Possible Red Raiders: A Weekly Recruiting Update - 11/3/2014

McKinley Whitfield - Safety / Wide Receiver (Sprio HS, Spiro, Oklahoma)

Ratings: 88 by 247 / NR by ESPN / 5.4 by Rivals / 3-star by Scout

Interest: Wyoming (Warm), Minnesota (Warm), Oklahoma *(Warm), Texas Tech *(Warm)

Texas Tech has yet to offer Whitfield, but Matt Brock visited Whitfield this past weekend and showed interest in the athlete from Oklahoma. McKinley has roughly 14 offers right now, with OU, OKST and Arky showing interest. He took his first official visit to Wyoming back in September and will take a visit to Minnesota this weekend. He also took an unofficial visit to Oklahoma State for the season opener. It's clear right now if he'll take an official visit to Tech yet, but maybe one could be in store for the future, possibly for the OU game. Let's take a look now at what McKinley Whitfield can do on the football field. The first thing I noticed when watching Whitfield's film is the long stride he has. He takes huge steps and burned defenders down the field when he was playing QB. Another attribute I like is his ability to find holes. On both the offensive and defensive end, Whitfield found the holes in the line of scrimmage and went through when with maximum velocity. When playing safety on defense, he would hit a hole quickly and smack the ball carrier with full speed. He cause a fumble or two doing this. Finally, Whitfield can make that big hit. He uses his ability to accelerate quickly to get to the ball carrier and hit them with everything he has. The offensive player usually ends up on his back and sometimes with the football on the ground. I see Whitfield as a DB more than anything at the next level, especially with his ability to hit receivers and create the big play. I could see him either playing the safety position or play cornerback at the next level. Hopefully he'll give Texas Tech and shot and Tech keeps an eye on Whitfield.

Xavier Lewis - Cornerback (East St. John, Reserve, LA)

Ratings: 94 by 247 / 82 by ESPN / 5.8 by Rivals / 4-star by Scout

Interest: LSU (Committed), Ole Miss (Cool), Arkansas (Cool), Texas Tech (Cool)

Texas Tech offered Xavier Lewis a few weeks ago, speciously after Tyron Johnson mentioned maybe wanting to play with him at the level (don't look too much into this, Stidham and Newsome said the same thing, and Newsome isn't coming to Tech). He is currently committed to LSU and has been since early July, around the time of The Opening. However, that hasn't stopped school some recruiting Lewis, who is a soft commit according to Scout. He was orginally committed to the Tigers in early 2014, but decommitted to Feburary before committing again in July. He stated his only official visit would be to LSU, but  In this Scout article, it says that Lewis made a visit to Ole Miss this past weekend and will be visiting Arkansas in a few weeks. There is no planned visit in two weeks though, so maybe the Red Raider and squeeze in a visit for Xavier Lewis. Texas Tech doesn't have an DB yet this class, and with the departure of Keys and the injury to Wilson, Tech may want a couple more bodies this recruiting class. Now let's take a look at what Xavier Lewis can do. There isn't a whole lot of film on Xavier Lewis is coverage, but there are two great plays made in The Opening. On one play, he dives back and intercepts a ball from the QB. On another play, he knocks down a TD pass. Good showing for Xavier Lewis. Two things I like the most about Lewis is his explosiveness and ability to make the big hit. Despite his "4.73" 40 time, he can accelerate quickly and burn anybody trying to catch him. He moves his feet quickly and cut up field when he needs too. This also helps him law ferocious hits on the defender, causing them to go flying backwards. Not sure if Tech will be able to reel him in, but maybe we can convince him to visit Tech for the OU game and chance his decision once again.

Here are some more updates:

Football 2015:

• Tyron Johnson, 97 rated WR, will taking another visit to Texas Tech this season. He also mentioned he will visit Oregon at some point. He was going to name a Top 5, but wasn't sure whom all the team were going to be.
• Carlos Strickland, 90 rated WR, committed to Texas Tech on Tuesday. He decided to shut down his recruitment just a few days after his visit to TCU for their victory over Tech. He became the 1st True WR commit, 5th Blue Chip commit and 12th commit overall.
• Terrence Steele, NR OT, committed to Texas Tech after his visit this weekend. He is from the same school as Justin Stockton and Coach Mike Jinks. He becomes the 5th O-linemen commit and 13th overall
• Joseph "JoJo" Wicker, 94 rated DT, visited Texas Tech this past weekend and named Texas Tech in his top five. He also has plans to visit UCLA, Arizona State, OU and Norte Dame.
• Fred Ulu Perry, 95 rated C, is hoping to take his official visit to Texas Tech for the OU game despite being committed to UCLA. This is his only official visit so far.
• Justin Reid, 93 rated S, visited the Red Raiders this past weekend. No word on how he felt about the game, but I bet he had a good time.
• Kahlil Haughton, 92 rated S, decided to visit Texas Tech for the OU game instead of the UT game last weekend. He switched it because his father could make it to the Baylor game this weekend.
• DeDe Westbrook, 89 rated JUCO WR, named Texas Tech his favorite this past week. He will visit Texas Tech on December 5th.
• Darrion Daniels, 88 rated DT, visited Texas Tech this weekend and seemed to enjoy himself. They showed him on the big screen at one point and it looked like he was having a blast.
• KeKe Coutee, 87 rated ATH, was also at the game this weekend. I didn't spot him at all, but with the atmosphere and everything, I would be surprised if he didn't have a good time.
• Darrell Stewart, 87 rated ATH, also attended the Texas Tech game this weekend. RedRaiderSports reported this last Friday. He is currently committed to Boise State
• Arthur McGinnis, 86 rated OLB, will be visiting Texas Tech in the near future. He mentioned to Stidham via Twitter that he was going to and had said so before. One train of thought is that he could visit with teammate Tyron Johnson. He also mentioned his Top 5 was coming soon.
• Quan Shorts, 85 rated WR, was offered by Texas Tech this past week. He currently is committed to UTSA and visited A&M this past weekend.
• Vaimoe Sekona, 86 rated DT, committed to Oklahoma State this past Monday. He was going to visit Tech this past weekend, but decided he wanted to commit to OKST and didn't visit.
• Damion Ratley, 82 rated JUCO WR, really seemed to enjoy his visit this weekend. He also plans to visit Kentucky in December. Don't be surprised if he commits sometime soon.
• Chris Biggurs, 82 rated DE, unofficially visited Texas Tech this past weekend. According to this Scout interview, he didn't get a chance to sit and talk with the coaches and didn't get offered, but is still on their board. He has no other visits planned so far.

Football 2016+:

• Collin Wilder, 86 rated S commit, visited Texas Tech again this weekend. He also came with teammates Paddy Fisher and Travis Whillock.
• Devin Duvernay, 95 rated 2016 WR, was at the Texas Tech game this past weekend. I saw him on the sideline with his brother Donovan talking to Kingsbury during stretch drills.
• Zach Hall, NR 2016 ATH, received his first offer from Texas Tech last Monday. He also is getting interest from OU, Baylor and Iowa State.
• Damion Alloway, 94 rated 2016 RB, is receiving major interest from Texas Tech according to Adam Gorney from Rivals. He currently has 3 offers fomr Cal, UCLA and Washington.
• Baron Browning, 95 rated 2017 ILB, received his 4th offer from Texas Tech this past week. He also has offers from Arkansas, Baylor and Oklahoma State. He has taken unofficial visits to Baylor and TCU according to 247sports.
• Jeffery Okudah, NR 2017 ATH, unofficially visited Texas Tech this past weekend. His only offer currently is from Oregon State, with Baylor, Texas and TCU pursuing him.
• Caesar Williams, NR 2016 DB, also unofficially visited Texas Tech with Jeffery Okudah. He currently does not have any offers.
• Mike Williams, 91 rated DT, will be visiting Texas Tech in a few weeks, likely for the OU game. He has been reeling in offers as of late.

Basketball 2016+:

• Damon Harge Jr., NR 2018 PG, was offered by Texas Tech this past week. Joe Esposito spent last week in Orlando recruiting for Texas Tech. Recruiting never stops.
• Troy Baxter, 91 rated 2016 PF, received an offer from Texas Tech this week. Tech has offered mostly PG's so far, so it's nice to see a big man offered.
• Cameron McGriff, 90 rated 2016 SF, received an offer from Texas Tech this past Friday according to David Schneider of ShowTimeNation.

I didn't have time to put in the stats for the 2014 and 2015 commits, I did this late Sunday night (lot of homework to make up due to the Texas game). I'll update it if I have time on Monday