We continue our Early enrollee Q&A with an up-close and personal look at Frisco (TX) offensive lineman Jack Anderson. Anderson, a four-star prospect and a top-200 player in the country was one of the very first commits in the 2017 class and has been a stalwart and recruiter for the class. He committed to the Red Raiders over 39 other offers.

Get to know Jack Anderson below…

TELL ME SOMETHING ABOUT YOURSELF THAT MIGHT SURPRISE PEOPLE.

“I’m actually pretty good at basketball for being 310 pounds. I can ball. I haven’t tried dunking in a while because gravity brings me down, but trust me, I can play. My strength is exactly what you think it would be. I’m pretty mean in the post getting rebounds. I’m too strong for these basketball kids.”

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOTBALL PLAYER OF ALL TIME AND WHO DO YOU MODEL YOUR GAME AFTER?

“Brian Urlacher back in the day used to be my guy. I used to collect everything from him. I used to love watching him and how he played. From a personal level, my favorite player right now is probably Trent Williams. I have had a lot of conversations with him at The Opening. He is my guy.

“My inspiration and who I model my game after is Mr. (Conor) McGregor. The man. That is my guy. I like to keep the positive energy and the trash talking and all of that and just his style. I really look up to him and how hard he works and the success he has had. I like to model my attitude and stuff like that. I think he comes to work every day with the same attitude and won’t take no for an answer.”

YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT FROM YOUR HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL CAREER?

“Definitely when I got my first scholarship offer. It was ninth grade when I was at lunch, and coach Haverty got in contact with my offensive coordinator who had left and went to a different school, but he was the only contact Haverty had. So he (the coach) texted me and told me that coach Haverty wanted for me to give him a call which I thought was interesting since coach Hays had been the one recruiting me up until then.

“I went down to the coaches office, and I was sitting down and Haverty said they wanted to offer me and then they put Kliff (Kingsbury) on the phone, and he said that they felt that I was going to be ‘that guy’ and that they wanted to be the first to offer me a scholarship. That was huge and a very memorable moment that will last forever.”

DID YOU EVER HAVE AN EMBARRASSING MOMENT PLAYING FOOTBALL?

“I’m embarrassed from in high school whenever I wouldn’t just embarrass people. I would be embarrassed myself when I would fell off a block without pancaking the guy or something. If I didn’t embarrass the guy in front of me, I would be embarrassed watching it on film. There were a few of those in high school. Also whenever they would make me go and chop block a safety. That was always kind of embarrassing because I missed a few of those guys.”

WHEN DID YOU FIRST REALIZE THAT YOU HAD THE POTENTIAL TO BE AN FBS FOOTBALL PLAYER?

“It sounds early, but when I went to camp going into 9th grade, and they had a camp for us 8th graders where we would learn the plays and stuff like that. I remember just throwing people around and with no pads, I was pancaking kids on accident, and I didn’t really mean to.

“When they said they wanted me to start on varsity as a freshman was also pretty big for me.”

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOST WHEN YOU HEAD TO TEXAS TECH?

“Probably the freedom of being a college student and living with my boys, Bronson (Boyd), Will (Farrar), and Dawson (Deaton), and all of them and just getting there and getting to work.

“I also want to have a much better year this year. I think getting there with a large task at hand will be very exciting for me. I’m looking forward to that.”

WHAT'S THE MOST UNIQUE THING A COACH SAID OR DID DURING YOUR RECRUITMENT?

“I know it was half-way sarcastic when he said it, but coach Morris sent me a letter in the mail that said, ‘Hey Jack, I named my son after you!’ That was pretty unique.”

WHAT WAS IT THAT MADE YOU THINK, "TECH IS THE PLACE FOR ME" ?

“I always kind of knew it was the place where I was going to go. Just growing up and going to games there and visiting my sister all the time. I knew it was the place for me. What kind of made me want to commit and when my dad knew was during the TCU game last year. We walked into the locker room, and they were blasting music, and I talked with everyone and felt real comfortable. That was when I really knew that I wanted to commit.”

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT DURING THE RECRUITING PROCESS?

“My favorite moment was my first offer again. That was exciting and crazy. Everything that I’ve been invited to like The Opening and the Under Armour All-American game and all that stuff. Each event had its own level of excitement and it never got old.”

WHAT WAS THE WORST PART ABOUT THE PROCESS?

“The worst part was during the heat of my recruitment, and I was getting a ton of offers. It felt like my phone would not stop blow up. I gave my number out to a few people and then when the offers rolled in, it was just interview after interview after interview every night.

“I see kids say ‘no interviews’ and I don’t know if I believe in that. You always want to interview so that people can hear you, but it gets super redundant after a while.”

WHAT SCHOOL WOULD YOU HAVE CHOSEN IF YOU HADN'T SIGNED WITH THE RED RAIDERS?

“I feel like I wouldn’t even know the answer to that question. It was always where I wanted to be, and I don’t even feel like there was a close second. I would have had to gone deeper into my recruitment and take official visits and all of that because no one really stood out to me. I would have taken my five official visits and see what would have happened after that.

“Maybe visit Alabama, take a visit to Arkansas and Oklahoma, and maybe go down to Miami again. I feel like there are no schools that really stood out to me. People say that they would go to a certain school if they would have had an offer, but at the time of my commitment, I had all of the offers that I needed. I didn’t need to wait for anything. Tech was it and there was no one else, really.”

DO YOU HAVE A NICKNAME?

“I have too many nicknames. I wouldn’t call them my favorite but I get called ‘Big Jack’ ‘Jackie boy’ and ‘Jack Attack’ was the name in my childhood. Those are the three that I am most used to.”

WHAT PERSON, DEAD OR ALIVE, WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH?

“I’d say Conor (McGregor) again on that one. We could sit and talk about all the successes and we could sit and roll around in his Rolls Royce for a little bit. That’s definitely who I would love to sit down and have dinner with.”

WOULD YOU RATHER FIGHT 100 DUCK-SIZED HORSES OR ONE HORSE-SIZED DUCK?

“I’d have to say the one horse-sized duck. That’s a lot of things to fight if there is 100, and I like my chances with just the one. I feel like the duck wouldn’t stand a chance.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE?

“The original Hangover. I was in the 6th grade when it first came out and my parents didn’t want me to see it, so I had to wait a little while. When I saw it, I loved it.”

HAVE YOU DECIDED ON WHAT YOU WANT TO MAJOR IN AT TECH?

“I want to get my MBA if I stay the whole time. I want to see if I can get that done or mostly done. Something in sales or management. I know I just want to get a business degree.”

WHAT NUMBER WOULD YOU LIKE TO WEAR AT TECH AND WHY IS THAT NUMBER SIGNIFICANT TO YOU?

“I’ve already talked to the coaches, and I’m going to wear number 56. I just thought it looked pretty good. I wore 53 in high school, and I wore 54 growing up. I wanted to wear 55 but it is retired, so I thought 56 would be the next best option.”

WHAT POSITION WILL YOU BE PLAYING AT TEXAS TECH?

“They will start me out at guard. Coach Morris said that when I get there, I’m going to start splitting reps with the ones, just start learning the plays and earn playing time. I’m coming in to compete at guard, though.”

WHAT IS A PERSONAL STRENGTH THAT YOU WILL BRING TO THE TABLE AT TECH?

“Physicality I’d say. Coach Hays, coach Morris, and coach Kliff always stress to me that their run game was not up to par this year and they want to fix that. They just feel like I could bring that nasty streak and do what I’ve done my high school career.”

WHAT IS ONE THING THAT YOU NEED TO WORK ON IN ORDER TO PLAY AT THE NEXT LEVEL?

“Definitely my strength and the mental aspect of it. Definitely when I get there, I’m going to have to bring out my competitive edge again. In high school I was used to dominating people, and it will be a lot different when I get to Texas Tech. I just need to get around that and compete every day. Once I get used to that, I think I’ll be good.”

DO YOU EXPECT TO REDSHIRT THIS SEASON?

“No, I do not. I think due to depth reasons and losing so many guys to medical redshirts and to injuries and stuff. Baylen is gone. Murphy gone. Wheeler is gone. The depth is really hurt there. I know there are a lot of guys who played last year like Paul (Stawarz) and stuff, but I expect to come in and compete with them for sure.”

WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR LEGACY TO BE WHEN YOU LEAVE TEXAS TECH?

“Personally, I want to be the best offensive lineman that Tech has ever had. I know Manny (Ramirez) will probably get mad at me for saying that because he wants to keep that crown for the most part since he was so great at Tech. When it is all said and done, I want to go down as the best offensive lineman that Tech has ever had and get that first round draft pick and just feed the fam. That’s the goal and that’s the legacy I want.”