Texas Tech Football Recruiting Woes Becoming Worrisome

Though the Texas Tech football coaches have been hard at work on the recruiting trail, their lack of results is a troubling sign that is causing many fans to fret over the future of the program.

Quite a bit has happened since October 14th, 2017. In the past seven months, the world has witnessed a royal wedding, the United States has suffered through three mass shootings with two taking place in Texas (First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs and Santa Fe High School), the state of California voted to legalize marijuana just weeks after historic wildfires devastated the Los Angeles area and a volcanic eruption has decimated Hawaii. But in that time, the Texas Tech football has not landed a single recruit.

It has been over 200 days since Kilff Kingsbury and his staff received a commitment leaving the 2019 recruiting class lagging far behind the majority of the Big 12. What’s most concerning for most fans is that this is a continuation of a disturbing trend that saw Texas Tech sign the second-worst ranked class in the Big 12 in 2018 trailing even the lowly Kansas Jayhawks.

The paranoia only increased this week when Texas Tech’s top 2019 quarterback target, Jacob Zeno, committed to Baylor after listing the Red Raiders as his top school last fall. Thus, Texas Tech still has only two players committed for 2019 with neither being at the all-important quarterback position.

The main reason for the Texas Tech football recruiting struggles is the uncertainty surrounding Kliff Kingsbury’s job stats. Coming off a 6-6 season that bought him an extra season but did not ensure his long-term future at the school, Kingsbury is trying to recruit to a program with the least amount of stability in the Big 12.

Furthermore, the new December football signing period has proven to work against Kingsbury given his tenuous grip on his job. Most high school prospects are looking to sign with their school of choice in December instead of waiting for the traditional signing day in February.

That makes recruits more apt to commit to schools in the spring or summer months before the football season even kicks off. This means that prospects will have made their decisions long before the 2018 season unfolds so even if Texas Tech were to get off to a fantastic start securing Kingsbury’s future, it may be too late to salvage the 2019 class.

So how far behind the other Big 12 schools is Texas Tech in regards to assembling the current recruiting class? In many cases, disturbingly far.

There are six Big 12 teams with at least a half-dozen players already committed. Not surprisingly, Oklahoma leads the way with eleven commits. Of that group, eight recruits are listed as 4 or 5-star players

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Texas Tech’s rival TCU has ten players in the fold making the class a current top 20 group. That realization should concern Red Raider fans because Tech and TCU often go head-to-head on the recruiting trail.

The next team in the Big 12 class rankings will humble Texas Tech football fans. Iowa State currently has the third-best class in the conference with 8 recruits, all of whom are three-star prospects.

Oklahoma State and Baylor both have seven players committed while Texas has six. West Virginia has landed five commits thus far to sit right ahead of Texas Tech.

The only schools ranked behind the Red Raiders hail from the state of Kansas. Like Tech, Kansas State has two commits but the Wildcats have significantly more momentum having landed both since the beginning of April. Meanwhile, Kansas has only one commit but it is a 4-star quarterback which arguably put their class ahead of Texas Tech’s by landing a top player at the most important position on the field.

Obviously, there is plenty of time for the Texas Tech football class to take shape. The upcoming weeks will be huge as a numerous players will be visiting campus in June and July. There are plenty of interesting prospects Texas Tech is in the mix for and landing even just a few could help open the gate for a flood of 2019 commitments. But until that happens, fans will continue to worry about the direction of the program.

Next: Texas Tech QB Mess: How Did We Get Here?

Since wide receiver Cameron Cantrell committed to Texas Tech on October 14, 2017, the world has changed significantly. Celebrities such as former first lady Barbara Bush, physicist Stephen Hawking, Rev. Billy Graham, sportscaster Keith Jackson and MLB pitcher Roy Halliday have all passed away; which is what many Texas Tech fans can’t help but fear their beloved football program is doing and the lack of results on the recruiting trail aren’t helping ease those worries.

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