Texas Tech football: 2021 signees that could play as true freshmen

The Texas Tech football program signed a tiny 2021 recruiting class in the early window but the following signees could see the field immediately as true freshmen.

Many Texas Tech football fans are concerned about the state of the program’s recruiting.  It’s easy to understand why given that the Red Raiders signed only 10 players in last week’s early signing window.

As a result, the Red Raiders’ class ranks just 75th nationally and last in the Big 12.  That’s not going to imbue the fan base with optimism for the future of the program.

On the other hand, class rankings can be deceiving.  After all, they are predicated on quantity over quality.

The way the recruiting services rank classes is by totaling up the ranking for every prospect meaning that a class of 25 three-star signees would rank higher than a class of 15 signees that featured three or four four-star players.  However, logic would stipulate that a smaller class with better signees might make a greater overall impact.

The key is to find a balance.  And that’s where Tech might be failing itself.  Recruitng classes need to have star power, players that have all-conference potential.  However, they also need to be large enough to restock the program’s coffers.

There’s reason to worry that a class as small as the one Tech has signed is going to fail in the essential pursuit of fortifying the program’s depth.  Of course, there still remains time for Tech to add more pieces to the class before February’s traditional signing day.

Tech still needs to add some help at defensive back (where there are no high school or JUCO recruits currently signed or committed to the program), linebacker, and offensive line.  Thus, we should expect an active next two months on the recruiting trail, especially in the transfer portal and the JUCO ranks.

But there are individual players who signed last week that could eventually turn out to be foundational pieces of the program.  And some of them are likely to have an opportunity to play right away as true freshmen next fall.