Texas Tech football offers 3-star 2020 TE Elijah Yelverton

The Texas Tech football team has extended an offer to 2020 tight end Elijah Yelverton, one of the top TE prospects in the nation.

One of the most noticeable changes Texas Tech football fans may already be starting to notice in the early stages of the Matt Wells’ tenure is a renewed emphasis on the tight end position.  After being virtually ignored by the previous coaching staff, which saw the position as only a situational need, some of the top tight ends in the nation are now starting to hear from the Red Raiders.

One such player is 3-star TE Isaiah Yelverton from Dallas.  The 6-foot-5, 225-pounder is rated the No. 11 tight end in the nation and the No. 54 overall player in Texas according to 247Sports.com.

In addition to Tech, he holds offers from such programs as Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Michigan, LSU, Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, Penn State and TCU.

Playing for Bishop Dunne High School, Yelverton has registered 661 yards and nine touchdowns on 52 receptions in the last two seasons combined.  He recently attended a junior day event at Texas A&M and took an unofficial visit to Arkansas back in March of 2018.

What is interesting about this offer, outside of the fact that he is one of the best eight ends in the nation, is the fact that Tech is placing a priority on the position for the first time in recent memory.  The last true tight end the Red Raiders landed was Jace Amaro who signed with the Red Raiders in 2011.

But since then, the closest Tech has come to signing a tight end was when the Red Raiders brought in Ennis, TX wide receiver Donta Thompson in 2015.  The 6-foot-3, 195-pound former 3-star WR prospect proved to be a step too slow to play receiver at the collegiate level and assumed a hybrid H-back/tight end role for the Red Raiders last year.   However, he made very little impact in either the running or passing game.

More from Wreck'Em Red

• Texas Tech football: Red Raider fans need to know about these Mountaineers
• Texas Tech football: Red Raiders land first commit for class of 2025
• Texas Tech football: Why have the Red Raiders struggled on the road under McGuire?
• Texas Tech football: Why the Red Raiders can compete for a Big 12 title
• Texas Tech football: Plenty of questions remain as conference play arrives

Therefore, when Wells and his new staff took over, they quickly went to work trying to fill the roster’s TE void.  The first offer Wells extended was to the nation’s top JUCO tight end, Travis Koontz, who signed with the Red Raiders in December.  Additionally, Tech signed Magnolia, TX tight end Simon Gonzalez (who received his scholarship offer from the Kingsbury staff) and both are expected to see the field this season.

And now, 247Sports reports that Tech has already offered three tight ends in the 2020 class.  In addition to Yelverton, Allen Horace from Crockett, Texas and Brandon Frazier from McKinney, Texas also hold offers from the Red Raiders.

Just like Yelverton, both of the other tight ends with a Tech offer are rated as 3-star prospects.  Horace is the No 24 TE in the nation and Frazier is not far behind at No. 29.

New offensive coordinator David Yost has said that his offense will feature a tight end 90% of the time.  That could be because he wants a more balanced offensive attack.  Last year at Utah State, Yost’s offense had an almost exact 50-50 split between the run and the pass and actually ran the ball a slight bit than throwing it.

Meanwhile, the Texas Tech ground game was abysmal in 2018.  Tech’s leading rusher amassed only 369 yards and that was backup QB Jett Duffey.  Tech’s top running backs, Da’Leon Ward and Ta’Zhawn Henry both managed just 341 yards on the ground as the Red Raiders finished ninth in the Big 12 in rushing yards per game and tied with Iowa State for last in the conference in regards to yards per carry at just 3.6.

Hopefully, replacing one of the smaller inside receivers for a true tight end will help the Red Raiders have schematic advantage in the ground game next year.  We saw how devastating it was when Tech’s ground game failed to pick up the slack last fall when injuries to all three QBs rendered the passing game nearly non-existent.  One can only hope that the new staff’s approach will prevent that from happening ever again.