Baylor flips another DL from Houston in Lamar DT/DE Ira Lewis

Baylor racked up its second DL commitment, and sixteenth overall, in a familiar way today, flipping a recruit from the Houston Cougars. The first such recruit was DE Xavier Jones, who made the call on May 14. DT Ira Lewis followed him today. I feel for you, Houston fans, even though you don't want to hear it. We know how that game goes.

By the way, we're not allowed to complain about other schools going after our commitments anymore.

Lewis is a 3* DT from Houston Lamar HS that 247Sports grades out at 84. In addition to Houston and Baylor, Lewis holds confirmed offers from Boise State, SMU, and Wake Forest, among others. Mostly a DE so far in high school, Lewis' HUDL profile lists him at 6'3, 235 pounds, but his 247 profile has him at 260. I suspect that portends a move inside for his senior year and an effort to build mass to fit his frame. By the time he gets to Baylor, I see no reason why he couldn't already be in the 270-280 pound range, within shouting distance of 300 by the his sophomore or junior year. If he makes that switch inside this year and performs well, look for his stock to shoot up as the recruiting process continues. Good DTs are just that hard to find.

It's hard to tell much from his highlight videos (linked above) about his potential in college at DT, since he's actually played the position so rarely to date. My guess is that Baylor sees him as more of a 3-technique than a NT, assuming we stay in our current 4-3 alignment, but it's also possible that he moves outside in a 3-man front and stays at DE. It's purely speculation on my part, but I could see having experience at both DE and DT, along with great size, making him perfect for that kind of role.

After T'Kevian Rockwell committed Friday night to give Baylor 15, Lewis is our 16th in the 2014 class. We had just six weeks ago at the start of May. Even better, he moved the Bears to 10th in the country according to 247's team rankings. But even better than that, he wasn't alone on the commitment train from today's camp...

(that's called foreshadowing, even though you already know what came next if you follow me on twitter!)