Good morning.

Just to remind you all, I’m running in an ultramarathon tomorrow in Cleburne, about 32 miles or 50k, however you want to look at it. This should be the last weekend where I’m going to be out and not be around very much. Running is time consuming. And of all things, there was not significant breaking news yesterday, which has not been the norm, news has seemingly been breaking each and every day. Yesterday was basically a day off.

The big news that dropped yesterday, well technically there were two big bits of news: 1) the NCAA will permit one-time transfers; and 2) coaches will go back on the road and recruit on June 1st.

I don’t know all of the in’s and out’s of the rule, but I believe that if you’ve transferred before you have to request a waiver. So a player like Mac McClung would have to request a waiver because he’s already received a waiver to be eligible immediately. A player like McClung could still be eligible immediately, he’ll just have to apply for and receive a waiver. I believe the player has to be in good standing academically. I believe this would also apply to inter-conference transfers as well. I also think that applications for the one-time waiver would have to be applied for by May 1st for winter sports and July 1st for spring sports.

I think that there’s still some things that will evolve as a result of all of this and there will be free agency, but that’s just the way that the sport is evolving. I think it’s much harder to transfer in football because it can generally take so long for a player to mature and get on the field. Coaches for opposing teams can’t see how those players have matured. In basketball, that’s probably a different game because players play so early and as you all probably know, there’s 1,400 players currently in the transfer portal in men’s basketball, so that is a sport where you are basically trying to make the best team right now and the development must occur within a year, while football will still have transfers, but maybe not to the extent of basketball.

I’d also add that it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Texas Tech football adds another offensive line transfer as spring practice winds down. I don’t have any inside information, just a hunch based on performance last year and how this group needs help.

The other rule that broke is that the NCAA will permit coaches to start hitting the road on June 1st and allow players to visit campuses starting on June 1st, so you’ll see a lot more commits based on that starting this summer. This applies to all sports, but is also based off of the recruiting calendar. I do recall new basketball assistant coach Barret Peery mentioning that he’s excited to hit the road and I believe football coaches have mentioned the same thing, i.e. planning camps, visits, and coaches hitting the road, etc. This may be a real benefit to ending spring practice sooner than later to get those schedules down. Right now, I think the football program is one of a handful of programs without a 2022 commit. I’m hoping that changes soon.

The spring game is set for Saturday at 1:00 p.m. There will be live music starting at 11:30 a.m., then an equipment sale starting at 12:00 p.m. I haven’t seen any mention about the game being on television, so for those of you out of town, I don’t know. If I weren’t running, I’d definitely be there and I’d probably sleep in someone’s backyard.

Less than 4️⃣8️⃣ hours till the Spring Game ⏳ pic.twitter.com/q3WQDOo6s8

— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) April 15, 2021