Red Raider Gridiron: Commits in High School All-Star Games; Gilmore Honored

Gearing Up for High School All-Star Games. Without a bowl game, we get to pay a bit more attention to some of the high school commits and targets that are playing in some of the high school all-star games.  I don't like having to type that sentence, but I just did.

* WR Tyron Johnson is playing in the Under Armour All-American Game and has LSU, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State as his favorites, and is to announced his decision at the game, which is January 2nd.  The heavy favorite is LSU, and I think it is by a pretty good margin.  It would be happy times and a total upset if Texas Tech were able to secure his commitment.

* WR Carlos Strickland is playing in the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl, which is played on January 4th in Carson, California.  In the link, it's thought that Strickland could compete for the top prospect category, which is I think like the top performer during the camp.

* DL Breiden Fehoko is also playing in the Under Armour All-American game and is on the same team as former Texas Tech commit Jarrett Stidham.  If you listened to Fehoko on Double-T 104.3, you'll be impressed with how professional Fehoko said he'll be regarding the situation.  Fehoko sounds like he is as mature as the day is long.

Gilmore Honored. I'm pretty sure that my sleeper for the 2015 class is going to be Spring's Lonzell Gilmore, a defensive end that simply produced on a high level for two years at Spring.  I linked to an article yesterday that was behind a paywall. Anyway, Gilmore was named as his 6A district's defensive MVP.

Trickett Retires. This is a sad note, but I guess it is actually a good thing in that West Virginia's Clint Trickett has retired from the game after suffering 5 concussions in the past 14 months and he decided to start his coaching career rather than play in a bowl game.  Congrats to Trickett for making that decision.  Can't be easy, but I really applaud Trickett for making that decision.

Holgorsen, Kingsbury and Spivital. This really isn't something that deserves anything more than a mention, but TAMU head coach Kevin Sumlin was asked about the time Dana Holgorsen, Kliff Kingsbury and Jake Spivital were all living in Houston together, in the same apartment with no furniture and just some mattresses on the floor:

"At one time they all lived together in Midtown," said Sumlin, whose 7-5 Aggies will face Holgorsen's 7-5 Mountaineers at 1 p.m. Monday in the Liberty Bowl. "I don't think there was any furniture in there, just beds on the floor. And anybody who knows Midtown knows it's got a lot of nice restaurants that stay open late, I'll put it that way."

In 2009, Holgorsen served as Sumlin's offensive coordinator. Kingsbury, a former Tech star quarterback and backup to Tom Brady with the Patriots, was Holgorsen's vaguely dubbed "quality control" coach. But he was still throwing in practice with the notion of catching on with another NFL squad.

Spavital was a step below Kingsbury as a graduate assistant. The trio also had something in common with their boss: Sharp offensive minds that would soon push them to prominence at other programs. The 2009 Cougars offense led the nation in total offense, scoring offense and passing offense.