall, so I don't have more to say about that. He has visited Pitt and 'Cuse along with camps from 'Cuse, Penn State, Maryland, BC and NC State, but those schools are also a lot closer to Connecticut. Luckily for Tech, we just got done with an unanimous all-american, so hopefully Clark looks at that and believes that could be him in a few years. Now on to his film. He does play a lot like Jace Amaro. He has a similar 40, almost same height and weight. He has good hands down field, can outrun linebackers and is tall enough to grab the ball over opponents heads. Not only that, but Clark can also block, multiple times pushing defenders out of the play causing huge plays for his teammates. The only down side I can see right now is his competition. He goes to a men's prep school in CT, so his competition isn't as good as regular schools. There is no doubt that Chris Clark will be a play maker at the next level with the right coach. Eric Morris is recruiting him right now, which is exactly who should be, considering he plays inside receiver and has done well this year on the recruiting trail.

Here are some more updates:

Football 2014:

• Joesph Clark, 78 rated S Commit, will be grey-shirted next year. He had a season ending injury earlier in the year, so their grey-shirting him to open up a spot. Could Vincent Jackson Jr, Rika Levi, Brandon Thorpe or Dominique Robertson be close to commiting?
• Vincent Jackson Jr, 83 rated OLB, will be taking an official visit to Mizzou on 1/24, then committing afterwards. The top 4 are Alabama, Missouri, Texas Tech and USF. He's been tweeting a little about each team, but a majority of them about Texas Tech. We'll see what he picks in 3 weeks.
• Dominique Robertson, 85 rated JUCO OT, is rumored to be committing somewhere soon. His official visits listed are Texas Tech and Kansas State, however, I don't believe he ever made it to Texas Tech (Ice storm).
• Clayton Hatfield, NR Kicker Commit, competed in the US Army All American game this Saturday. His kick offs went to about the goal line and he attempted one field goal of 33 yards than he barely missed to the left. Has a lot of leg strength however.
• Justin Stockton, 88 rated RB Commit, made a fool out of the San Antonio All Stars. He had 5 TTD, including 2 rushing and 3 Kickoff returns off reverses because they wouldn't kick it to him. Dom-min-a-tion.
• Peyton Hendrix, 85 rated S Commit, apparently practiced very well for his Semper Fi All American game. His West squad won 17-14, and while I don't have stats, the score was very low. Hopefully he did good.
• Rika Levi, 91 rated JUCO DT, looks like he's leaning more towards Tech. There's not a lot of info out, but Tech stories about him are out and were the only school he's tweeting about.

Basketball 2014:

• Keenan Evans, 83 rated PG Commit, is back from a knee injury and will visit Lubbock soon. He is the only commit not to sign in the early period but still says he's fully committed to Texas Tech.

Football 2015+:

• Ja'Mycal Hasty, 2015 90 rated RB, has a top 4 so far in the process, them being Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. This is good news, considering it looked like we were falling back some.
• Marquise Overton, 2015 95 rated DT, committed to Oklahoma after the Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama. He was on Tech's radar early on, but Oklahoma ultimately took over near the end.
• Devwah Whaley, 2016 NR ATH/RB, picked up his 2nd offer from Texas Tech today. He has one other offer from Houston, and interest in A&M and Texas.
• James Lockhart IV, 2015 97 rated DE, has named a favorite in Baylor. Tech is still a top team for Lockhart, and the bowl game did impress him, but Baylor is atop his list for now.
• John Humphrey, 87 rated ATH, named Ole Miss and Texas his leaders. Neither school has offered, and his only offers so far are from Tech and SMU.
• VJ Fehoko, 2010 4-star recruit for Utah, will transfer to Texas Tech. Does that mean his younger brother Breiden, 97 rated 2015 DT, is on the way?
• Jarrett Stidham and Ryan Newsome, two 4-star 2015 recruits, have expressed interest in playing at the next level together. A lot of these recruits want to play together (Hasty wants to play with a group of guys also). All of them that I know of have Tech offers so far.

Basketball 2015+:

• Gary Trent Jr, 2017 NR SG, has got his first scholarship offer from Tech. I saw a little of his film (Freshman in high school, so I looked at his middle school film) and it looks like he attacks the rim and has got good passing skills.