Recruiting on the High Plains :: We'll Vote on a Meme Some Day
by Seth C on Feb 1, 2010 6:38 AM CST
in Texas Tech Recruiting
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Time Off: I essentially took the entire weekend off, which means that I've written very little over the past 48 hours. In fact, I had a family dinner on Saturday night and I haven't even watched the game, which means that at some point, I'll try to get to some post game thoughts this week on the basketball team since they do not play again until Saturday. This week is going to be a busy week with National Signing Day on Wednesday and the Recruiting Review Dinner on Thursday evening.
Bennie Wylie = Strength and Conditioning God: This weekend, strength and conditioning coach Bennie Wylie was hired by Tennessee in the same position, and there's been a lot of hand-wringing over the whole thing. I get that's what we do around here, but I'm still not sure about all of the details about the situation, so I'm reserving some judgment about how all of this played out. Wylie could have been offered the job full-time (not being released to the public), but decided that he wanted to take what he felt like was a better job. Wylie could have been told by Tuberville that he has 6 months to find new employment, the sooner the better. You get where I'm going here, but ultimately, right now, we really don't know. All we know is that Texas Tech lost a coach that seemed to make players better.
As far as making the claim about how Wylie is one of the best in the country, I have no idea how someone like myself could ever quantify or back that sort of statement up. That's not to diminish what Wylie did for the players here at Texas Tech, but it just seems that right now, DTN is leading the Big 12 in knee-jerk reactions. For example, Arkansas QB/OLB Joe Carmical commits to Texas Tech and ESPN and Scout didn't even have a profile or a grade on him. There were huge question marks forming above a large contingency of DTN faithful as Tuberville has given a scholarship to a player that hadn't even been rated by a recruiting service. OMG! WTF! Then this weekend I found some YouTube video on Carmical and son of a gun, that kid looks like he can play.
Again, I understand that Wylie was incredibly important to the improvement of the Texas Tech program, but there seems to be quite a bit of blame on Tuberville, which may be unwarranted, and the new strength and conditioning coach may be better than Wylie (he could also be the same or worse, etc.). I keep thinking if the East Carolina Pirates or Tennessee Volunteers are having the same discussions (i.e., "How could Ruffin replace Coach X, because Coach X was vital to the program? Who the hell is this Lincoln Riley and he's too young to coordinate an offense"; or "How could Coach Dooley replace the strength and conditioning Coach Y? Coach Y was the best and the best we could do is hire the strength and conditioning coach from Texas Tech?" - although I recognize that Kiffin could have taken the strength and conditioning coach with him to USC.).
The 2010 Class is Falling Apart, Who Do We Blame: Lots of discussion yesterday about how Tuberville has or has not done a good enough job in the current class. There was talk about how the current class has dropped from 24th in the country to 34th. Again . . . OMG! WTF! What the hell is Tuberville doing or not doing? And yes, I've seen this article (I've modified the link to be a "no follow" link) and I've now added the Examiner to the list of websites that I hate, joining the Bleacher Report.
If I'm going to assess blame on anyone, it's going to be the administration for putting the football program in this situation. My ire is till there. I'm not a recruiting expert, so I don't have a clue if Tuberville is doing a good job or a bad job. For me, I'm willing to give him more than three weeks to try to keep a group of 18 year old high school players all on the same page. Personally, I give Tuberville a pass for the 2010 class. Neither a pass or a fail. It's a tough situation and I think he's done a pretty good job of keeping most of the 4-star players on board.
As far as the 2011 recruiting class? The gloves will come off!
It's really fun being knee-jerk reaction blogger so that I'll get a ton of hits and I'll have all sorts of hot-sports-opinions and controversial comments, but that's just not who I am.
Porter Re-Affirms: One of the reasons why Texas Tech dropped from 24th to 34th was the possible de-commitment of DB Tre'Vante Porter. Last night, per NewsOK's Ryan Aber Porter re-affirmed his commitment to Texas Tech (hat-tip to RaiderGrad for the FanShot). Porter is a 4-star player from Oklahoma and I'd imagine that once Rivals has the time to update their rankings, this should have some affect.
Three New Commitments: Tuberville is doing his best to stay busy before National Signing Day with three new commitments over the weekend. To remind everyone, here's a list of the recent de-commits:
De-Commits:
RB Aaron Spikes
OL Denton Simek
DE Kedrick Dial
LB Fred Harvey
OL Javious Townsend
Keep in mind that these de-commitments may be the player and it may be the coaching staff. Sometimes the feeling may be mutual.
In any event, the new commitments are as follows: Houston, TX area DL Mike Jones, Miami, FL DB Phillip Warren and Miami, FL WR Lavaughn Whigham. Again, none of these guys are highly rated, but then again, everyone's highlight reel looks great because I have the size of Wes Welker, but the speed of Louis Vasquez. And yes, their offer lists don't seem impressive, but neither was Carmical's list of offered schools and he seems like he's a pretty good player.
Please note that I've added a YouTube link to all three players under the position and you can let me know if there are other clips that I've missed in the comments.
Mike Jones
Position: DT
YouTube: Clip 1
Rivals Profile
Scout Profile
ESPN Profile 40
Ht: 6'3"
Wt: 260 lbs
Forty: 4.92
High School: Kempner (Sugar Land, TX)
Phillip Warren
Position: CB
YouTube: Clip 1
Rivals Profile
Scout Profile
ESPN Profile N/A
Ht: 5'9"
Wt: 177 lbs
Forty: 4.38
High School: Southridge (Miami, FL)
Lavaughn Whigham
Position: WR
YouTube: Clip 1
Rivals Profile
Scout Profile
ESPN Profile 40 Grade
Ht: 6'1"
Wt: 175 lbs
Forty: 4.58
High School: Southridge (Miami, FL)
Miscellaneous Links: I'm sure that I need to give some credit to some DTN readers for some of these links, maybe jeffinhouston, but I'm running out of time, so give yourself some props in the comments . . . the teaser on this Scout.com story says that OL commit James Polk will make a final decision on Tuesday, but keep in mind that Matt Moore was the one recruiting Polk and Moore has been retained. Polk, I think, is deciding between Texas Tech and Kansas . . . per Salt Lake Tribune's Lya Wodraska the California RB Lucky Radley has narrowed his list of schools to Utah, Texas Tech and North Carolina:
"They play in one of the best conferences in the country, the facilities are great, the coaches are great and it's just a cool college town," he said. "The stadium is big and the academics are superb. Everything is nice."
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Agreed
Way to early to assess anything about Tubs’s recruiting job so far. Any coaching transition anywhere is bound to disrupt recruiting efforts. New coaches reevaluate current candidates. Current candidates reevaluate new coaches. What else should we expect?
Just my opinion..
No hand wringing = no DTN
Having said that…. All recruiting analyses are major SWAG’s.
" I crammed 4 years of Tech into 5"- me
by oldschoolraider on Feb 1, 2010 7:19 AM CST via mobile reply actions
Agreed- the hand wringers balance things
Without the hand wringers, several of the more “optimistic” DTNers would have already started production on the movie: Tommy: We Finally Got Our Mack Brown!
"This year's team could beat last year's team's ass."
-Mike Leach
by San Antonio Red Raider on Feb 1, 2010 8:49 AM CST up reply actions
Yeah, I don't think its too far fetched
to suggest that we are reaching when a kids other offers are La Tech or ULALA and Marshall. I knew MIke had talent, really knowing his system and recruiting for it. I hope TT is as deft. I love the fact that Tech does more with less…..I think that attitude permeates through the alum and all things being equal I would hire a Tech grad than others.
" I crammed 4 years of Tech into 5"- me
by oldschoolraider on Feb 1, 2010 3:25 PM CST up reply actions
" I love the fact that Tech does more with less"
Then are you suggesting that we are establishing a position to do morer with lesser ??? ;-)
Sometimes a river boat can out run a pirate ship.
When we get Mack Brown
You’ll find me hanging from the nearest tree (with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head for good measure).
"I’ve established a reputation for integrity. I have maintained those high standards" - Craig James
Make sure and put 2 shells in there for me....
" Answers -- Become Resources."
Without Questions; There are limited Resources...
Lots of speed....
one thing about the new guys TT is trying to get, they can run. And if there in one thing you can’t teach it’s speed, either you have it or not. It appears to me that he thinks he can coach these players up with their speed. Given the circumstances I think TT has beat the bushes well and if Lucky would come to TTech that would be a great addition! Wreck’Em Tech
6'1" that runs a 4.5....
I sure like having db’s that are over 6’ and run well….has some great highlights and I know they are his best but TT thinks he can coach them on D. I like it! Wreck’Em Tech
Seth got me hooked on the list of the 50 Most Loathsome People in College Football. Today’s list covers #20 through 11. My favorite is #15 – none other than our very own Kent Hance. LOVE his sentence!!
Glad to see Deion Sanders on the list, too
"I’ve established a reputation for integrity. I have maintained those high standards" - Craig James
Where is Craig James on this list...
" I crammed 4 years of Tech into 5"- me
by oldschoolraider on Feb 1, 2010 3:27 PM CST up reply actions
Tubbs has done a great job...
So far on recruiting, with the fallout of what happened he would have been lucky to retain half of the recruits! I truly believe that the guys that de-committed simply knew they would not fit in this new scheme. And then you look at how Tubbs is bringing in new recruits on top of ones he retained, Id say the man has done a spectacular job. This article seemed awfully hard on him on the recruiting front. Lets not forget that some of these guys we’ve been bringing in the past few years have had some “me me me” attitudes, or bad attitudes all together (Hawk/James for example). Perhaps some of these kids knew there was a new sheriff in town, and decided to bolt. If that was the case we would probably be better off. I am liking the talent Tubbs is looking to reign in, I say we give him a fair shot here!
Besides who the hell cares about class rankings?? Are you kidding me? aTm has had one of the top classes for years and years and where has it gotten them? ONE Von Miller… Come on man, we all know these rankings mean squat, as long as the recruits fit his system I don’t care if we are 100th.
agree to a certain extent....
…about atm. But you have to factor idiot coaches into the equation, too.
"I’ve established a reputation for integrity. I have maintained those high standards" - Craig James
+1
Coach Tuberville has enough moxey to know this class will influence how well they can do in 2011 thru 2013/14.(assuming 1- or 2 redshirt) It’s a fair bet they will offer scholarships and preferred walk on positions with a fair degree of professionalism .
"do routine things routinely"
agree
we have a great class coming in and probably Tech’s best. Next year’s class will be even better. I think a job well done keeping it together for the most part.
"You've got to find your inner pirate" - Mike Leach
Seth gets double A++ for writing reasonable thoughts this a.m.
Bennie Wylies: I’m reserving some judgment about how all of this played out. A couple of reporters writes some words, some people take it as gospel and go off, I am not willing to trust the speculations and rants of other people when I know there more to any story than that which is written.
If I’m going to assess blame on anyone This comment is but an opportunity for me regarding recruiting position. The current wisdom on DTN seems to be either it is his fault or it is their fault….when no one knows the details…in this case, the following is kind of what I am thinking: My memory of the rankings of TTU’s recruiting is that there is an almost traditional fall in rankings as the recruiting season comes to climax.
TTU has been one of the schools that has been pretty quick out of the blocks with both numbers and decent rankings. That will automatically put a program higher in the ranking. Then as other programs have recruited with higher ranked players and their number of players approaches 25, they pass TTU. There are even a number of cases in which a team with less number of players and equivalent stars finished ranked ahead of TTU.
I have stated that I would be surprised at any player who left TTU, and I am. That is me, thinking TTU is a very good place to be, it is equally true that every player has to make a decision based on what ever. For those who have chosen to leave there is probably a different reason in every case. For examply, Harvey left because he was too far away from home, that is a good reason, and I am glad that he saw it sooner rather than later. He stated that he was depending on Coach McNeill helping him, we will never know whether the help that was being offered by Coach would have been sufficient.
And I rely on a comment that I remember from Coach Leach, he said something to the effect that we want players who want to be at TTU. I think that is more about guys who come in commited and remain commited because they are self driven to be good football players and want to do that at TTU.
Finally, LOL, the two guys from Florida’s Southridge HS do display speed !!! I got bored watching kick returns…
Sometimes a river boat can out run a pirate ship.
Nice Tallmike
I am ready to move on. When is the spring game? The suspense is killing me.
"do routine things routinely"
Big Ben
TTU has suffered a major loss when Bennie Wylie decided to take the Tenessee job. No one, I mean No one willever outwork that man. Bennie was Texas Tech, a great father, and more of a mentor to these atheletes that one could ever imagine. Total BS when he was proferred his postion with 6 months to prove his worth. A good strength and condition coach is invaluable, Bennie was priceless, and Tennessee stole a bargain. I wish the best to Bennie, his wife and 2 children. Thanks again Craig James for the homewrecking, just another house for sale in Lubbock to you, but a major loss to the program. Bennie will be sorley missed. Thank You Bennie Wylie for taking great care of my young man, he grew leaps and bounds because of your tuteledge.
Duane Howard
Kinda summarizes what the overall feeling
was about him….from a first hand account. Hey new guy, you have big shoes to fill. Get ’er done.
" I crammed 4 years of Tech into 5"- me
by oldschoolraider on Feb 1, 2010 3:29 PM CST up reply actions
Thanks Duane!
I knew somebody appreciated Wylie. I was sure Daniel was one of those guys.
" Answers -- Become Resources."
Without Questions; There are limited Resources...
Recruiting services are there to SELL...
Reality check: Bigger fan bases have more fans willing to subscribe to recruiting services. This influences the ratings of recruiting services.
When was TCU’s last top ten recruiting class? And how many top ten A@M classes have accomplished next to nothing by graduation?
I too am sorry to see some of our good guys go. But so fat Tubbs has brought in the top guys at every coaching level.
I don’t know what makes you say that it is “falling apart”.IMO I think we have lost a few but the mold is still there to remain a good class.i am waiting until all are signed.we just might pick up some surprises.
no kidding
I agree. “Falling apart” is a resulting in one of our best classes ever.
"You've got to find your inner pirate" - Mike Leach
if you think the examiner had some bad work, check this link out
I know, it’s an aggie, but he seems even more of a dolt than most
Typical
Those clowns will write anything negative under the sun about Tech. They have a losing season at 6-7 and they think they’re back because they beat Tech. They did recruit well but lets see who does a better job of coaching players up.
"You've got to find your inner pirate" - Mike Leach
I'll starting listening to those guys
when we stop owning them. One win doesn’t mean the donination is over.
"I’ve established a reputation for integrity. I have maintained those high standards" - Craig James
I guess Auburn’s s and c coach we hire will suck a$$. Worst time in history to be a Tech fan. sarcfontallcaps
by Tech92 on Feb 1, 2010 12:47 PM CST via mobile reply actions
lighten up francis
" I crammed 4 years of Tech into 5"- me
by oldschoolraider on Feb 1, 2010 3:31 PM CST up reply actions
LOL
I got that one
"I’ve established a reputation for integrity. I have maintained those high standards" - Craig James
I did too. Sorry for the attitude lately. Just way tired of the whining that seems to be in mass volume here. Too many folks base their life happiness on a football team/coach, or so it seems. Love passion. Obsession is creepy and probably a tad unhealthy : )
by Tech92 on Feb 1, 2010 6:53 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
Wow!
Is that kinda like when folks base their happiness on what a bunch of guys post on a football blog? You’re right- it might be a little unhealthy to let it start impacting your attitude.
This whole thing is an escape from the real world for a few minutes at a time. So what if not everyone agrees on DTN? Don’t let it get you down. Besides, we only have a few more years before the government takes over college football and equalizes the playing field. Hang in there.
"This year's team could beat last year's team's ass."
-Mike Leach
by San Antonio Red Raider on Feb 1, 2010 9:12 PM CST up reply actions
Polk back in fold
According to http://www.texastech.rivals.com/ James Polk has reaffirmed his commitment to Tech.
by natkcole on Feb 1, 2010 1:58 PM CST via mobile reply actions
Seth...
if you have Louis Vasquez speed I’m impressed. I know for a fact he ran a consistent 4.8 to 4.9 40 in HS haha.
Recruiting on the High Plains
Tuberville appears to be stabilizing the troops. The Stooges are lucky that he volunteered for the job in this regard. They deserve none of the credit. Tuberville is obviously a hard workin’ son of a gun. My sole disappointment is that he didn’t retain more vestiges of the Air Raid coaching staff, namely Riley. I still think the Head Stooge told Tuberville he couldn’t do so, but we will never know. Not intended as a slight on Coach Brown. But, Tech doesn’t play Troy’s schedule. (Even though they do play Weber State). I have been re-watching the Alamo Bowl recently. The TTU offense was amazing in their ability to move the ball. This had to be due to Cumbie and Riley. To me, it’s a no-brainer to keep them around. I guess time will tell on the Riley decision…
by Oklahoma Red Raider on Feb 1, 2010 4:26 PM CST reply actions
Just so long as we don't look like this
"I’ve established a reputation for integrity. I have maintained those high standards" - Craig James
AMEN....pretty funny
" I crammed 4 years of Tech into 5"- me
by oldschoolraider on Feb 1, 2010 6:23 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
I see Kent Hance
Second from the right. Looking all high and mighty.
Recruiting stars or lack thereof... An interesting thought occurred to me...
The star rating system seems to be heavily influenced by what schools are recruiting a kid…
So when it’s public that these guys are being recruited by Texas Tech, maybe they get more stars….!!!
Can you imagine that?
Actually, if you think back… this has already happened…
We signed a few guys who didn’t have high stars and hadn’t drawn much attention (some not rated yet)…
And a while after we signed them, they seem to have increased stars…!
OMG WTF
We’ve fallen three more spots since this morning. #37 Oh, woe is me!!!
"I’ve established a reputation for integrity. I have maintained those high standards" - Craig James
Yes - At this rate of falling class ranking
Tech won’t be able to field a competitive Division 1 football team in a couple of years. They should then consider closing the program down to avoid embarrassment. The Jones probably could be used for something more productive, such as lacrosse or women’s field hockey.
by jeffinhouston on Feb 1, 2010 9:38 PM CST up reply actions
Whigam
Must have academic issues. All the Florida schools fail to notice a kid from a traditional powerhouse with that kind of ability? There must be more than meets the eye.
by miketag on Feb 2, 2010 9:17 AM CST via mobile reply actions
I'm sneaking in here at work
but there hasn’t been anything mentioned about him being a grade risk and it seems that if either were grade risks that Tuberville wouldn’t have made such an effort to get them committed so late in the game, I could be wrong, but that wouldn’t seem to make sense for TT to expense either of these Florida players if they weren’t going to qualify. I can’t figure it out either, it doesn’t make sense that a guy that’s this fast is off the radar of so many teams.
Go Raiders . . .
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