Texas Tech football makes top-10 for 4-star 2021 WR Latrell Neville

Latrell Neville, one of the top receivers in the nation has released his top-10 schools and the Texas Tech football program has made the cut.

Last week, we talked about how the Texas Tech football program has started to win some recruiting battles against key Power 5 rivals such as Arkansas, Baylor, and TCU. Now it appears like the Red Raiders are set to go toe-to-toe with some of the top programs in the sport for one of the top 2021 wide receivers in the nation.

Wednesday, Missouri City, TX product Latrell Neville released his top-10 list and the Red Raiders made the cut along with some of the most blue-blood programs the game has to offer. Joining Tech in the fight for Neville are Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Rated by 247Sports as a 4-star prospect, the 6-foot-3, 195-pounder is the No. 23 wide receiver in the nation and the No. 20 overall player in Texas. He has already taken unofficial visits to Alabama, Texas A&M, and LSU.

https://twitter.com/LatrellNeville7/status/1146493863135260675

Last fall, he put up 315 yards and six touchdowns on 17 receptions while running for 176 yards and three touchdowns on 21 rushes as a sophomore. But despite his relatively average numbers, his athleticism and size have schools across the nation already jockeying for his services.

Texas Tech might not have the pedigree of the other programs on the list but what the Red Raiders can sell is the program’s history of turning out some of the top receivers in the nation on a seemingly annual basis. For instance, last year Antoine Wesley was third in the nation with 1,410 receiving yards despite having to play for three different starting quarterbacks.

That season was also the third-best in Texas Tech football history trailing Keke Coutee’s 1,429-yard effort in 2017 and Michael Crabtree’s historic 2007 season. In fact, in the last six seasons, Tech’s leading receiver has averaged 1,259 yards per season with 2014 being the only year during that span that no Red Raider topped the 1000-yard receiving mark. What’s more, currently, there are seven Texas Tech wide receivers in the NFL, the most from any college.

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As for the 2021 outlook, Tech will presumably still have Erik Ezukanma and Myllar Royals (both of whom will play as redshirt freshmen this fall) as well as 2019 signees Trey Cleveland and Cameron Cantrell in the mix on the outside. And in the last month, Tech has landed commitments from two 2020 wide receives in 4-star prospect Ja’Lynn Polk and 3-star J.J. Sparkman, both of whom could be starring for the Red Raiders in 2021.

But 2021 will be the first year without T.J. Vasher (assuming that he exhausts his eligibility at Tech) who is on track to be a 4-year starter at wide receiver, something we have rarely seen at Tech despite the quality of the receivers to come through Lubbock.

It will be interesting to see whether Tech’s passing numbers dip with new offensive coordinator David Yost calling plays. Last year at Utah State, Yost ran the ball 15 times more than he threw it but given that his best player in Lubbock will be Alan Bowman, who was the Big 12’s best freshman QB in 2018, we might see Yost rely on the passing game more heavily than is his custom.

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Regardless of what Tech has to offer, it is going to be tough to win this recruiting battle against the top programs in the nation. If Matt Wells and his staff have any chance of pulling this off, they will have to cultivate relationships with Nevel that outweigh the alure of playing for one of the game’s name-brand programs. And it would be a huge sign that he can be the type of recruiter that this program has been severely lacking.

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