Vitals
| DeMeco Roland | |
|---|---|
| Height: | 6-4 |
| Weight: | 320 |
| Position: | Defensive Tackle |
| Offers: | Texas Tech, Arkansas, Arkansas State, Nevada, North Texas, Syracuse, UTSA |
| JUCO: | Hutchinson C.C. (Hutchinson, KS) |
| Video: | Hudl |
| Commitment Date: | July 10, 2020 |
| Cumulative Rating: | N/A |
Recruiting Services
| Recruiting Service | Grade | Stars |
|---|---|---|
| Rivals | N/R | N/R |
| 24/7 Sports | N/R | N/R |
| ESPN (HS) | 75 |  | | |
Blessed to be committed by The University of Teaxes tech @CoachPRandolph @TTUCoachWells ‼️‼️👆🏾 pic.twitter.com/va1FoUrkEh
— DeMeco Roland (@meco_roland) July 10, 2020
Roland was a 3-star recruit coming out of high school, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, committed to North Texas but ended up at Hutchinson C.C. Roland currently isn’t rated by any of the recruiting services. The ESPN link is from his high school recruiting profile and not current.
Both Red Raider Sports and Inside the Red Raiders have stories behind paywalls and so I’m not linking to them.
Roland does exhibit some nice quickness and he is double-teamed at least once in the video, where he’s able to break free. It’s only a shade over a minute so it’s not as if there’s a ton of content there. Roland’s Hutchinson C.C. bio isn’t helpful either as it only accounts for him having 5 tackles and a lot of times those stats aren’t accurate.
At 6’4″ and 320, that’s a big dude and I’m sure that’s part of the reason why Texas Tech sought the commitment of a big defensive tackle. As you may recall, the 2020 class had just one defensive tackle, Devin Drew, also a JUCO, and one potential high school defensive tackle in Philip Blidi (I believe he talked about converting to a tackle spot rather than an end). And in the 2019 class, there were no true tackles, possible converted defensive ends in Gilbert Ibeneme and Tony Bradford, Jr. Drew currently weights 285, Ibeneme 275, and Bradford 270. They’re all big players as well, but Roland being at 320 makes him a bit of a different type of player than those mentioned.
Just in case you were curious, there are 4 defensive tackles over 300 pounds on the roster: Elisaia Siliga (305, a redshirt freshman from American Samoa); Alexander Poole (300, a junior from Euless); Jonathan King (335, the transfer from Army); and Nick McCann (310, the senior from Texarkana). I don’t know anything about Siliga, but I did find him on Hudl he’s gotten a lot bigger since playing in high school.