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Baylor Football Recruiting Notes: April 2014

It's a new month, and that means a new monthly recruiting thread!

By Mark C. Moore
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Baylor now has 6 commits at the start of April 2014 and many more reportedly close.

More: March Recruiting Thread

247Sports' Crystal Ball:

Baylor's 2015 Crystal Ball Prediction List / Mark Moore's Predictions

Check back on these often; the predictions update every day.

2015 Recruiting Class -- National Rank: 11, Commits: 8

OFFENSE: QB (1/1), RB (1/2), WR (2/3), TE (0/0), OL (2/3)

QB: Chad President
QB/WR: Blake Lynch
RB: JaMycal Hasty
WR: Devontre Stricklin
OT: Maurice Porter (JUCO)
C: Sam Tecklenburg

DEFENSE: DT (0/1), DE (1/2), LB (0/2), NB (0/1), CB (1/2), S (0/2)

DE/LB: Louis Brown
ATH: John Humphrey

2015 Wish List:

RB (speed): ? | Tyreik Gray (100% Baylor)
RB (big back): Soso Jamobo (54% OU, 3% BU)
WR (inside): Ryan Newsome (68% UT, 10% BU)
WR (outside): Damarkus Lodge (57% Baylor)
OT: Conner Dyer (50% A&M, 0% BU), Madison Akamnonu (83% Texas, 0% BU)

DE: James Lockhart (100% Baylor)
DT: Darrion Daniels (100% Baylor)
OLB: Cameron Townsend (100% UT, 0% BU) | Malik Jefferson (74% A&M, 0% BU) | Anthony Wheeler (69% UT, 0% BU)
NB: Richard Moore (100% Baylor)
CB: Kris Boyd (62% A&M, 0% BU) | Holton Hill (89% A&M, 0% BU) | Jordan Tolbert (54% Texas, 46% BU) | Marcus Lewis (82% Ohio State, 0% BU)
S: Kahlil Haughton (70% Baylor) | PJ Locke (50% Baylor)

All of the players above hold Baylor offers and have indicated at least some interest in the Bears such that their inclusion is not simply the result of wishful thinking.

Players Removed (who did not commit to us): OT Keaton Sutherland (Probably commits to Arky soon), RB Ronald Jones, Jr. (Oklahoma State), CB P.J. Mbanasor (I think we're out), LB Ricky DeBerry (Baylor out), RB Chris Warren (Baylor backed off), QB Jarrett Stidham (Texas Tech), S Larry Pryor (A&M).

UPDATES:

2015 Recruiting:

RB Corey Dauphine (4/29): Ran a reported 21.14 this past weekend in the 200 and may be in line for a Baylor offer soon.  Is committed now to Texas Tech. UPDATE: Got his Baylor offer after talking tonight to Lebby.

QB Kai Locksley (4/26):  I'm going to leave the update below since it provides what I consider to be important information, but Locksley told 247Sports that he's going to visit both Baylor and UT this summer.

RB Rodney Anderson (4/24): The 4* RB decommitted from Texas A&M last night (or "reopened his commitment," if you prefer that verbiage).  Aside from the possibility that Baylor now recruits him harder and lands him (which, though unlikely, is at least possible), this could impact our recruiting in several different ways.  The most obvious is that A&M now looks elsewhere for another RB for this cycle and casts their gaze in the direction of commit JaMycal Hasty.  I'd consider that likely even if Hasty doesn't fit the same "big back" profile as Anderson.  The next is that Anderson commits to someone like OU (Crystal Ball at 75% for the Sooners), influencing their recruiting of someone like Soso Jamobo, who we know Baylor wants as our big back.  This is definitely a situation to watch going forward, even if the chances that Anderson becomes a Bear are slim.

I'm not going to add Anderson to our "big back" slot on the Wish List unless we hear something about Baylor recruiting him harder in the aftermath of his decommitment.

OLB Anthony Wheeler (4/23): Baylor made the Top 5 for the 4* OLB (as of this moment) per 247Sports ($$).

DT Bryce English (4/23): Decommitted from Texas today.  Despite English not holding a Baylor offer, Taylor Young took to instagram to proclaim that he should come to Waco.  We'll see if this prompts another look.

DE James Lockhart (4/23): Briles spoke to the 4* DE personally last night.

QB Kai Locksley (4/19): Baylor offered today.  This is interesting for a few reasons, one of which is that we have only a handful of QB offers out in this class and two commits already who play that position in high school (but may not in college).  Everybody and their dog has him predicted to Maryland (96% with 23 predictions) on Crystal Ball, probably because: A) He's from Maryland, and B) his father, Mike Locksley, is the OC at Maryland now after being the head coach at New Mexico for three seasons.  What I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't get too worked up about this possibility.  Texas supposedly wants him bad, too.

OT Madison Akamnonu (4/16): Baylor offered the Arlington Bowie recruit yesterday.

OT Sam Tecklenburg (4/16): #DreamBigDreamBaylor. This one comes as a bit of a surprise as all 7 of the predictions in the 247 database favored Texas Tech. Update: After some initial confusion, it now appears that Tecklenburg is to be slated for the offensive line, where is height and versatility in high school will likely project him to an OT spot for now. After the creeping concern that Baylor was focusing too much on small lightning bolts and not enough on big sexies, Baylor has brought in a decidedly beefy player that should help quell those concerns.

-Pras

ATH John Humphrey (4/15):

OLB/DE Landis Durham (4/15): Baylor offered today.

TE Will Gragg (4/15): Baylor offered today.  Doubt there's much chance here coming in relatively late.

CB Marcus Lewis (4/10): Baylor offered on Tuesday.  Latest update from 247Sports says he has real interest in the Bears.  Brian Norwood is recruiting him.

S P.J. Locke (4/9): Baylor looks to be in a pretty good situation with him.

WR JF Thomas (4/8): Told the Maryland 247 folks that if we offer, he'd commit on the spot.  This is interesting because of his size (reported at 6-5 in the article, 6-3 on his profile).  May be one to watch if we miss on Lodge?

RB Ronald Jones (4/6): Baylor's top target at RB reportedly committed to Oklahoma State this morning.  Could mean Hasty remains at RB rather than going to IR, could mean we move to a different back.  Not sure yet.

ATH Tony Nicholson (4/5): Attended Baylor's Spring Scrimmage.  Reportedly almost committed.  I think we want him as a CB.

OT Conner Dyer (4/2): Attended Baylor's Spring Scrimmage today.  Mentioned a top three that doesn't include Baylor or A&M, so I removed him from the Wish List.  Then said that top three wasn't definitive, so I added him back.

LB Malik Jefferson (4/1): Did an interview with 247Sports where he spoke about Texas A&M, Texas, and Baylor. Backed off his earlier statements naming A&M his leader.

RB Soso Jamobo (4/1): Cut his list to a tentative top 4 of Baylor, OU, UCLA, and Oregon. Consensus seems to be Baylor vs. OU battle with Oregon as a sleeper. Not sure why any predictions still exist with him going to UT. They're all-in on Chris Warren, who Baylor backed off weeks ago.

LB Ricky DeBerry (3/31): Named a top 20. Baylor out.

WR/RB JaMycal Hasty (3/29): Committed.

CB Holton Hill (3/29): Wants to see Baylor.

2016 Recruiting:

OL J.P. Urquidez (4/26): After visiting Baylor for the Scrimmage, Urquidez is reporting that he will visit again.

CB/S Eric Cuffee (4/24): Baylor reportedly close to offering (kid thought they did already, but they did not).  Need to lock down this Waco talent.

CB Jared Mayden (4/2): Named Baylor as #1 in his latest top three.

SB Nation Recruiting Scouting Reports:

The fine gentlemen at SB Nation Recruiting have been putting together scouting reports by the dozen for major 2015 prospects. A few of those reports are germane to us as Baylor fans:

QB Chad President
RB Ronald Jones
RB Soso Jamobo
RB Tyreik Gray
RB/WR JaMycal Hasty
WR Damarkus Lodge
DT Darrion Daniels
DE James Lockhart
LB Malik Jefferson

RECRUITING THOUGHTS: 2015

I changed up the defensive side of the 2015 Wish List today based on a new offer and a few other things.  First, Anthony Wheeler was at our spring scrimmage this past weekend and reportedly had a good time, so I added him back to the List just in case we have a chance.  Second, we offered CB Marcus Lewis from DC this week, and his response makes it seem, at least, like this is more than a "Hey, just in case you decide to get a little crazy..." type of offer.  I also took Keaton Sutherland off the OT spot because the word is that he will commit to Arkansas within the next couple of days.

-----

With eight commits already and two potential greyshirts, Baylor may only have about 6 or 7 more spots left in our 2015 recruiting class. Think about that for a minute. If that's true, I break the guaranteed spots left among the following players:

Lodge
Lockhart
Daniels
Jamobo
Hines/Jefferson/Townsend (one of the three)

I think those four could commit at any time and Baylor would take them. I'd probably add Stidham to the list if he wanted to switch.

That leaves 2-3 spots for the following positions: LB, CB, S, filled preferably by Jefferson, Hill, and Haughton.

Changelog:

4/1/2014: Created April Recruiting Thread. Pruned 2015 Wish List. Updates on RBs and Ricky DeBerry. Added Thoughts section as way to provide additional context.
4/2/2014: Update on 2015 Conner Dyer and 2016 Jared Mayden.
4/5/2014: Added a couple of visitors (2015 and 2016) and a link info on Tony Nicholson.
4/6/2014: Ronald Jones committed to OKState.  Added a few Thoughts.
4/8/2014: Added updates to 2015 section.
4/9/2014: S P.J. Locke says we're still his leader.
4/10/2014: Added scouting report for 2015 RB Tyreik Gray.  Updated the 2015 Wish List considerably.
4/11/2014: Added scouting report for 2015 RB/WR commit JaMycal Hasty.
4/15/2014: Added John Humphrey's commitment.  Offer to 2015 OLB/DE Landis Durham and TE Will Gragg.
4/16/2014: Added Sam Tecklenburg's commitment, Akamnonu's offer.  Removed OT from the 2015 Wish List.
4/17/2014: Cleaned up 2015 Updates section. Added scouting report for DT Darrion Daniels.  OT back in the 2015 Wish List.  Offer to QB Kai Locksley.
4/19/2014: Made Kai Locksley's Top 10.
4/23/2014: Added update on 2015 DE James Lockhart, DT Bryce English, and OLB Anthony Wheeler.
4/24/2014: Updated about RB Rodney Anderson's decommit from Texas A&M.  Offer close for 2016 Waco CB/S Eric Cuffee.
4/26/2014: Updates with Kai Locksley and 2016's JP Urquidez.  Updated the Wish List percentages.
4/29/2014: Update about RB Corey Dauphine.

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