National Signing Day continues to roar on, with Texas Tech having signed all of its high school recruits in the class of 2024. It is, as head coach Joey McGuire described it, like “Christmas morning for football coaches”, with the futures of programs coming to fruition when coveted prospects can finally put pen to paper. As it currently stands, the Red Raiders have the tied-23rd ranked high school class in the country, per Rivals.com’s team rankings.
The class is highlighted by perhaps the biggest recruiting wins in McGuire’s tenure and maybe even program history in WR Micah Hudson. The Lake Belton standout held an unofficial ceremony a week ago before officially becoming a Red Raider this morning. It was a long time coming for the young five-star and he projects to be an immediate impact player in 2024.
“He committed to us in June,” McGuire revealed in a press conference Wednesday. Hudson’s official announcement was not made public until September. “I told all of these guys who were gonna commit to us they can do whatever they want to as far as publicly. I talked about this morning, he wanted to make it public against Oregon and we didn’t have a great game, or a great ending to that game. So, you could tell he was upset and just emotional because he wanted us to win. Man he’s a part of the family, he’s been a part of the family since the first day he stepped on campus to visit. It means a lot for a guy, we have a couple of guys that are ranked really high that have stuck with us… I’ll be shocked if he’s not an instant contributor and we’re expecting him to play as a freshman. I don’t think you’ll ever hear me say we’re gonna redshirt Micah Hudson. I think from day one, from the time he is here, he will have a presence on this football team.”
One of the areas the Red Raiders have struggled at since McGuire took over has been in the offensive line room. Though there was improvement in 2023, several starters and depth options are either graduating or have gone into the transfer. The 2024 class has a chance to be the position group that shines the most when their careers are said and done in West Texas. Of the five signees, four are expected to be on campus in the spring, the lone exception being the 6-foot-7 tackle from Prosper, Ellis Davis. Getting a majority of the expected trench warriors on campus is hoped to produce results in the long run for the early-enrollees.
“It’s gonna be huge, a guy that was closest to being ready to play as a true freshman was Kaden Carr, he was a mid-year, now we get three of the five freshmen coming here, really four I guess, that’s going to help them a lot,” McGuire said. “Usually those guys, the way we can recruit offensive line, we’re really looking for guys that can grow. We’re looking for guys that are probably 270, 280 pounds that are going to grow into their 300 pound bodies, or more. Now looking the other way, when you look at guys that are in high school that are 315, 320, usually not great weight, so now we’re having to take it the other way. And as we all know, that we’ve experienced it in our lives, it’s harder to take weight off than put weight on. So that’s usually how we look at it with those guys. It’s gonna make a big difference, like man I can’t wait to get Jacob Ponton to get here. He’s a legit 6-7. I got to go to his school the other day and see him when we were on the road. He’s about 270 pounds right now and I could see him being 290 to 300 pounds by the time we start fall camp so that’s going to make a huge difference.”
The surge of defensive backs continued to be a theme in the 2024 group. The Red Raiders signed several in 2023 that turned out to be valuable depth pieces this season, most notably Brenden Jordan who spent a significant amount of time at the STAR position. Tech looks to bring in at least five DBs in 2024, with a possible sixth depending on where now-listed WR Chandlin Myers ends up. Isaiah Collins, Oliver Miles and Ashton Hampton project to play cornerback. Malik Esquerra and Peyton Morgan, who were both highly coveted and pursued by McGuire’s own mentor Matt Rhule at Nebraska, will likely occupy the two safety spots. That leaves the STAR spot possibly open for interpretation, according to McGuire.
“It’ll be interesting because I kind of see Oliver (Miles) as a corner slash he possibly could play STAR just because of his body type,” McGuire said. “He’s a guy that’s really athletic, he would have placed at the Big 12 track meet in the triple jump last year. I think he’s got a chance, he won the state track meet last year, he’s got a chance to do it again. So he’s a guy, his body type. I see more, like when you’re talking about Peyton and you start talking about Malik, they’re more your high safeties, more free safety, boundary safety, I could see those two guys staying there. I do think that because we are young in those positions, you could see some freshmen, like we saw this year, get some playing time.We’ll kind of see how they grow through the mid-year guys and the guys that will come in June, if they can physically develop enough to play.”
What McGuire and his staff have been able to accomplish on the recruiting trail in just a few years has been remarkable, to say the least. What was long viewed as a tough place to recruit to, the Red Raiders hope to make Lubbock a mainstay in the Big 12 and the hope is the 2024 class can be an even greater catalyst in this mission.
“But this class, these two classes, really three classes coming in, we are going to continue to look different when we suit out for game day,” McGuire said. “You’re gonna have a bigger, faster, stronger football team. You’re gonna have a more athletic football team. That tends to be more explosive on defense, more explosive on special teams, more explosive on offense so I think it’s going to continue to make us a better football team and a better program.”
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