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Buy the Hype: Derrick Willies

By ryankravik
Matthew Holst/Getty Images

Pardon me while I put on my Jim Cramer "Mad Money" mask for a second…buy, buy, buy, Derrick Willies.

If you want a safe investment that has the potential for a big return, you will bet on this man. I don’t know who or why or what you are going to bet, but just do it.

Willies is a four-star junior wide receiver transfer from Trinity Valley Community College. He spent his freshman season at the University of Iowa and recorded only four catches in five games for the Hawkeyes. The reasons for his departure are murky from Iowa City, but he ended up at TVCC last year, catching 49 passes while scoring 14 touchdowns in 10 games.

I am not an avid follower of Texas Tech’s recruiting. In fact, I don’t follow the recruiting of any team. I have a strong disdain for the entire process, from fans of all teams everywhere tweeting/retweeting recruits begging and pleading to come to their school because it is the best school ever, to recruits themselves making the #Top10 followed by #Top8 followed by #Top6 and so on and so forth of their top schools. But that’s another topic for another day.

That feeds into my point about Willies. I heard about this freak-of-nature receiver that was one of the top rated JUCO WR’s in the country but I’m always skeptical about Tech and their ability to recruit top JUCO talent (See Scott Smith, Rika Levi, Derek Edwards, etc.) Willies was still off my radar for Things I’m Worried About for Texas Tech Football. And then this happened:

Seriously? How many guys can do THAT? When was the last time Tech had a wide receiver with a combination of height and jumping ability like THAT? Crabtree? Darrin Moore? Maybe the list for wide receivers who can jump up five feet with a ten pound weight on their back is longer than we think, but Tech certainly has not had that type of physical freak nature at the wide receiver position in a long time.

Then to the scrimmage this past Saturday. Willies was targeted some and had a few catches. One of the biggest things I took away from it was that he was playing with the 1A offense and.

During the second half of the scrimmage, the vibe from the game was a little bit more lax, some of the starters had taken off their shoulder pads as they were done for the day, and then in turn this happens…

This was a great pass by Jett Duffey. Wonderfully placed, wanted Willies to go and make a play on it. Which he did. A helluva play. And followed it up with the most casual dunking over the goalpost I have ever seen and brought the thing down. He brought it down! Send it in Jerome!

Many of you will see this and think Willies needs to get his head on straight and not be doing idiot-like plays that get Tech a 15-yard penalty. Let’s check some facts first:

1) Willies is still trying to make his mark on this team

2) It was a freaking Spring Scrimmage

3) Willies won’t be doing that during the season

This was simply a play and celebration where Willies was asserting himself into the minds of Tech-folk and saying "I’m here, let’s do this." I am really excited to see this guy scoring touchdowns in the Jones in the fall, and you should be too.

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