From the NCAA transfer portal this offseason, the Texas Tech football program added at least one player at every position group except linebacker. The vaunted class of 18 newcomers, boosted Saturday by the addition of Stanford edge rusher David Bailey, is ranked No. 1 in the nation by 247Sports and On3.
Maybe no unit is more responsible for the lofty ranking than the defensive linemen the Red Raiders procured. Early reports coming out of spring practice: They’re the real deal.
Even King Fitch can see that. King is 12, and he spotted something special in the group the other day when the Red Raiders were working a red-zone lockout drill.
“My little boy runs up to me and he said, ‘Daddy, we got dogs,’ ” Tech defensive line coach Zarnell Fitch said on Monday, “and I looked at him and said, ‘Son, yes we do.’ Same thing with my wife. We have been around some really good groups, and I tell you this is a group that is exciting.”
Texas Tech football defensive linemen by position
Fitch has Lee Hunter, Jayden Cofield and Keyshawn Williams working at noseguard. He has Skyler Gill-Howard, A.J. Holmes, Amier Washington and Dooda Banks — Banks is missing spring drills to rehab from knee surgery — at defensive tackle.
Hunter’s a 6-foot-4, 325-pound senior who earned second-team All-Big 12 recognition last year for Central Florida. Gill-Howard is a 6-1, 290-pound senior who garnered third-team All-Mid-American Conference honors last year for Northern Illinois. Holmes is a 6-3, 300-pound junior who started every game last season for Houston and earned high quarterback-pressure grades from Pro Football Focus.
Banks was a starter last year before he got hurt, and Washington and Cofield were in the Red Raiders’ rotation.
“I would say it’s a very disruptive group,” Fitch said. “They’re going to disrupt the timing of plays. They’re going to put people on edge because of how they play. They play with true grit and toughness.”
Hunter, during his time in the portal, said he heard from Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, BYU, Mississippi State, Colorado and Miami (Fla.). He canceled a visit to Texas after he committed to Texas Tech.
He might have the biggest reputation of the Red Raiders’ portal-sourced defensive tackles, but he wants help.
“I want everybody in our room eatin’,” he said. “I don’t just want to be the only good guy. I want to be the No. 1 unit in the nation, because that’s how I’m getting drafted. In the D-line room, I want to be the best as a unit, because when I get tired, I get tired.”
Edge rushers complete Texas Tech football’s portal haul up front
Edge rusher Romello Height (6-3, 235) played one year at Auburn, two at Southern Cal and one at Georgia Tech, getting credit for 73 tackles, including 16 tackles for loss and 6 1/2 sacks in his career. Bailey (6-3, 250), in three years at Stanford, was credited with 111 tackles, including 22 1/2 tackles for loss, 14 1/2 sacks and seven forced fumbles.
They’ll join a pool of fairly seasoned players with Charles Esters, Isaac Smith and Joseph Adedire, among others.
Asked how the new edge rushers aid his defensive tackles, Fitch said, “It just makes you more of an elite group. It’s really hard when you have those many guys that can affect the quarterback. It’s really hard to pick out who (as a pass protector) you’re going to slide to. People have to start going to six- and seven-man protections, and then let them see if they can handle it.”
Offensive line coach Clay McGuire joked when he sees one of his young linemen about to go against Height or Holmes, “It’s like, ‘Woo, we’re in a bad matchup right there.’ ”
One of the newcomers who’s really caught his eye, though, is Gill-Howard, who had 52 tackles and five sacks last season for Northern Illinois. Why? He’s shown a move that helped Reggie White make it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“I call him little Reggie,” Clay McGuire said, “because he’s the first kid in college I’ve seen that can actually do the hump move.”
The hump move is a complex maneuver. To oversimplify a description, it involves rushing to the outside flank of an offensive lineman, getting him off-balance, then using a strongarm move to toss the blocker aside and beat him back to the inside.
“You don’t see it much,” McGuire said, “and obviously I’m not saying he’s Reggie White or anything like that, but the move that Reggie White used, that he became famous for, I’ve seen it happen a couple of times and you see our guys on one leg trying to defend it and fight it off.
“He hasn’t quite dumped anybody on their head yet, but he’s close to it. So he’s a little sparkplug in there, he’s tough and he’s given us a lot of problems so far.”
