Texas Tech football: 3-star TE Jed Castles commits to Red Raiders
Tuesday, 3-star star tight end Jed Castles from Wichita falls became the third member of the 2021 class to commit to the Texas Tech football program.
Matt Wells and the Texas Tech football program picked up a commitment Tuesday from 2021 Wichita Falls tight end Jed Castles. The 6-foot-6, 215-pounder announced his decision via Twitter saying that he is “113% committed to Texas Tech”.
Castles announced on April 1 that he had received an offer from the Red Raiders and apparently, the decision was easy for him to come to because six days later, he’s become the program’s third commit for the 2021 recruiting cycle. He joins 4-star Eastland QB Behren Morton and 4-star Plano WR Jerand Bradley.
Castles is not nearly as highly-rated at this point. In fact, he seems to be a bit of an under the radar target as he has no rating at this time from 247Sports. For what it’s worth, Rivals has him listed as a 3-star prospect, which is often a place-holder ranking that Rivals uses until it can evaluate players fully. Neither site has any position or state rankings for Castles either.
First off, I’d like to thank the man upstairs for making me the man I am today. I thank all my coaches from freshman year to now. After visiting with @CoachBindel and @jgarfield99 and talking with @TTUCoachWells and @coachlukewells, I AM 113% committed to Texas Tech!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/DFXjMwxqMV
— Jed Castles (@CastlesJed) April 7, 2020
In addition to Tech, Castles has offers from Kansas State, Iowa State, Houston, Hawaii, New Mexico, Tulane, SMU, and a handful of other programs. Interestingly, he’s seen his recruitment pick up serious momentum in recent weeks as seven scholarship offers have come his way since March 24.
Castles was in Lubbock last month for a visit and came away impressed with what he saw. He told Jarrett Johnson of 247Sports that his connection with tight ends coach Lubke Wells was also important in helping him decide to become a Red Raider.
"“The practice was phenomenal, everyone was flying around making plays and saw a lot of leaders being role models to the underclassmen,” Castles said. “During the visit I talked to every single coach about how great Tech is. The tight end coach, Coach (Luke) Wells is a great coach, very motivated in what he does has a high motor and very vocal in what he does which is what I love about a coach.”"
Restocking the tight end position with quality depth has to be a priority this offseason and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Red Raiders possibly add another TE either in the JUCO or grad transfer market because the program needs one that can help out this season. That’s because Tech has only two players at the position currently on the roster, senior Travis Koontz and redshirt freshman Simon Gonzalez (who was suspended indefinitely by Wells just prior to the start of spring practice and whose status remains uncertain).
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Wellington, TX product John Holcomb, a 3-star 2020 signee, will also be on campus this fall but it doesn’t seem wise for the Red Raiders to enter the season with Koontz as the only player in the program with any experience at the collegiate level. Therefore, while it’s great to see Wells add some help for the future of the TE position in Castles, this is going to be a spot that he will need to continue to address for the immediate needs as well since years of not having TEs in the program continue to force the Red Raiders to scramble when trying to man a position that the Red Raiders want on the field on every offensive snap.