Texas Tech football: 4-star DE Steven Parker decommits

The Texas Tech football team received some disappointing news Saturday when 4-star defensive end Steven Parker decomitted after the firing of Kliff Kingsbury and the hiring of Matt Wells.

Saturday, the Texas Tech football team’s top-rated 2019 verbal commit, Steven Parker, from Dallas announced that he was decomitting from the Red Raiders to reopen his recruitment.  With under three weeks to go until the early signing window for high school recruits, this deals a tremendous blow to the Red Raiders’ current class.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound 4-star prospect from South Oak Cliff High School is rated the No. 40 prospect in Texas and the No. 21 weak side defensive end in the nation.  One of the most dominant defensive players in the state, Parker registered 20 sacks and 60 tackles in just 9 games this season.  He holds offers from Baylor, TCU, Purdue, Minnesota and SMU and Texas is believed to have interest.

While this development is concerting for Texas Tech football fans, the wording of Parker’s Twitter announcement gives the Red Raiders some hope that the new staff could still land this coveted recruit.  Parker, who lived in Lubbock for a portion of his childhood, said that Texas Tech remains on his list of schools to consider.

Most believe that this decomittment came about because former receivers coach Emmett Jones is not going to be part of Matt Wells’ coaching staff.  Jones, the former head coach at South Oak Cliff has been one of the Red Raiders’ top recruiters, especially in the Dallas area where he has tremendous ties with the area’s high school coaches and was Parker’s primary recruiter.

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Parker was expected to fill a glaring need for the Red Raiders.  After losing its top two defenders in terms of sacks, Tony Jones and Colin Hill, to graduation and redshirt freshman defensive end Nelson Mbanasor (himself a former prized high school recruit), the roster is perilously thin at defensive end.

Texas Tech has only two ends on the current roster, Eli Howard and Lonzell Gilmore, who have registered a sack in their college careers and they combined for just 3.5 in 2018.  Finding quality defensive ends is particularly difficult, especially with only three weeks until most high school prospects sign their national letters of intent so Texas Tech may turn to the JUCO ranks if it is unable to bring Parker back into the fold.

The Red Raiders currently have two other defensive ends verbally committed to the 2019 class.  Gilbert Ibeneme is a 3-star prospect from Pearland, Texas who is the No. 58 player in Texas and Tony Bradford Jr. is a three-star prospect from Houston and the No. 190 recruit in the state.

Parker’s decomittment is the second high-profile defection from the 2019 recruiting class since Matt Wells became head coach.  Friday, 3-star QB Maverick McIvor also decomitted leaving the Red Raiders without a recruit at the most important position on the field and now, they are without their top-rated overall recruit as well.  Matt Wells and his staff certainly have their work cut out for themselves on the recruiting trail if they are to have any hope to salvage this class.