We’ll be taking a look at each position moving into the spring, but before we get to the position-by-position look, I wanted to take a look at the graduates, the players who are leaving the program. This obviously doesn’t include the players that retired or were previously dismissed, we’ll get to those in a second, but this is a list of thirteen players, all of whom contributed this past year in some form or fashion, some more than others.
1. S Keenon Ward
2. CB Thierry Nguema
3. CB Paul Banks III
4. CB Justis Nelson
5. DL Ondre Pipkins
6. FB Tyler Scalzi
7. LB Kris Williams
8. LB Luke Stice
9. LB Malik Jenkins
10. OL Baylen Brown
11. RB Quinton White, Jr.
12. WR Reginald Davis III
13. WR Devin Lauderdale
That’s a pretty decent senior class and like I mentioned, these guys all gave a little something and were pretty significant players for the most part. That’s really what you want from your senior class. As a quick aside, I know a lot of people gave Nelson a lot of shit, but the truth be told, Nelson far exceeded what was he probably should have been asked to do. He was essentially a high 2-star player that ended up starting as a true freshman and he never shook those expectations. Physically, he was limited, but he exceeded his recruiting ranking, at least in my opinion. There is no perfect player, but
Oh, and when you talk about a class and who needs to be replaced, you never say, well, Texas Tech lost three linebackers so they need to go out and recruit linebackers with the 2017 class. That’s not exactly how it works because those freshman most likely can’t come in and contribute in 2017. The hope is that the coaches have recruited those linebackers in 2016, which they did to an extent with Jordyn Brooks, Johnathan Picone, Brayden Stringer and Kevin Moore (who may or may not be a linebacker). But still, that’s the idea.
As to the guys that retired and or are no longer on the team, that’s a little tougher to predict in terms of what the class should look like because most of the time, these things are tough to predict. In any event, those guys are as follows:
1. OL Justin Murphy
2. OL Conner Dyer
3. OL Cody Wheeler
4. OL Robert Castaneda
5. OL Trace Ellison
6. DE Ivory Jackson
7. RB Corey Dauphine
That’s 20 players gone (by my count, but I may be missing someone, like a walk-on or something) and that’s pretty average attrition in this day in age. Obviously, the best case scenario is for every player to work out and be developed, but that’s not reality.
Up next is a look at the juniors.