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Texas Tech football loses 5th 2019 commit in four days

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - NOVEMBER 24: Defensive back Damarcus Fields #23 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders tips the ball away from wide receiver Denzel Mims #15 of the Baylor Bears of the Baylor Bears and the pass would be intercepted by defensive back Jah'Shawn Johnson #7 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (not pictured) during the first half of the game on November 24, 2018 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - NOVEMBER 24: Defensive back Damarcus Fields #23 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders tips the ball away from wide receiver Denzel Mims #15 of the Baylor Bears of the Baylor Bears and the pass would be intercepted by defensive back Jah'Shawn Johnson #7 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (not pictured) during the first half of the game on November 24, 2018 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
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The 2019 Texas Tech football recruiting class is shrinking at a rapid pace losing its fifth verbal commit in four days Monday when Temple DB Markel Reed decomitted.

Just over a week ago, the Texas Tech football 2019 recruiting class featured 19 players and was ranked No. 42 in the nation.  Now, after losing its fifth verbal commit since Matt Wells was hired as head coach, the class is quickly losing steam and at the worst possible time of the year.

The latest defection is 3-star corner Markel Reed from Temple, Texas.  The 6-foot-1, 166-pound corner committed to Texas Tech in June but announced Monday night that he is now reconsidering his options just over two weeks prior to the early signing period which runs from December 19-21.

Reed is the No. 154 overall player in Texas and the No. 114 corner in the nation.  In addition to Texas Tech, he holds offers from Purdue, Arkansas, Baylor, Boise St. , Kansas State, Rice, SMU, Texas-San Antonio and Vanderbilt.

https://twitter.com/_markelreed/status/1069790251747606529

Reed is the third defensive back to jump ship from the Red Raiders’ 2019 class in the last three days joining Keeyon Stewart and Alex Hogan who both decomitted over the weekend.  This leaves the Red Raiders with only one defensive back in the current class, Brandon Joseph from College Station.

The Red Raiders’ 2019 class has fallen to No. 59 overall in the nation and No. 8 in the Big 12.  Tech trails such blue-blood programs as SMU (No. 54), Memphis (No. 55), Syracuse (No. 56) and Western Michigan (No. 57).

Now, the new coaching staff must find a way to rebuild what was at one time a strong defensive back class.  Both of the Red Raiders’ 2018 starting safeties, Vaughnte Dorsey and Jah’Shawn Johnson, have exhausted their eligibility leaving the second-worst pass defense in the nation looking for answers this offseason.

Next. Texas Tech football loses two defensive backs over the weekend. dark

The Red Raiders still have 14 players currently in the fold.  The optimist will look at the fact that this class has a higher average ranking per recruit than last year’s class (0.8439 to 0.8376 according to 247sports.com) but the pessimist will be quick to note that last year’s class was the lowest ranked of any Power 5 school.  Still, no matter how you look at it, things are not headed in the right direction on the recruiting trail during this transition to the Matt Wells regime.

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