The Best Recruit From Each of Kliff Kingsbury’s Classes At Texas Tech

Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury has had six recruiting classes while at Texas Tech.  Let’s take a look at which player turned out to be the best recruit from each class.

When the calendar turns to late spring, college football coaches hit the recruiting trail ahead of the busy summer schedule when satellite camps and recruiting events help shape the upcoming classes.  Kliff Kingsbury and his coaching staff have been extremely active on the recruiting circuit since the Texas Tech spring game concluded handing out numerous offers in recent days.

Kingsbury is currently putting together his seventh recruiting class since arriving in 2013.  Thus far, his efforts on the recruiting trail have been mediocre at best and far less prosperous than most expected when he took over the program.  The problem has been in his ability to compile a class that was productive from top to bottom.  Still, Kingsbury has been able to land stars every year and here’s a look at the best recruit in each of his classes.

2013 – Davis Webb

Kingsbury was at a disadvantage when putting together his first recruiting class.  Hired less than two months before national signing day, the first-time head coach was forced to scramble as he tried to keep key recruits in the fold while adding other pieces.

In fact, the best move Kingsbury made on the recruiting trail that year was to keep a player who had already committed to former head coach Tommy Tuberville in the fold.  Davis Webb, a three-star prospect from Prosper, Texas verbally pledged to Tuberville in May of the previous season but did decomitt after the coaching change.

Still, Kingsbury had to convince Webb to stay with the Red Raiders despite not recruiting him while Kingsbury was the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M.  There was no doubt that Webb was the best option at quarterback for Texas Tech in 2013, especially considering that finding another quality QB so late in the process would have been virtually impossible.

And what no one knew at the time Webb signed was that he would end up being the team’s starting quarterback by the middle of the season.  An offseason injury to presumed starter Michael Brewer forced Kingsbury to have an open QB competition between Webb and walk-on Baker Mayfield.

Webb started six gams on the season including Texas Tech’s Holiday Bowl win over Arizona State.  That season, he passed for 2,718 yards, 20 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.  He followed with a disappointing sophomore season starting only eight games because of injury.  That season he posted 2,538 yards and 24 touchdowns with 13 picks.

The next season, he lost his starting job to Pat Mahomes and he would transfer to Cal for his senior season.  At Cal, Webb threw for 4,295 yards and 37 touchdowns with 12 interceptions.  Ultimately, he was drafted by the New York Giants in the 3rd round of the 2017 draft.

Though many may look at Davis Webb’s Texas Tech career and remember only that he lost his job to Mahomes, that does not change the fact that he was a very good college player.  He threw for 9,852 career yards and 83 touchdowns in college making him one of the most productive passers in the nation to come out of the class of 2013.

Webb was by far the best signee of Texas Tech’s 2013 class.  No other member of that group turned into an all-conference player much less earned the opportunity to play in the NFL (however receiver Dylan Cantrell is likely to be drafted this year).

The 2013 Texas Tech recruiting class was put together on the fly by a 34-year-old coach leading a program at any level for the first time in his career.  So it is not surprising that Kingsbury’s first class was awful.

Therefore, it was even more important for Webb to be a standout among disappointments.  If you are only going to have one star in a recruiting class, it had best be the quarterback.