Looking back at signing day

By Ryan Aber
raber@opubco.com

Some quick signing day news and notes from the players who are going out of state to play Division I football:

-The Dallas Morning News counts both Clinton’s Delans Griffin and Carl Albert’s Tre Porter as players that can have an immediate impact at Texas Tech: Red Raiders Make A Case for Defense With Their Class

-From Texas Tech running backs coach Chad Scott: “Delans has great quickness and great hands. He catches the ball well in the flat and has the ability turn upfield quickly. Delans has the speed to get around the end when he carries the ball. We are excited to have him in this offense.”

-From Texas Tech defensive coordinator James Willis: “Tre’Vante is an outstanding football player. He has great ball skills, and when combined with his size and explosiveness, make him a dangerous player. Tre’Vante is the prototypical corner that will do well at the college level.”

-The Waco Tribune-Herald features capsules of Baylor’s signing class, including Midwest City defensive lineman Dominque Jones and Lawton MacArthur defensive back Tuswani Copeland. They also feature comments from Bears coach Art Briles on the two: Meet the New Baylor Bears

-Mack Brown talked about Tulsa Central’s Demarco Cobbs at length:

On Demarco Cobbs playing running back: He and I will make that decision. We’re obviously in a position where we want to run the ball better and we’ve been talking about it and we haven’t done it, so we’re going to find a group of running backs and if we aren’t satisfied coming out of spring, Traylon will be a tailback for us, and we do feel like when you look at Demarco, he can play safety, he could play outside linebacker, I think he’s about 215 [pounds], he could play wide receiver, he could play in the flex position inside or he could play tailback. There are so many things he can do. What I honestly told him, because he’s a quarterback, is just trust me and when you come in we’ll let you play a couple of different spots when you start. He wants to play next year, so I’ll try my best to find a place where he can get on the field and help us. He can return kickoffs or sure, I haven’t seen him catch punts, some can and some can’t, but those are things that he might do as well.

On Cobbs being offered a scholarship as a quarterback: I think everybody offered him like we did. Everybody sees what you saw, and we all have to figure out what he does best. The only thing he told me is, “I want to play early. I’d rather play offense than defense if that chance is available,” and that’s it. He really doesn’t know where he wants to play or what he would play best, he just wants to play.