Welcome to the Early Signing Period: Everything you need to know about the Red Raiders making it official this week

Welcome to the Early Signing Period! This is the week where committed football recruits can sign their official letters of intent and potentially even announce if they will be stepping on campus as early as January. If you have any more questions about what signing day is or how it affects a program, click here to see an article we posted about that a couple weeks back. Now, let’s get into the good stuff.

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There are currently 15 commits for Coach Wells so far this off-season, most of them coming over from the previous staff. There are a couple of guys like Travis “Iceman” Koontz that committed just recently and there could be a couple more guys that might join that class today.

Parker was originally committed to Kingsbury and his staff but decommitted once it was announced the defense would be moving into a 3-3-5 instead of a 4-2-5. This changes a ton of how defensive lineman play, especially weak-side defensive ends who rush the passer a ton. Rumor has it that Parker still might come to Tech and that it is down to Texas Tech and TCU for his services come next season. No one is sure when he will make a decision, but I believe he will make it later in the recruiting process as his recruitment has been open for only a short while.

We can already confirm via the Texas Tech Football Twitter page that the following guys have signed their letter of intent:

Landon Peterson - 6’6 OL

Tryique Matthews - 5’11 LB

Bryce Robinson - 6’0 LB

Alex Hogan - 5’11 DB

Trevor Roberson - 7’0 OL

Simon Gonzalez - 6’4 TE/ H-Back

Trey Cleveland - 6’4 WR

Cameron Cantrell - 6’1 WR

This page will be updated as new information rolls in.

Storylines to watch today:

Velton Gardner

We honestly haven’t heard much out of Gardner since he committed except that on his Twitter page, he posts about new offers he gets from other schools, including one yesterday from former Texas Tech Recievers coach Emmett Jones at Kansas. I believe there is a good chance Gardner will flip his commitment and sign with either Kansas or Houston sometime in the near future. I could be completely wrong about this and hope I am, but this is at least something to keep an eye on.

Could Steven Parker recommit?

Parker was originally committed to Kingsbury and his staff but decommitted once it was announced the defense would be moving into a 3-3-5 instead of a 4-2-5. This changes a ton of how defensive lineman play, especially weak-side defensive ends who rush the passer a ton. Rumor has it that Parker still might come to Tech and that it is down to Texas Tech and TCU for his services come next season. No one is sure when he will make a decision, but I believe he will make it later in the recruiting process as his recruitment has been open for only a short while.

Can Wells lure anyone here?

Coach Wells has done an excellent job so far of getting a couple of his own recruits from Utah State to commit to Tech recently, as TE Travis “Iceman” Koontz is in that group. I wonder if any of the other JUCO guys he’e been talking to will commit and sign this week as well. This is more likely to happen in the later signing period in February, but it is something to monitor starting now.