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Texas Tech football: Early 2021 recruiting targets to watch

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 19: Jones AT&T Stadium is pictured before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Iowa State Cyclones on October 19, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 19: Jones AT&T Stadium is pictured before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Iowa State Cyclones on October 19, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Texas Tech Red Raiders mascot Raider Red (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
Texas Tech Red Raiders mascot Raider Red (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

RB Cam’Ron Valdez

Running back remains a position that Tech needs to address with not only talent but sheer numbers.  The program continues to play catch-up at that spot because no high school RB signed with Tech in either 2017 or 2019.

That’s why last year saw Wells’ team play with just three scholarship running backs.  And by the end of the year, grad transfer Armand Shyne was sidelined with broken ribs and both SaRodorick Thompson and Ta’Zhawn Henry were playing at far less than 100%.  In fact, against Kansas State, Thompson played every snap because he was the only scholarship RB on the roster that was dressed out for the game.

That’s why we can expect Tech to add multiple RBs in the 2021 class (if possible) after signing just one in 2020.  One highly-valued target with serious interest is Cam’Ron Valdez.

A 4-star recruit from Rockdale, Texas, the 5-foot-10, 187-pounder is listed by the 247Sports’ composite rankings as the No. 20 RB in the nation and the No. 47 player in Texas.  That’s the type of talent that Tech has been unable to add at RB for quite some time.

He has gone over 1,000 yards in each of his past two seasons including a 1,697-yard, 26-TD season in 2019.  For his career, he’s averaged 8.1 yards per carry and he could be the type of explosive playmaker that could thrive in OC David Yost’s offense.

Valez already holds offers from such programs as Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Houston, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ole Miss, TCU, Utah, and West Virginia among others.  He’s also taken unofficial visits to Baylor and Texas though he’s yet to hold an offer from either of those programs.

Since DeAndre Washington had his second-career 1,000-yard season in 2015, the Red Raiders have not had a running back rush for more than Justin Stockton’s 797 in 2017.  What’s more, twice in that span, no Red Raider has topped the 500-yard rushing mark and in 2018, the team’s leading rusher was third-string QB Jett Duffey.

To say that running back is a position of need for Tech is an understatement.  That makes a player of Cam’Ron Valdez’s talent worth watching.  He was in Lubbock last month for junior day and he will be one of Wells’ most coveted targets.

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