Texas Tech football: How 2015 signing class doomed Kliff Kingsbury

There was no quarterback in the class

The most obvious problem with this class is the lack of a quarterback.  Throughout the majority of the 2015 recruiting cycle, former 4-star quarterback Jarrett Stidham from Stephenville, Texas was verbally committed to the Red Raiders and looked to be all-in with Kingsbury.

But just days prior to the December 2014 dead period, he decomitted only to eventually sign with Baylor.  Some speculate that Stidham did not want to sit behind Pat Mahomes who was just finishing his freshman season at the time while other Texas Tech fans accuse Baylor boosters of foul play.

Regardless of why Stidham jumped ship, his timing was disastrous for Kingsbury who had only weeks to try to cultivate a relationship with an other QB prospect before signing day.  In the end, Tech could not land a quarterback they felt worthy of a scholarship to a Big 12 school.

At the time, fans were disappointed about losing Stidham but were not concerned with the long-term impact of losing him because Mahomes still had three years of eligibility remaining.  But when Mahomes left for the NFL after his junior year, Tech found itself scrambling for answers at the quarterback position.

If Tech had signed a quarterback in 2015, he would have been in line to start in 2017 after being in the program for two years.  That would have given him an opportunity to start this year and in 2019 (assuming that he would have redshirted in 2015) and could have totally changed the trajectory of the program.

Signing a QB in 2015 would have kept Kingsbury from having no choice but to start Nic Shimonek in 2017 and would not have forced him to give McLane Carter a scholarship in 2016 or turn to the lefty in 2018.  Neither of those two players are up to the standard that Texas Tech had needed at the position in the past two seasons and would likely have been replaced by a competent 2015 signee.

Certainly, there were other QB recruiting misses over the past several years including 2017 when QB signee Xavier Martin was moved to receiver as soon as he got to campus.  But Kngsbury’s QB problems can be traced back to the 2015 class, which at one time had one of the top QB prospects in the nation but ultimately left Kingsbury empty-handed at the game’s most important position.