Texas Tech football adds 3-star 2020 OL Caleb Rogers

The Texas Tech football program has picked up a commitment from 3-star 2020 OL Caleb Rogers, the second player to join the Red Raiders current class.

Sunday the Texas Tech football program’s recruiting class doubled in size.  That’s because 3-star OL Caleb Rogers became the second player in the class of 2020 to commit to Matt Wells and the Red Raiders.

The 6-foot-4, 268-pound prospect from Mansfield, Texas is rated the No. 148 player in Texas and the No. 98 offensive tackle in the nation by 247Sports.com.  In addition to Texas Tech, he holds offers from New Mexico, Arkansas State, William and Mary and Louisiana-Monroe while being in contact with both Baylor and Missouri.  Rogers visited Lubbock in March picking up an offer from the Red Raider coaching staff and it took him just over a month to pull the trigger and commit.

Earlier in March, Rogers competed at Dallas area regionals for The Opening, which is the most highly-regarded scouting event for high school players in the nation.  And according to 247Sports, he was one of the more impressive offensive linemen at the event.

"“[Rogers] performed well in 1-on-1 competition against good defensive line opponents…” writes Gabe Brooks of 247Sports.com.  “…while running a verified 5.35-second 40 and a sub-5.00-second pro agility time of 4.85 seconds, an encouraging number for a young offensive lineman.”"

Thee days ago, we discussed the need for Matt Wells to address offensive line depth in this recruiting class.  The Red Raiders are set to graduate both starting tackles, Terence Steele and Travis Bruffy as well as guard Madison Akamnonu following this season.  What is concerning is that recent recruiting classes have been rather shaky in terms of producing offensive line talent making next year’s OL look far from reassuring at this point.

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The middle of the line looks to be in decent shape after this year with guard Jack Anderson (who will become a three-year starter this fall) set to be the senior leader of the group in 2020 while his high school teammate Dawson Deaton will likely slide in at center. (Deaton is expected to battle senior Bailey Smith for the starting job at center this fall.)  What’s more, massive 6-foot-3, 330-pound redshirt freshman Demarcus Marshall is expected to start at guard next fall where he, Anderson and Deaton would form a salty trio of interior blockers.

But Texas Tech will have to find some tackles next fall if the program’s best weapon, QB Alan Bowman, is going to stay upright.  Perhaps someone such as 320-pound sophomore Will Farrar, 305-pound sophomore Casey Verhulst, 320-pound junior Zach Adams or 6-foot-11, 345-pound true freshman Trevor Roberson will show enough this year to ease our concerns about the edges of the offensive line moving forward.

It would also be wise to expect Matt Wells and offensive line coach Steve Farmer to be active in both the JUCO and grad transfer offensive line ranks next offseason, especially if they do not see progress from the backup tackles on the roster this year.  And offensive line recruiting is the most unpredictable recruiting adventure in college football because it is hard to evaluate how 18-year-old kids will grow into their massive frames over the course of their college careers.

Thus, it is critical for Tech to take a full offensive line class this year after brining in only two scholarship linemen in the 2019 class.  Finding quality linemen is often a numbers game and expect Wells to bring in four or five OL in this class.

Currently, Tech’s recruiting class sits last in the Big 12.  With only two players committed, Tech has half the number of players on board as the schools with the next-smallest classes, Baylor and West Virginia.  Oklahoma and TCU currently hold the top two spots in the class rankings with each school already having landed seven recruits.  Oklahoma State also has seven commits while every other school in the conference has at least four.