Texas Tech football: Red Raiders add 3-Star TE John Holcomb

Tuesday night, the Texas Tech football program picked up a verbal commitment from 3-star tight end John Holcomb, a key West Texas target.

Last week, we discussed five West Texas prospects that the Texas Tech football needs to prioritize.  Tuesday, one of the players from that list, John Holcomb, became the latest member of the Red Raiders’ 2020 recruiting class.

A 3-star tight end from Wellington, TX (approximately 165 miles northeast of Lubbock), Holcomb announced his commitment on Twitter Tuesday night.  In addition to Tech, he holds offers from Kansas, Indiana, SMU, Tulsa, North Texas, and others.

At 6-foot-4, 215-pounds, he is ranked by 274Sports the No. 114 player in Texas and the No. 36 tight end in the country.  Now, after visiting campus on Tuesday and picking up an offer from Matt Wells, he is set to become the second player in as many years from Wellington to join the Red Raiders.  In 2019, Tech signed 6-foot-11, 350-pound offensive tackle Trevor Roberson, a 2018 teammate of Holcomb.

A versatile athlete who won the silver medal in the class 2-A 400 meters this spring, Holcomb also plays defensive end for Wellington.   According to MaxPreps.com, Holcomb has 54 career receptions for 890 yards and 16 touchdowns with a long of 70 yards.

Adding a tight end in the 2020 signing class was a priority for the Red Raiders given that the position was largely ignored by the previous staff which utilized tight ends only sparingly.  But with new offensive coordinator David Yost now running the offense, replenishing the depth at tight end is a must.

This year, Tech signed the No. 3 JUCO tight end in the nation, Travis Koontz and 3-star Magnolia, TX tight end Simon Gonzalez.  But with senior tight end Donta Thompson set to exhaust his eligibility this year, the tight end position needed to be addressed on the recruiting trail in this cycle as well.

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"“The tight end is probably as vital to our run game as it is to our pass game,” Yost said in his first press conference with the Lubbock media last fall.  “That’s a spot we have to make sure we’re recruiting; keep the guys we got and develop them but also find other guys to stick into that position.”"

Wells’ top tight end target in this class was actually another West Texas prospect, Jalin Conyers, a 4-star tight end from Gruver, TX who has committed to Oklahoma.  Though Holcomb is not as highly touted, his athletic background could make him a great fit in Yosts’ scheme.

Yost asks his tight ends to do just about everything but throw the football.  Of course, they will be expected to capable receivers who can threaten the defense in the passing game.  But he also expects them to give Tech an advantage in the ground game by being the sixth blocker on the field.

"“By using a tight end to come in an give us a sixth man, we can gain an advantage, normally somewhere,” Yost said.  “That’s how we always keep the run game available.”"

Holcomb and the other Red Raider tight ends should expect to line up all over the offense as well.  Yost has been known to split his tight ends out to line up where a wide receiver might so that they can block for inside receivers on screens while at other times he has them line up next to the tackle in a three-point stance.

"“We didn’t have that at Missouri,” Yost said about his time as offenisve coordinator at the University of Missouri from 2001-2010.  “The tight ends stood up and that was always something that kinda bothered me.  I couldn’t run the ball when I wanted to.  I could only run when the defense let me.  Now, having a tight end, we get to dictate that more than what we were able to.”"

Holcomb is the 13th player to commit to Tech in the 2020 recruiting cycle.  Of that group, eight play on the offensive side of the ball.  With a  rating of 0.8518 (out of 1.000), he is the third highest-rated player in Tech’s class thus far trailing only wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk of Lufkin and running back Tahj Brooks from Manor.

Thanks to Holcomb, Tech’s class has also moved up to No. 7 in the Big 12 and No. 49 in the nation.  It is always great to see West Texas players stay home and John Holcomb could prove to be yet another difference-maker from the Texas panhandle to wear the Double-T.