Texas Tech football: Plenty of holes remain in 2019 class after early signing day

Wednesday was the first day of the early signing window for college football prospects and after landing just eleven players, the Texas Tech football team still has plenty of holes to fill.

One of the biggest questions on the minds of Texas Tech football fans since the moment Kliff Kingsbury was fired was whether or not the 2019 recruiting class could be salvaged.  For the past two-plus weeks, new head coach Matt Wells and his staff have hit the recruiting trail hard trying to keep the current class in tact.

Wednesday, as the early window for football prospects to sign their national letters of intent opened, the Red Raiders officially added eleven players to the program (far fewer than most Big 12 teams) leaving plenty of work still to be done before the traditional signing day which arrives on the first Wednesday of February.

Some Big 12 schools will have little to do until then.  Oklahoma, Iowa State and Oklahoma State signed each one of their verbal commits on day-one of the signing period. Meanwhile, Texas, TCU, Baylor and Iowa State each signed at least 19 players.  In fact, only Kansas signed fewer players Wednesday than Texas Tech as the three conference teams that made coaching changes this year (Tech, KU and Kansas State) comprise the bottom three in the league’s class rankings.

There are some glaring needs for Matt Wells to fill come February and surprisingly, two of the most obvious are on the offensive side of the football.

The Red Raiders currently do not have a running back signed and the only verbal commit, Velton Gardner, is entertaining other schools.  The three-star prospect from Houston committed to the Red Raiders early last month, just days after decomitting from Kansas State.  And though he has not officially decomitted from Tech, he has been hearing from Houston and Kansas in the wake of Kingsbury’s firing and is expected to take some official visits before signing in February.

Tech graduated running backs Tre King and Demarcus Felton this season and needs to add some depth to a position group that struggled as 2018 wore on.  In recent years, Tech has brought in JUCO running backs like Desmond Nisby and King during the summer and was heavily involved in the recruitment of 2018 grad transfer Tre Watson (who transferred to Texas).

If Gardner does not stick with the Raiders, Matt Wells may have to explore similar options to add talent later this offseason.  And even if Gardner remains in the fold, do not be surprised to see another running back added to the class because Wells and new OC David Yost want to run the ball more than Tech has in the “Air Raid” era.

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Meanwhile, Tech still has a long way to go if it wants a full offensive line class.  The Red Raiders signed two 3-star tackles in Trevor Roberson and Landon Peterson on Wednesday leaving up to three o-line spots yet to be filled.

The program has been hit hard with attrition along the line in the past four years losing five offensive line signees from the 2015-17 classes to retirement or transfer.  What’s more, the team’s two starting tackles, Travis Bruffy and Terence Steele, will be seniors this year making it vitally important for Wells to bring in reinforcements up front.  Expect to see at least two more offensive line prospects sign in February if for no other reason than to provide depth.

On the other side of the ball, the Red Raiders will certainly be focused on bringing in some quality defensive backs.  Currently, Tech has just one DB signed, 3-star Alex Hogan, and there are no other players committed.

During the coaching change, Tech lost three defensive back commits including Keeyon Stewart who decomitted last month but remains a target after having hosted Wells and his staff in recent weeks.  Stewart is a teammate of 3-star DE commit Tony Bradford who is expected to sign with Texas Tech in February and that connection could help bring him back into the Red Raiders’ class.

But even if Stewart does come back on board, Tech will have to do some serious work in the secondary.  Both of 2018’s starting safeties, Jah’Shawn Johnson and Vaughnte Dorsey as well as safeties John Bonney and Kisean Allen are now gone and finding at least three more defensive backs must be a top priority over the next two months.

In 2014, Tech signed eight JUCO prospects in an attempt at finding a quick fix for a defense that was trending in the wrong direction.  It is fair to wonder whether Tech will come close to that number this year in an effort to help close out a class that has been hurt by the coaching change.  Regardless of how he goes about finding talent, this will not be a sleepy winter for Matt Wells because he has tons of holes left to fill if the 2019 signing class is going to be salvaged.