Most Injury Plagued
The 4th-best prospect in the 2015 class according to 247Sports was Connor Dyer, an offensive tackle from Mesquite. But he never stepped foot on the field for Texas Tech before retiring after the 2016 season because of recurring knee injuries.
A four-star signee and the No. 27 OT in the nation in his class, Dyer was supposed to be Tech’s left tackle of the future. But instead, he left Tech scrambling to try to find help at that spot.
Fortunately, Terrence Steele proved to be a huge surprise. The four-year starter was just a low-rated 3-star signee in 2015 and was only Tech’s 17th-best signee that year as far as recruiting scores go.
However, he would go on to be one of the most steady linemen in recent Red Raider history and he teamed with fellow 2015 signee Madison Akamnonu to give the program two players that started parts of four seasons.
But two more OL signees from that class also flamed out before ever making an impact. Cody Wheeler also had injuries cut his career short while Trace Ellison was kicked off the team for an off-field matter.
In the end, Tech signed six OL in 2015. Three (Steele, Akamnonu, and Paul Stawarz) became multi-year starters while the other three never factored in at all.
But it was Dyer’s retirement that hurt the most from the trio of busts. He arrived with all the makings of a star OT but never got the chance to live up to that billing.
One might say that DE Lonzell Gillmore deserves the title of most injury-prone in the 2015 class and that would be fair. But at least he eventually got on the field. The same can’t be said for Connor Dyer.