Texas Tech football: 3-star defensive back Nate Floyd commits
Thursday, the Texas Tech football program landed its second verbal commitment of the week in defensive back Nate Floyd.
The Texas Tech football team’s roll continues. After knocking off No. 21 Oklahoma State last weekend, the Red Raiders have landed two verbal commits this week, both of which play on the defensive side of the football.
The latest is Nate Floyd, a 3-star defensive back from College Station, who announced his decision to join Matt Wells’ program Thursday on Twitter. This comes just days after the Red Raiders added 3-star linebacker Derrick Lewis II from Schertz.
Floyd is a 6-foot, 175-pound two-way player. He’s played slot receiver for his A&M Consolidated team but his future appears to be in the Red Raider secondary.
According to Max Preps, Floyd amassed 40 tackles and 8 interceptions in his sophomore and junior seasons combined. However, that site does not have stats for 2019.
Rated the No. 58 corner in the nation and the No. 98 overall player in Texas by the 247Sports composite rankings, he immediately becomes one of the most highly-regarded members of Tech’s 2020 recruiting class. In fact, he supplants Amarillo defensive end LB Moore as the top defensive player currently committed to the Red Raiders.
Overall, he is the 4th highest-ranked player in the class. In addition to Tech, he holds offers from Missouri, Arizona, Colorado, Colorado State, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Syracuse, and Utah among others.
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This news now gives the Red Raiders five defensive backs in the current class. Thus, it likely means that all of the scholarships in the 2020 secondary are spoken for.
As always, it will be important for Tech to add more talent in the defensive backfield. Following the 2019 season, there will be some key Red Raider defensive backs exhaust their eligibility. Safety Douglas Coleman and corner Des Smith have long been stalwarts in the Red Raider secondary but now, both are in their final year with the program. What’s more, Smith left Saturday’s game with a leg injury that prevented him from exiting under his own power meaning his immediate future is in serious doubt.
However, there appears to be solid depth among the young Red Raider defensive backs. With Smith, as well as safeties Adrian Frye and Thomas Leggett all on the shelf at some point Saturday, the Red Raiders turned to a pair of freshmen in Alex Hogan and Dadrion Taylor to help pick up the slack.
With this addition, Tech’s recruiting class jumps from No. 7 to No. 5 in the Big 12 rankings and No. 40 in the nation according to 247Sports. That is good news for Red Raider fans hoping to see improvement on the recruiting trail under Matt Wells.
"“I felt like all the coaches are one [reason for comitting to Tech],” Floyd told Gabe Brooks of 247Sports. “They all have their minds set for one goal and they are just all on the same page. And (Texas Tech) was closer to home than the others in my top three.”"
The other two schools in his top three were Missouri and Arizona. He was at Missouri in June for an official visit but he told Brooks that he has no plans to take more visits. That despite the fact that 247Sports does not show him as having visited the Wildcats.
Why Tech was able to beat Oklahoma State. dark. Next
No one can ask for a better week than the one Wells has had. In addition to picking up his most important win to date with the Red Raiders, he has landed two potential impact players on defense which will hopefully lead to even more weeks like the one we’ve experienced since the win over the Cowboys.