Top storylines from the first day of the early signing period

There were many interesting things that happened yesterday on the first and most action-packed day of the early signing period. Here are some of the big headlines from the first day of early signing day yesterday:

11 Sign

There were indications from Coach Wells that the number would be somewhere between 13 and 15 earlier in the week but the number of recruits signed yesterday ended up being 11. We did have a couple of recruits get cold feet, but we’ll talk about that in a bit. This number is not a surprise to me and here’s why: This is a new staff, and new staff often don’t get too many of the old staff’s recruits, which is why 11 is a good number in my eyes.

Surprise transfer

There were a couple of surprises from yesterday but one of the big ones is that Wells’ staff landed a huge transfer in Mclane Mannix, a slot receiver and return man originally from the Midland area.

Mannix has transferred from the University of Nevada where he caught 107 passes for 1653 yards in two seasons with the Wolfpack. I believe he fits in very well as a slot receiver for Coach Wells at 5’9.

Guys that didn’t sign

There are four guys that are or were committed to Tech that didn’t sign yesterday. Here they are below:

Velton Gardner:

Like I said in this article yesterday, I didn’t know if Gardner was going to sign yesterday with the program and he didn’t. I believe he will decommit and flip to either Houston or Kansas as those are the two other schools that seem to be courting him at this moment.

Tony Bradford Jr.:

I’m not actually surprised or worried about this guy as his team, North Shore High School in Houston, is about to play in the state championship game this weekend in Arlington, Texas. I don’t think there is anything to be worried about here, I honestly think he’s focusing on the big game this week and that is a good sign for all Red Raider fans out there.

Cooper Laake:

Laake has officially decommitted from Texas Tech, according to a Twitter post early this morning.

Alan Orona:

This one I have no clue about. He might be rethinking his commitment due to the coaching change like others on this list have, but if he is, we have no knowledge, we just know he didn’t sign yesterday.