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Highland Park offensive lineman Chris Olson (6-5, 280 pounds) said Sunday night he has orally committed to Texas Tech.

Oral commitments are nonbinding. The first day a recruit in the Class of 2006 can sign a national letter of intent is Feb. 1.

Also, Iowa Park offensive lineman Tyler Duggins said he has committed to Tech, giving the Red Raiders' 10 commitments, four of them from offensive linemen. Tech also has oral pledges from Garland's Buddy Brumit (6-4, 284) and Boerne's Ben Davis (6-7, 275).

Olson said he had scholarship offers from SMU, UT-El Paso, Vanderbilt, Kansas State, Kansas, Indiana, Arizona State, Tulsa and Oklahoma State. Duggins said he picked Tech over TCU, UTEP, Purdue and Baylor.

Beating Baylor, becomes more important everyday.

Apparently we weren't even close. There was a time when we got virtually all the top players from HP, yet in this case we didn't even make the top 5.

This kid was not from our backyard, he was in our frontyard, which I think is almost harder. Kids want to go to college, they want to go farther than 4 miles.
Not saying this why he didn't come here, but i don't think i would have even if we were contenders every year.

nm..

Bennett needs some help quick because this class is unfortunately slipping away from him already.

Chris Olson had it narrowed down to two schools, us and TT (Not sure where you heard differently Diehard), and we let him get away.

me@smu wrote:Bennett needs some help quick because this class is unfortunately slipping away from him already.

Chris Olson had it narrowed down to two schools, us and TT (Not sure where you heard differently Diehard), and we let him get away.

I got it from the original post where he is quoted about which schools he picked from. He didn't mention SMU in the group.

Diehard Pony wrote:

me@smu wrote:Bennett needs some help quick because this class is unfortunately slipping away from him already.

Chris Olson had it narrowed down to two schools, us and TT (Not sure where you heard differently Diehard), and we let him get away.

I got it from the original post where he is quoted about which schools he picked from. He didn't mention SMU in the group.

I think you misread it. SMU was not on the list of the guy from Iowa Park who also committed to Tech yesterday.

My bad.

A little more info...from www.raiderpower.com

Highland Park OL Chris Olson, measuring at or about 6-4/6-4.5, 280 pounds, is listed as a solid Texas Tech commitment in the Scout.com database.
The Texas Top 100 selection late last week said he wasn’t planning on giving a verbal pledge until late June. But in the Friday Red Raider Wrap, Mark Sparrow hinted at the possibility that you could see this one going down with two recent OL commitments opting for Tech early last week. Looks like he had this one pegged…

“It (OL commits wrapping up two spots in this Tech recruiting class) was a factor," Olson told Scout.com. "I talked it over with my parents and decided to close it down and committed to Texas Tech. And we thought it would be a better fit.”

Taking us back a bit -- before ending the suspense -- one of the top DFW-area linemen said he made the call and the Red Raider coaches were very excited, telling Olson he would relay the commitment news to everyone on the Texas Tech coaching staff.

“My parents were really impressed with everything (on the unofficial visit) there, and we think playing in the Big 12 would be a really neat experience for me,“ Olson said.

With the Big 12 South Division expected to put four teams into the Top 25, and a possibility of a fifth, the level of competition is enticing according the Highland Park RT…

“I’m really excited about going to Tech and playing in the Big 12 South,” Olson explained. “When you have a chance to step on the field, against arguably the best in the country, you get to test your skills against the best.”

Possibly the second-most talented Red Raider commitment we have currently on our Mock Texas Top 100/200 board, just behind Justin Northwest LB Blake Collier at No. 24 overall, could Olson be tempted to look around?

“I’m all Texas Tech,” Olson said. “Nothing is going to change my mind.”

Other Notes:
JR. Stats: 75 pancakes (and/or cut-blocks and knockdowns), 0 sacks allowed, 3 holding penalties, 1 false start.
Academics: 3.5 GPA, 1490 SAT.
Major: Business Management

me@smu wrote:Bennett needs some help quick because this class is unfortunately slipping away from him already.

Chris Olson had it narrowed down to two schools, us and TT (Not sure where you heard differently Diehard), and we let him get away.

Not so fast, my friend! (Had to throw that in -- hadn't had one of those in a while....) This class is not slipping away at all. Sure, I would have liked to see Olson end up at SMU (and considering his friendship with Bennett's son, couldn't that still happen anyway? It's a possibility .... ) I also would have liked to see Matt Stafford and Sergio Kindle commit to SMU. But to quote our friends who watch the recruiting wars closely, "it's early." VERY early. There are a lot of players still out there. How many did we have last year at this time? I agree with you in the sense that I'd love to see the commitments rolling in for the Ponies. But SMU hasn't had it's camps yet (other than the 7-on-7), and they traditionally haven't gotten commitments this early, anyway. Hell, Bob Stoops only has a handful up at OU. Do you think he's ready to fall on his sword after seeing the Horns fill (or nearly fill) their class already? Of course not. Have a tall, cold drink and relax. It's too early to freak out about the class just yet.

Thank you Corso...needed that bit of a slap! I realize it is very early in the process, however, little disenfranchised when 45 of the texas top 100 have committed already and we haven't gotten a sniff. I realize that I shouldn't expect miracles like Sergio Kindle or Stafford, however, to lose Olsen from our backyard was a little rough.

Anyways, appreciate the slap back to reality and hopefully Bennet gets this turned around.

Corso wrote:Hell, Bob Stoops only has a handful up at OU. Do you think he's ready to fall on his sword after seeing the Horns fill (or nearly fill) their class already?

Yeah, that's an appropriate comparison.

Should've said that last years undefeated teams, USC and Auburn have zero combined commits last I checked.

Danny Noonan wrote:Should've said that last years undefeated teams, USC and Auburn have zero combined commits last I checked.

I doubt they are very worried because verbal commitments aren't worth the paper they are written on.