Recruiting on the High Plains :: 2010 LB Tahrick Peak

What?  How can we have a commit for the 2010 class when signing day was back in February?  Glad you asked and thanks to the readers of DTN, we have answers.  Let's get to it.

The Measurables: 

Tahrick Peak
Position: LB
Rivals Profile
Scout Profile
ESPN Profile 78 Grade
Ht: 6'3"
Wt: 210 lbs
Forty: 4.45
High School: Pulaski County Sr. (Dublin, VA)

More on why Tahrick will be at Texas Tech after the jump.

The Player Speaks:  Thanks to theta12, the recruit tracker at ESPN stated that Peak originally committed to play football at Virginia Tech, but his SAT scores, which met NCAA requirements, were still too low for the Hokies (despite having a GPA of 3.2 according to his video):

Texas Tech has made an addition to its Class of 2010 by signing three-star linebacker Tahrick Peak of Pulaski County (Dublin, Va.).

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Peak originally signed with Virginia Tech in February. He was recently informed that his SAT score, while meeting NCAA requirements, was too low for admission for the Hokies and released from his letter-of-intent.

Peak will be eligible to play for Texas Tech this upcoming season.

The downside of this is that this probably means that one of the other 2010 commits didn't make it academically.  We'll probably figure out who that is later in the summer, but for now, Peak will be eligible to play for Texas Tech in 2010.  He may be redshirted, but he won't have to sit out a year as a transfer.

Peak originally signed with Virginia Tech and even had an official profile page.  When Peak committed to the Hokies, his head coach talked about where he might play and putting on weight:

Peak (6 foot 3, 205 pounds) is being recruited by the Hokies as an inside linebacker. He had more than 100 tackles, solo and assisted, for the Cougars (12-1) last season.

Pulaski County might be tempted to use him on offense this season, but Peak had only two rushing attempts in 2008 and said he wants to focus on defense.

"He's got real long arms," Cougars coach Jack Turner said. "If you've got long arms, you're not going to be a great bench-presser, but he's really working hard in the weight room. I think he can put on a lot more weight. He can put on another 25 pounds and maintain his speed easy."

Peak says he can run 40 yards in 4.45 seconds.

Prior to Peak's senior season, he talked about how he emulated his game after former Virginia Tech linebacker, Xavier Adibi, who now plays for the Houston Texans, more about academics, and Tahrick switching to the inside linebacker spot his senior season:

Tahrick Peak was excited and nervous at the same time. The 2008 season was about to get underway, and he would be starting on defense for the first time.

But what if he wasn't big enough? Strong enough? Rugged enough?

All those questions dogged him in the preseason. He'd always been an outside linebacker before, but the coaches moved him inside to take advantage of his aggression.

"See, at outside linebacker, my biggest problem was if flow goes away from you, you have to stand in that spot ... for a reverse or a counter coming back your way," Peak said. "And me, I'm just the type of person who likes to fly to wherever the action is. I like to just run and let my legs stride across the field. Just run."

Go read the entire article.  Lots of good stuff there.

Video:  Enjoy.

#11 Tahrick Peak Highlight Video 2008 (via cougardave23)

Scouting Report:  You'll have to sit through about three and a half minutes of photos and stats on Tahrick before getting to some game footage.  When Tahrick said that he simply flies to the ball, he was right, and perhaps this might be his admitted downfall, which is that if he plays inside, he must be a little more disciplined.  At this point having a player like Tahrick be able to walk into your program pretty much immediately is pretty darned special.  He wasn't incredibly highly rated, but he can play.  I did find a VA-Tech blog, TechSuperfans, who talked a bit about Tahrick and what type of player he could potentially be:

Tahrick Peak (LB) - recruited by Billy Hite
Tahrick's older brother is Nubian Peak and while Tahrick isn't as fast as his speedster sibling, he's plenty fast for a 6'2" 205 lb. tiger at the LB position. Tahrick is one of those players whose success will completely depend on how committed he is to the Mike Gentry program. If he can get substantially bigger and stronger he can play the Backer position like his idol, former Hokie Xavier Adibi. If he adds that weight without losing any speed, then he can become a star for the Hokies in a few years. Peak does model his game very much after X-man and watching him making tackles in that #11 jersey brings back great memories from Adibi’s time at Tech. As we've said with regard to several positions now, the question is whether Mr. Peak will be able to unseat the existing young talent on the team or the other immensely talented linebacker recruits in this class. He is a perfect illustration of the type of recruit who can either blow away his 3 star ranking or end up never getting on the field except on special teams.

I suppose that the last sentence about Tahrick is true about any recruit or commit, but it's obvious the potential is there.  Not only that, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Tahrick is a bit more motivated of a young man now that the school that he always wanted to attend has turned him away. 

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