Texas Tech football in top-8 for highly-coveted DE Robert Wooten

Wednesday, 3-star defensive end Robert Wooten included Texas Tech in his top-8 schools but to land him, the Red Raiders will have to beat out some tough competition.

If Matt Wells and the new Texas Tech football coaching staff is going to turn the Red Raiders around, they are going to have to improve the program’s fortunes on the recruiting trail. That means they will have to start beating out some respected Power 5 programs on a more consistent basis. That’s what Wells will have to do to land 3-star DE Robert Wooten, who has included the Red Raiders in his top-8 schools.

The 6-foot-3, 230-pounder from Stafford, Texas is rated the No. 36 weak side defensive end in the nation and the No. 119 overall player in Texas according to 247Sports.com. In addition to Texas Tech, he has Missouri, Arizona, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Arizona State and SMU in his top-8. He also holds offers from Houston, Kansas, Syracuse, Utah and Vanderbilt among others.

In 2018, he recorded 79 tackles (22 for loss) and eleven sacks. That, combined with his selection as a first-team all-district honoree has helped his stock increase significantly. Since the end of the season, he has picked up as many as 18 offers, including five Power 5 offers in the last 30 days.

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247Sports reports that Wooten is set to take an official visit to Lubbock on June 21, which is a date that Wells and his staff are targeting as the biggest recruiting weekend of the summer when they hope to have dozens of top targets on campus. Already having officially visited SMU, Wooten has also been to Texas A&M for junior day activities. He is also in line to take an official visit Missouri on June 7th.

This is the caliber of prospect that Texas Tech has struggled to consistently land as the program’s recruiting has slipped in recent seasons. But in the 2019 signing class, the Red Raiders were able to land two very good defensive end prospects.

In signing 4-star defensive end Gilbert Ibeneme and 3-star Tony Bradford Jr. the Red Raiders added some much-needed talent to what is currently an unproven and thin defensive end rotation. That means Ibeneme and Bradford could push for immediate playing time and that a player of Wooten’s caliber could be intrigued by the possibility of early playing time with the Red Raiders.

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Currently with only two 2020 players committed, the Red Raiders’ class sits at No. 84 in the nation and last in the Big 12. But at this time last year, Tech stood in a similar position before twelve prospects committed in June and July. Certainly, Red Raider fans are hoping for a repeat this summer. But when that happens, the caliber of athlete that commits has to improve over what we have seen in recent classes.

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