Texas Tech Player Eligibility Table: Linebackers

This will be a somewhat short series to catch everyone up on the current state of the eligibility remaining for each position group. We'll update these tables after National Signing Day.

Reason for Hope

The biggest reason why I wasn't all that worried Texas Tech not taking multiple linebackers in this class is that there's quite a bit of depth here with a combination of experience as well.  Don't get me wrong, Texas Tech graduated a couple of important seniors in Sam Eguavoen and V.J. Fehoko, but I think Texas Tech should be okay.  There are four players that have at least three years of eligibility remaining.  The other interesting thing is that there is a lot of youth here and we could see some guys like Dakota Allen and Mike Mitchell make huge impacts on the team this year.  I also really like how Texas Tech is utilizing Nunez, who is a walk-on (he has to be close to earning a scholarship) from a pass rush perspective.

Reason for Concern

The aforementioned youth could also be termed "inexperience" which usually means that there's going to be a learning curve.  That would include Allen and Mitchell. We really don't know what they can do.  We think we know what they can do and they have the pedigree, but we don't know if they can play.  It's certainly a question. There is also some question about guys like K. Williams, Woods, Atoe, Jenkins, Mack, etc.  That's a lot of bodies and like with the defensive line, would it benefit Atoe to redshirt this year and maybe the same thing for Ross?  I suppose it really depends how the defense will play out with the new defensive coordinator.  I'm also not 100% certain that Ross and Atoe have a redshirt year available, but I think they do. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

Prognosis for 2015

My prognosis is actually pretty good in that I am pretty confident that Mitchell and Allen can play and if they can't, there are options available.  And if that holds up, Mitchell and Allen being capable, then there's going to be lots of competition for lots of back-up playing time.  I'd also expect there to be a good number of linebackers in the 2016 class, but could certainly understand how Texas Tech has just one linebacker committed in D'Vonta Hinton for the 2015 class.