Coach Dykes Comments on New Signees
June 21, 1999 | Football
February 3, 1999
On the recruiting process: I think the recruiting process this year in the state was good. I think most of the good players around stayed in the state. That's saying a lot because who is to know who the good players are and only about 80 of them are eligible. There are only 80 or 85 spots in the Big 12 in this state. A few more with four schools in the WAC and North Texas, so you take nine schools times 25 and you're talking about 225 players and there's more than that in the state. So some of them have to leave. So I think the impact of the Big 12 is paying off. I think the recruiting classes that I have seen, from what I know and all I know is what I've seem on film are really good. I think all the schools did well and certainly I can talk a lot more about ours than I can about somebody else's.
On past recruiting classes: We recruited what we wanted. I haven't done many smart things in my life, but I have kept a list of recruits the day after we did it the last 12 years. We've had some awful years according to those statistics for the prognosticators and had some pretty good teams. So there is a little bit of a discrepancy there about who knows what about what. But these days you do have to grade everything and there has to be a judgment on everything. So the recruiting is graded and as I've said the best teams we've had here are five years after bad recruiting grades. So thank goodness that is not the bottom line. You know that is a way and it is not the most determining factor. It was sort of interesting last week in the Dallas Morning News on what happened five years later and what happened with that team. It sort of wakes you up because there's always some guys that can't fail that do and some guys that can't make it that do.
An overview of this class: We went after need. We recruit by need. We signed what we thought was the best runningback in the state. We signed three of the top four quarterbacks that we felt were on the top shelf when we started. We got four offensive linemen that we felt real good about. We got two great defensive linemen. We got some guys that could run. So it was a good class. We got what we needed. I think that's the main thing that you do is you get what you need.
On recruiting in Texas: I really thought all the schools in the state that I had seen I thought all of them did well. I think it was a real shot in the arm for everybody that most of those guys, those high profile players, did stay in the state. From the looks of things, from what I've seen, Texas will probably have the best year. They got a lot of national recruits. I think Phil Simms son is probably one of the top recruits in the country and he's going to Texas. I think that's a big shot in the arm for them. I think A&M did extremely well. I thought A&M really did good the last week or ten days. I haven't seen much on the other Big 12 schools out of the state. I thought Baylor got some good players and certainly Baylor got some guys that will help them in a hurry.
On the impact of this class: Our class, most of the guys that we recruited are going to be able to contribute in a hurry I think. When we started out we were going to try to fill 17 spots. We've got 15 guys on scholarship Chris Birkholtz our kicker last year was awarded a scholarship and Kyle Sanders our center that played a lot this past year was awarded a scholarship. That makes 17. I never heard a coach get up on the day of signing and say boy we recruited horrible. It's sort of like being married. It doesn't really make a difference what they look like except to you. That's about all that matters is the way you feel about them and so we feel extremely good about the people we got.
Lamont Anderson: He is one of the most outstanding defensive linemen in the state. Big, strong, fast. A guy that has a chance to make an immediate impact on our football team. He was a highly recruited player. A guy that when you watch him, he's got a lot of maturity for his age. He is a mature type football player.
Ryan Aycock from here in Lubbock. Ryan is from Coronado, played quarterback there this past year. We recruited him as a defensive player. I think he's got tremendous football skills. He's got good speed, good strength. He's an outstanding student and an outstanding football player. He did a great job playing quarterback for Lubbock Coronado.
Toby Cecil is an offensive lineman from Richardson Berkner. Toby is a big guy, 6-6, excellent football player, good pass protection skills. He's a guy that has got great feet. He's the nephew of an old basketball coach at Baylor named Jim Haller, so he's got a lot of athleticism in his family. He was born in Lubbock, Texas.
Nathan Chandler is an outstanding quarterback. I got a chance to see him play when they played Stephenville and it was two of the better quarterbacks I've seen play in a high school game in my life. You know he and Lukar on the same field, same time. He made 21 points last night in basketball. They won the state seven-on-seven title last year and you know that is pretty hard to do.
Eric Cooper is a defensive back from Houston Madison. He is the half-brother of Anthony Terrell. He's an outstanding defensive player, a highly recruited guy, a guy that I went by his school last week and he had just gotten through with baseball practice and he was going to track practice and football hadn't been over long. He's the starting catcher on the baseball team, a sprinter on the track team.
Carlos Francis is a wide receiver from Forth Worth Southwest. He's fast. He's got a 10.3 100-meters. He can make plays. He can go break a game open. He's a guy that we needed.
Byron Johnson is a defensive back from Duncanville and of course they won the state championship. He played safety for them, a big hitter, very aggressive football player, an outstanding football player. He's got good football instincts. He recovered four or five fumbles, he intercepted passes, he's all over the field.
Casey Keck is an offensive lineman from San Antonio Clark. Casey is a big aggressive offensive lineman. He's one of the better athletes I've seen to be his size since I've been watching film. I think he's got a chance to be a really big time player.
Matt McCormick is a defensive lineman from Canyon Randall. He's a great wrestler. Number one wrestler in the state, number six in the nation. Really wrestling tells you a lot about football. You've got to be quick. You've got to understand about leverage. You've got to do all those things that are imperative to being a good defensive football player.
Mickey Peters is a quarterback from Weatherford. Mickey is a guy that played at Holliday a year ago, played at Weatherford this year. He was in the same district as Lukar and the guy at Brownwood, so that is a district full of good quarterbacks and Mickey held his own. He's an outstanding basketball player. He's an outstanding track runner. He won the state in hurdles last year. His uncle Tim Markl is the head coach of the Tampa Bay Arena Football team.
Beau Radney is an offensive lineman from Sulphur Springs. Beau is an all-state player, a very intense player. Beau's got a real good disposition about him. He's very strong. When you bench press over 400 pounds in high school that is pretty good and he does it frequently.
Rex Richards is in my opinion the best offensive lineman in the state. He played at Midland Lee. A tremendous talent. He's got good strength, good quickness. Rex is one of those guys that is sort of a dream come true. He came to some games up here during the season. He committed during the football season because he was getting so many calls and so he committed before he ever visited. I think he's got a chance to be as good as there is in the country.
B.J. Symons is a quarterback from Cypress Creek. Les Koenning is his high school coach. Les was offensive coordinator for Rice. Les says that B.J. has as good of football skills as any quarterback he has ever coached. He's got great stats. He's got great percentages. He's a guy that committed early.
Harold Watson is a defensive back from Austin Reagan. He's really an outstanding football player. Defense backs are hard to find and you have to see them play live if you can and Dean Campbell has watched this guy for a long time and knows a lot about Harold. Harold has got great speed and a lot of instinct and the tools to be a really good football player.
The last but not least is Shaud Williams from over at Andrews. Of course, Shaud holds the rushing record for 4A in the state of Texas, a great back. I think the best thing about Shaud is what kind of guy he is. He's got a lot of accolades and he is no different than he was the first time I saw him. He's a very humble guy. He's a guy that is destined for stardom I think and he is a guy that deserves it. He works hard. He does a good job. He says all the right things. He's a gut that's going to have a great legacy here at Tech. He had a lot of chances to go a lot of places and this is where he felt comfortable.