With five commits now in the books, I was thinking that with the limited scholarship numbers, we might want to think about how this class turns out in terms of numbers.
I think this will be a class of about 16 to 18 total. It won’t be a huge class and with limited numbers, there’s limited spots for the coaching staff to choose who and where they want to spend those scholarships. You can check out the 2017 class. The numbers I’m providing are conservative to give the coaches some ability to adjust if the player is worth the scholarship. Let’s run down the position groups.
Quarterback (1): I think we’re done at quarterback with Xavier Martin. Of course, it’s always tough when a quarterback doesn’t choose your team and taking one so early could be problematic, but I really like Martin, I think he has tremendous potential and I love his feet.
Running Back (?): I think this might be a swing position for Texas Tech. If the numbers are there, then great, but there seems to be a treasure trove of options at running back. It wouldn’t kill me if the staff didn’t take a running back because it doesn’t feel like a “must need” position, but could see them taking one and one only.
Receiver (2): With the commitment of Bronson Boyd, I think there’s likely one more receiver that the coaches will want in addition to Boyd. Texas Tech has taken two fairly large classes at receiver recently, 10 total scholarships over the past two years, which included J.T. Thomas. And I honestly think that 3 is the likely number at the end of the day, but with 2 here, that gets us to 16 with 2 spots to swing for a certain position.
Offensive Line (4): Jack Anderson and Dawson Deaton are two of those commitments and I think we could expect two more. However, if there’s a late addition to the 2016 class then maybe this number goes to 3. There’s a JUCO offensive lineman, Jacob Hines, who visited this past weekend, but he would be part of the 2017 class (I think). With the dismissal of Robert Castaneda and Trace Ellison from the team, I think the coaches want to get these numbers back up.
Defensive Line (2): With so many commitments from the last class, 4 defensive tackles (Joseph Wallace, Nick McCann, Ivory Jackson and Mike Thomas) and 4 defensive ends (only 3 defensive ends qualified, being Noah Jones, Houston Miller and Clarence Henderson) it seems like they might take another JUCO prospect and a high school prospect. I could also see the staff spending one of those swing scholarships here as well as you really wan to keep up these sorts of numbers.
Linebacker (2): The coaches signed 3 linebackers last class with Kevin Moore being the 4th, depending on how Moore grows and I could see a couple more additions here, including a JUCO linebacker. Between the current group of players and the incoming freshmen, there’s not a lot of in-between, so it actually makes sense to me to grab two JUCO linebackers if you want.
Secondary (5): I see the coaching staff spending most of their scholarships here. It’s the weakest position in terms of depth on the team, so much so that I can earnestly see the freshmen playing immediately, merely because of lack of depth. I could envision at least 2 JUCO players, maybe 3, and then fill the rest out with high school players. Quincy Addison is one guy that’s already committed and I think the coaches very much like Devodrick Johnson, from Kimball. And it should be noted that the coaches have offered 5 cornerbacks and 5 safeties. There’s take some inventory here, or at least I hope they do.
That’s 16 total commits with 2 or so scholarships to swing at a handful of positions. Let me know what you think, if you think I’m off on some of these projections and if you have insight as to players, I’d love to hear it.