Texas Tech football offers high school freshman DB from Dallas

The Texas Tech football program has extended a scholarship offer to Malik Muhammad, a high school freshman from Dallas.

Perhaps the most noticeable change in the Texas Tech football program’s recruiting tactics under Matt Wells has been how early the Red Raiders have begun to court top high school talent.  That was taken to a new level this week when Wells and his staff offered a scholarship to Malik Muhammad, who has just begun his freshman year of high school.

The 5-foot-10, 160-pound er actually holds two Big 12 offers with Kansas being the first program to throw their hat in the ring.  Now, Tech has joined the fray for the South Oak Cliff High School product.

Of course, this recruiting battle will once again pit the Red Raiders against a familiar face, Emmett Jones.  The former Texas Tech receivers coach is a master at recruiting the Dallas market after being the head coach at South Oak Cliff from 2012-14 and after 14 years as an assistant coach at three prominent DFW schools, Skyline, Lincoln, and Seagoville.

In just his first recruiting class with Kansas, Jones managed to flip a number of the players he recruited from Tech to KU.  That included 4-star DE Stephen Parker and 3-star RB Velton Gardner, both of whom Texas Tech could have used on this year’s current roster.

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But what is more interesting about the offer to Muhammad is how different the new Red Raider staff is attacking the task of luring top talent to the South Plains.  And for many observers of the program, it might come as a welcome pivot.

The Kingsbury coaching staff was infamous among Red Raider fans for slow-playing recruits, especially on the defensive side of the ball.  That was mainly because former DC David Gibbs preferred to see players in person, either at summer camps or on Friday nights, before he felt comfortable offering them scholarships.

That strategy was in line with his rather cautious approach to calling plays on Saturdays as he was content to utilize a bend but don’t break approach.  However, the cautious route never seemed to yield the desired results on either the recruiting trail or the gridiron.

For instance, in 2017, Gibbs was cautious in his recruitment of defensive end David Anenih from Mansfield, who was considered a strong Red Raider lean.  As a result, the high 3-star prospect eventually committed to Houston and Tech signed only one DE in that class, Nelson Mbanasor.  Thus far, Anenih has amassed six career sacks in his two-year career, more than any current Texas Tech defensive lineman outside of Eli Howard.

Many Tech fans will be happy to know that the days of the program dragging its feet are over, especially on the defensive side of the ball.  After all, Muhammad is not the first high school freshman defender to pick up an offer from the Wells staff.

Back in February, Lubbock Cooper 5-star safety Kobie McKenzie (who projects as an outside LB at Tech) committed to the Red Raiders as a freshman.  The 6-foot-2, 227-pounder also has offers from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M and figures to be one of the most important targets in the modern era of Red Raider football.

McKenzie is one of six players in the class of 2022 with an offer from the Red Raiders.  Of that group, four are rated as 4 or 5-star recruits.

This seems to be a much more logical strategy for the Red Raiders when pursuing the top talent in Texas.  Without having the benefit of being a blue-blood program, Tech has to rely on building strong personal ties with elite prospects and there’s no harm in beginning that process as soon as possible.

Only time will tell if this aggressive and proactive new strategy will day dividends.  But we already know that sitting back and playing hard to get didn’t work so the Red Raiders might as well try something different.