Well, Kadron Boone gave us a 6-month lap dance before bolting to a swankier joint and better tips in New Orleans.  Let me tell you something, Kadron, it’s not all its cracked up to be.  Next thing you know, you’re stuck in a dive fetish joint off Bourbon Street asking how your life has come to a series of $100 transactions for Louisiana Congressmen to urinate on your leg.  Good luck.

Onto the new Red Raiders and we’ll use the same parameters applied on defense.  Small class, but we aren’t hurting anywhere right now on this side of the ball.  We needed a QB prospect to compete with Doege and Karam next spring. 

Most Likely Playmakers:

QB Scotty Young, 6′3″, 185, Denton, TX (Ryan) -  The most mechanically sound and polished passer signed in school history.  That doesn’t mean he’ll pan out, but everything I read says he’s the best QB in the state.  He can make every throw and it typically gets there in stride. 

WR LaVaughn Whigham, 6′1″, 180, Miami, FL (Southridge) - I included LaVaughn Whigham initially on defense, but it appears he’ll indeed start out at WR for us.  I would like for someone to explain the tangible difference between Whigham and Boone on film other than Whigham gets to full speed quicker out of his cuts making him the better open field runner of the two.  Boone’s a more polished route runner right now, but Whigham is the better athlete.  You can accuse me of sour grapes on this one, but it’s all right there on tape.  Whigham scored every other time he caught a pass, and at that rate, we better be getting him the ball more often than 16 catches.  The only thing setting Boone apart from Whigham is a qualifying transcript.  Let’s cross our fingers he makes it in, but Willis implied he would get here.  I hope he’s right.

OL Beau Carpenter, 6′7″, 275, Sulphur Springs, TX - I always make the assumption OL guys will redshirt and I imagine that will be the case here.  Carpenter can get anywhere he wants to on the field, which will serve well for our screen game.  He zone blocks a little in his film, but he’s too tall for that skill to translate to the next level.  The first negative sign of the Tuberville Era will be if we start asking our existing roster to reach block on a regular basis.  Given our blocking schemes stay in place, Carpenter has the ability to do everything we require and he’s got a little bit of a nasty streak.

WR Shawn Corker, 6′1″, 185, Ft. Lauderdale, FL – The most important quality in our offense is the ability to catch the football.  I love the way Corker catches the ball at its highest point and he appears to have big, strong hands.  Doesn’t possess elite speed, but he’ll run with any of our returning starters.  He looks huge on film to me and his physical build could translate to immediate playing time, if he picks up the offense.  Corker is Lyle Leong on steroids.

Most Likely Role Players:

RB/IR Ben McRoy, 5′9″, 160, Lakeland, FL - McRoy will greyshirt and join the program next January.  If he’s 5′9″, then I’m 6′2″.  Appears to be around 5′7″, which works to his advantage.  He’s stronger than Delans Griffin despite his stature and faster to boot.  We’ve done a lot of things with guys like McRoy in the past and I could see him being either Johnnie Mack or Nehemiah Glover.    He’ll get physical finishing runs and his stature allows him to get under the pad level of much bigger players.  Guys like McRoy play with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.  While he may not be your prototypical RB, I could also see him beating out higher rated players due to his competitive nature and toughness.  You get better with guys like him on your team because he’ll push everyone on the depth chart at his position.

OL Aleon Calhoun, 6′7″, 315, Navasota, TX – Great frame and natural strength.  He still gets away with biggest 8th grader on the field technique and he’ll have to work on his pad level.  When I initially saw his film last spring, LaAdrian Waddle came to mind, but that was before Waddle ended up be our best OL recruit.  I certainly didn’t see that one coming.  I don’t think Calhoun fires off the ball as consistently as Waddle, but he’s a good enough athlete for his massive size.  He doesn’t look like he has to try very hard to get results at the current level of football, but when motivated, you’re not going to find many OL prospects with his strength. 

RB Delans Griffin, 5′10″, 180, Clinton, OK - He’s got a lot of stars under his name, good vision and a little shake to him.  I’m not sold that his speed will translate to the homerun threat he serves as on the reservation.  There isn’t much on his film to show how he responds to contact, so I have no idea if he can break arm tackles at the Big 12 level.  He just looks like a nice little RB prospect with decent speed to me.  Vision is there, which is arguably the most important quality for a RB in our scheme.

OL James Polk, 6′7″, 290, Alief, TX (Elsik) – Good frame, but I don’t think he has Mickey Okafor level footwork coming out of high school.  I seriously doubt we’ll ever see him lining up at tackle for us and he’s too tall to be a great drive blocker on the inside.  DTs won’t have any trouble getting under his pads.

Overall

Whigham was a big find for us to offset the loss of Boone.  I would take an athlete like Whigham over Boone every time you put a gun to my head.  Outside of Carpenter, the OL class looks somewhat high risk to me and we didn’t sign any solid guard or center prospects.  Disappointing considering how deep the OL class was in Texas this year, but we’re not in dire straits right now at the position.  I’ve got a lot of confidence in Matt Moore and the young talent on our roster.  Landing Scotty Young was huge for us and I think McRoy/Whigham were steals at the skill position.