Football Updates: New Signees, Updated Roster, and Other Tidbits.

Bears Ink Five to Complete 2019 Class: Baylor signed 5 new guys in the second signing period. Those include:

Elijah Ellis, OL (6-6 279 lbs). Paris, TX.

Paul Matavao-Poialli, OL (6-4 330 lbs). Daly City, CA.

Garmon Randolph, DE (6-7 234 lbs). Jefferson, GA.

Yusuf Terry, WR (6-3 175 lbs). Philadelphia, PA.

Noah Rauschenberg, K (6-1 203 lbs). Tulsa, OK.

In this link you’ll find a video of Matt Rhule’s signing day press conference, quotes from the press conference, and highlight videos of the signees. Some quick notes about each signee:

• Elijah Ellis is a huge project. From a small east Texas school, he has very long arms and a big frame. I wouldn’t excpect to see him on the field for at least 3 years. He has the upside of a Connor Galvin, but comes out of high school much less game-ready.
• Paul Matavao-Poialli is a massive interior OL prospect from California. He looks to have the natural strength that many of the Polynesian (I didn’t want to assume, but I checked his twitter and his handle is “poly-boi” so I’m thinking that’s right) lineman have. He’s also very raw; his high school tape reminds me of 2018 signee Princeton Pines.
• Garmon Randolph is a tall, lean prospect out of Georgia. He had offers from just about every major school. Great get for Baylor. Despite his current build, I think he gets pretty big. I expect his future is similar to James Lynch’s, as a flex DE/DT.
• Yusuf Terry is a WR out of Philadelphia. He has a tall frame but is still pretty skinny. His helmet looks about 5x too big compared to the rest of his body. He should fill out in college and become a big-bodied possession receiver. He has good and hands and does good work after the catch. Not sure if he has the speed to become a true deep threat.
• Noah Rauschenberg is a kicker out of Tulsa. I assume he is good at kicking. Baylor needed one after Connor Martin tore his ACL in the Texas Bowl.

Baylor also has updated its Spring 2019 Roster, and a couple notable names are missing.

• First, Eleasah Anderson looks to no longer be on the team, as his name was rumored to be in the transfer portal. Anderson started a couple of games at Left Tackle this year, but looks to have been passed up by some older and younger guys.
• Second, Pooh Stricklin announced that he is foregoing his senior year and retiring from football due to some chronic injuries. He had a terrific interview with David Smoak on ESPN Central Texas.

Top 100 Lists: A couple of notable publications have published Texas Top 100 Lists for the 2019 recruiting class. Inside Texas (a Longhorn publication) has been publishing one for years, and I’ve always respected it because you can tell they see through the noise and evaluate guys independent of the national recruiting service rankings. They also post some quick evaluations for each guy as well. For the first time as far as I can tell, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football published one as well. There are some interesting differences between the lists.

Baylor had 9 guys land in Inside Texas’ List: #28 Will Williams, #45 Jacob Zeno, #58 Qualan Jones, #62 Tyrone Brown, #70 Jaylen Ellis, #73 Peyton Powell, #91 Gabriel Hall, #93 Matt Jones, #98 T.J. Franklin.

Baylor had 9 guys land in DCTF’s list: #58 Jacob Zeno, #63 Peyton Powell, #72 Qualan Jones, #76 Will Williams, #79 Jaylen Ellis, #83 Logan Compton, #89 Matt Jones, #90 Brandon White, #95 Jonah White.

As we can see, both lists include 9 Baylor signees, but they are rather different. Inside Texas’ list gets much closer to my personal rankings of the class, but both are good lists. I of course am partial to the IT list because they nail Will Williams, who I think is the best player in this class.