Recruiting on the South Plains: 2015 C/G Cody Wheeler Player Profile

Lose a commitment and gain a commitment, all in the span of a day or two.  Cody Wheeler's commitment makes the 2015 class at 16 after S Darreon Jackson decommitted earlier this week.  As mentioned below, Wheeler is a legacy commitment as both of his parents attended Texas Tech.  As to the two services that haven't rated Wheeler, I'd be patient with that as I would expect him to be a borderline three-star lineman by the time it is all said and done.  I think this is a perfect replacement for Jared Kaster when he graduates at the end of the 2015 season.

OFFENSIVE LINE
CODY WHEELER	CENTER/GUARD
HT/WT: 6-4/305 FORTY: 5.52 HIGH SCHOOL: Allen (Allen, TX) VIDEO: Hudl RECRUITING SERVICES: Rivals N/R | Scout | ESPN N/R | 24/7 Sports 78 CUMULATIVE RANKING: 0.7733 VTM PROFILE DATE: January 21, 2015 OFFERS: Colorado State, Fresno State, Lafayette, New Mexico, Sam Houston State, Texas Tech

THE PLAYER SPEAKS: Wheeler spoke with the DMN about why he flipped to Texas Tech from his initial commitment to North Texas, and it's pretty simple:

"My parents met each other at Tech and got married," Wheeler said. "I was born a Red Raider and always wanted to go there. That’s the dream."

WALSH ANALYSIS: This is new and we'll see how this goes. I've been enamored with Bill Walsh for the last few months and it was my hope and/or wish to try to do this with each 2015 commitment, but I just don't think I have enough time. In 1997 Bill Walsh did an evaluation of each position and I took key words and/or phrases from those position evaluations and I thought that this would help me focus on particular traits that have been important to these positions for at least a decade or two, probably more.  Every position has a different table and I'll be releasing those as players commit.  Should be fun (at least for me).  This is a work in progress for me, so hopefully I can refine this to something that will be some good topics of conversation moving forward.

I'm going to review Wheeler as a center, since that's most of his film and given his size limitations, that may be the best spot for him because height and size aren't as big of problems than on the edge.  The good thing here, and some of this is really tough to do with limited film and just highlights, not game tape, is that Wheeler was the center for his junior and senior years, which may give an indication that he he does have command of the line otherwise I think they would have found a suitable replacement. This is the toughest thing to judge. I think that Wheeler's ability to block the nose guard, which frees up the guards to make other blocks. I think that this is Wheeler's weakest part of his game, but that's because he's not blocking a ton of 320 nose guards in high school. There are a couple of plays where he is able to do that, but not a ton. Still, you can expect that at 300 pounds that Wheeler will continue to make improvements and I think this will be an area where he can improve. You don't think that 6-4 is small, but in reading Walsh, he very much values smaller offensive linemen who can move around in small space and I think that Wheeler does a good job of that. Wheeler has a wide base and his relative "shortness" may be the only position on the football field where that is a good thing.

Cody, welcome to Texas Tech and Git Your Guns Up!