Texas Tech football: How 2015 signing class doomed Kliff Kingsbury
Other than Washington, no defensive signees ever made an impact
One of the oddest characteristics of Kliff Kingsbury’s recruiting classes was that they tended to be heavily slanted towards the offensive side of the ball despite the program’s continued defensive woes. That was the case in 2015 when Tech signed only six defenders. What’s more, aside from Broderick Washington, none of those signees panned out.
What’s more, only two other 2015 defensive signees, Lonzell Gillmore and Christian Taylor, were on the roster this year. And neither were significant contributors.
Gillmore, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound defensive end registered only nine tackles and 0.5 sacks. For his career, he’s amassed a meager 25 tackles and 1.5 sacks in 31 games.
Taylor, who was one of four players arrested in the spring for an incident outside a Lubbock bar, made just two tackles in eight games appearing mainly on special teams. The former safety who is now an outside linebacker has just seven tackles in 25 career games.
But by far the biggest bust of the 2015 defensive class was former 4-star defensive tackle Breiden Fehoko. After amassing just 38 career tackles in two seasons, the former high school all-American transferred to LSU after the 2016 season.
Former 3-star linebacker D’Vonta Hinton was also a disappointment after he left the program in 2017 despite seeing significant playing time in his first two years. Meanwhile, defensive backs Paul Banks and Jamile Johnson left the program without making a sound on the field.
How transfers that left performed in 2018. dark. Next
The inability to field a top-100 defense in his final five seasons in Lubbock was Kingsbury’s ultimate downfall. But despite the fact that everyone knew that the Texas Tech defense was in desperate need of improvement, the 2015 class was light on prospects and proved to be almost worthless in the Red Raiders’ pursuit of trying to finally solve its defensive struggles.