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Texas Tech football: The incredible miss rate of Tech’s top 10 all-time recruits

By Matthew Conner

BATON ROUGE, LA - SEPTEMBER 08: Breiden Fehoko #91 of the LSU Tigers celebrates a sack during the first half against the Southeastern Louisiana Lions at Tiger Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
BATON ROUGE, LA - SEPTEMBER 08: Breiden Fehoko #91 of the LSU Tigers celebrates a sack during the first half against the Southeastern Louisiana Lions at Tiger Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

No. 10: J.F. Thomas

We wrap up our list of busts among the top 10 all-time recruits in Tech history with a player that signed with Tech but never made it to campus.  In 2015, 4-star Dallas, Texas wide receiver J.F. Thomas was a huge pickup for Kliff Kingsbury.

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The No. 22 wide receiver in the nation and No. 26 player in Texas, he picked Tech over LSU, Louisville, Nebraska, Ohio State, TCU, Texas and many other programs.  But after he signed with the Red Raiders, he failed to qualify academically.

He was never heard from again by Red Raider fans.

Out of high school, he enrolled at Trinity Valley Community College.  That’s where he was set to be a teammate of future Red Raider WR Derrick Willies.

I couldn’t find any stats for Thomas on the TVCC website for either 2015 or 2016 so it seems like he never played for the Cardinals as well.  That’s a sad end to the career of a talented player.

Tech’s 2015 class proved to be a dud despite being ranked No. 32 nationally and No. 3 in the Big 12 on signing day.  Including Thomas and Fehoko, Tech also saw RB Corey Dauphine, OL Connor Dyer, WR Tony Brown, IR Jonathan Giles, and LB D’Vonta Hinton among others leave the program before their eligibility had been exhausted.

In all, 60% of the top 10 players to ever sign with the Red Raiders have proved to be huge misses.  Though the 2020 class that can sign today doesn’t look to be bringing in any player that is going to crack the top 10, maybe that’s a good thing because Tech hasn’t had tons of success with the players that have come to town carrying the heaviest expectations.

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