Texas Tech football: Early 2021 recruiting targets to watch
As the 2021 recruiting cycle picks up for the Texas Tech football program, here are some prominent targets that the Red Raiders have a realistic shot at landing.
In the world of college football, recruiting never stops. That’s especially true for a program in the position that the Texas Tech football program is in as it attempts to rebuild a roster that remains seriously flawed.
For now, Matt Wells and Co. have gotten off to a very nice start in the current recruiting cycle. With three players already verbally committed, Tech’s class sits at No. 4 in the Big 12 and No. 27 nationally, though much will change in those rankings over the next twelve months.
Headlining the 2021 class is QB Behren Morton from Eastland, Texas. The 4-star commit was born in Lubbock and spent much of his childhood there while his father James was the head coach at Monterey so that gave Wells a nice edge in his recruitment of the No. 36 player in the state and the No. 8 dual-threat QB in the nation.
One day, Morton could eventually be completing passes in Lubbock to 4-star WR Jerand Bradley. The Plano product is the No. 43 receiver in the nation and he verbally committed to the Red Raiders earlier this month.
The first player to pledge his loyalty to Tech in the 2021 cycle was Cale Sanders from New Caney, Texas. The 3-star target is listed as an “athlete” by 247Sports but plans to be a defensive back for the Red Raiders. He also plays RB for his high school team.
To say that there’s tons of work left in this class is obvious. But what may not be so obvious is the understanding that this could be the class that makes or breaks Matt Wells’ run in Lubbock.
By the time this class reaches the point that it will be expected to comprise a significant portion of the on-field product for Texas Tech, we will be in year-five of the Wells experiment (2023 when the 2021 signees are juniors or redshirt sophomores) and that will be a point when the expectations for the current coaching regime will be at their highest.
However, this haul will be highly-scrutinized long before that point because many fans feel like Wells has now had plenty of time to get his feet wet and establish his recruiting plan in Lubbock. By the time his third class puts pen to paper, he will have been in place for more than two calendar years and three seasons and fans will expect to see improvement over what this program has been able to achieve on the recruiting trail in recent years.
With spring practice set to begin the first week of March, it’s a busy time in the recruiting calendar as those workouts, especially the annual spring game, provide perfect opportunities for recruits to visit schools and observe practices. Thus, it would be wise for us to get to know some of the players that the Red Raiders have a realistic shot at landing.
For now, 247Sports lists 91 players that currently hold offers from Wells and his staff but some of them simply aren’t considering the Red Raiders because they are the biggest fish in this year’s ocean. But the targets that follow are all the caliber of player that would make sense for Tech and all would be significant additions to the program if they decide to become Red Raiders.