Recruiting on the High Plains :: LB Blake Dees

Last week, Blake Dees, a linebacker from Spanish Fort, Alabama, was Texas Tech's 9th commitment of this very young recruiting year.   As usual, I've found as much as I could on Dees.  For some, this is a questionable commitment, but as I mention below, this is a relatively small class and Willis purposely reached out to Dees, especially when there are plenty of linebackers still uncommitted.

The Measurables:

Blake Dees
Position: LB
DTN Profile
Video: Clip 1
Rivals Profile 5.5
Scout Profile
ESPN Profile 73
Ht: 6'0"
Wt: 234 lbs
Forty: 4.90
High School: Spanish Fort (Spanish Fort, AL)

The Player Speaks:  The only article I've found is the one I linked earlier, AL.com's Josh Bean and the only comment from Dees is this:

"The coaches mainly, I liked all of the coaches and I liked how everything was set up around the town," Dees told RedRaidersSports.com. "I liked the campus a lot, but it was mainly the coaches that brought me here that I liked the most."

Video:

Scouting Report:  The one thing that jumps out at me is that he's at multiple positions and he seems to do a pretty good job at each of those positions.  When playing inside linebacker, he does a good job of stuffing the run.  When playing defensive end he is very adept at shedding the blocker and getting to the ball-carrier.  When having to cover a slot receiver, he's obviously at a disadvantage, but he does a pretty good job of keeping his man in front of him.  As many of you have mentioned, it's a questionable commit.  Dees stated that a big part of the reason he's committed is because of DC James Willis.  Willis sees something in Dees to offer a scholarship to him when there are limited scholarships available.  That tells me something.  The second item is that Dees isn't offered by many big-time colleges.  Of course, he's yet to play a snap in his senior year, so there's plenty of time for him to mature and I would have guessed that Dees probably would have gotten some looks by other schools.  I still go back to ILB Joe Carmical and wonder how in the hell an athlete like doesn't even get a sniff from a major university.

The 2011 Class:  I've added the requested rankings, but there's not much to those rankings at this point because both Rivals and ESPN haven't come out with their grades and Scout hasn't graded every player.  The "150" designation for the ESPN means that the player is graded, right now, as one of the top 150 players in the country.  Again, no actual grade, but it's a designation.  I'll update as we go along, but for what it's worth, here it is.

Blake, welcome to Texas Tech and Git Your Guns Up!