Texas Tech football: Red Raiders make the cut for top JUCO OT

Jeremy Flax, a prized JUCO offensive tackle who recently visited the Texas Tech football program, has released his top schools and the Red Raiders have made the cut.

Friday, a trio of offensive linemen will play their final game for the Texas Tech football program.  With veterans Terence Steele, Travis Bruffy, and Madison Akamnonu set to exhaust their eligibility, the Red Raiders are looking to the JUCO ranks for help along the line of scrimmage.

Jeremy Flax, a 6-foot-6, 320-pound tackle from Independence Community College in Kansas took an official visit to Tech for the TCU game on November 15th and now, he’s included Tech in his list of six finalists.  He’s also still considering, Kentucky, Arizona, Maryland, Toledo, and Tennessee.

The Michigan native is rated by 247Sports as a 3-star prospect and the No. 1 JUCO OT in the nation.  He has played both tackle positions but has seen the bulk of his time at right tackle, where Steele has been a stalwart for the Red Raiders.

This is a huge area of need for Matt Wells and Co. because they currently have only two linemen committed for 2020.  That’s not ideal with the early signing period just a month away.

Larry Moore, a 6-foot-5, 275-pound OL from Missouri City, Texas, and Caleb Rogers, a 6-foot-4, 268-pounder from Mansfield, Texas are the only linemen Tech has in its class at this time.  Given the measurables of both, it doesn’t seem like either is expected to play right away as they need to add some weight to be ready to compete at the college level.  The same would not be true of Flax.

The future of the tackle positions for Tech is in question on both ends of the line and there are no certain answers currently on campus.

https://twitter.com/BiggFlax/status/1199147287571845120?s=20

When Steele missed the first two games of the year with an injury, 6-foot-6, 290-pound sophomore Casey Verhulst from Plano, Texas got the start in his place and played well.  But whether he is ready for a full-time starting job against Big 12 competition is yet to be known.  Still, he has the inside track for one of the starting tackle jobs at this time.

Junior Zach Adams might also be a contender for next year’s line.  The 6-foot-6, 320-pounder missed the entire 2018 season due to injury but has been praised by his coaches for his work this year.

Of course, many fans are fascinated by the potential of 2019 signee Trevor Roberson from Wellington, Texas.  The 6-foot-11, 350-pound mountain played against 2-A competition in high school so assessing his readiness was difficult.  Thus, he will be a player fans monitor closely as the offseason progresses but it seems a bit of a stretch to assume that he could start as a redshirt freshman next year.

In 2019, the Red Raiders signed only two offensive linemen.  Thus, we can assume that a full class this year is a priority for Wells.  It seems that Jeremy Flax is one of the players that this program most wants to add and if he comes to Lubbock, he will be penciled in as a stater the moment he arrives.