Red Raiders Recruiting: Calvin Simpson-Hunt, Challenge vs. Reward
Texas Tech desperately wants to build a winning football program, and it started off in the right direction with the hire of Joey McGuire. The Red Raiders want to focus on local, in-state recruits and they needed a guy familiar with the state, its players, and its high school coaches.
Enter McGuire. He knows pretty much everyone in the state and is genuinely adored by everyone.
At Tech, McGuire and his staff are placing an emphasis on athleticism. If you want to play football at Tech, you better display superb athleticism. Without it, just keep moving along, you're not a good fit for the new Red Raiders.
Because of McGuire's personal relationships, he can get information before perhaps anyone else regarding younger prospects who could develop into those top-tier players that Tech cherishes.
And that's exactly how McGuire and Texas Tech landed the commitment from Waxahachie High School commit Calvin Simpson-Hunt. Tech was the first to offer. And the staff follows up with him almost every day to check on his well-being, not just as a football player, but as a person.
The Athletic checked in with Simpson-Hunt to discuss his commitment and his relationship with McGuire and Tech.
"You see all the big schools that I'm grateful to get offers from, and now outside people are like, 'Yeah, you're probably not going to Tech now,'" Simpson-Hunt said. "They think that I'm going to de-commit. But on the other hand, they don't see that (the Texas Tech coaches) are the main ones talking to me every single day. I feel a stronger connection to Tech.
"They are the main ones telling me to go out and see everyone else. They want me to know that Tech is the right place for me. They are encouraging me."
Simpson-Hunt has received additional offers from Alabama, Oregon, LSU, Stanford, USC, Notre Dame, Florida, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas, Ohio State, and others.
But honestly, what is the Texas Tech coaching staff supposed to do? If they discourage Simpson-Hunt from talking to other schools, that's a sure-fire way to lose trust and the commitment.
In this age of NIL and the transfer portal, even when Simpson-Hunt enrolls and plays for Tech, it's never been easier to move programs for a player. So the challenge is not just keeping a player until signing day and enrollment, but keeping him throughout his college career.
McGuire and Tech have done everything right up to this point, and that's all they can do. And hope that somehow their continued, expressed interest in the player will outweigh everything that other programs are throwing at him.
Simpson-Hunt has already visited Oregon and Florida and has a visit set up with Ohio State. He's trying to set up a visit with Alabama.
"The coaches must have notifications on because they see when I have big offers," he said. "They text me congratulations. They also say they aren't scared."
Again, that's all Tech can do at this point, as it still boasts the No. 2 recruiting class nationally. That's partly because it's got 20 total commitments this early in the process, with all but one commit coming from the state of Texas.
Right now, for Simpson-Hunt, Texas Tech is family, and that's true of his mother, Janel Simpson.
"I always come back to Texas Tech," she said. "I'll go to other schools and visit and go back to Texas Tech and be like, 'Is this what you guys do?' ... It's an opportunity to know that this is the right decision ... We talk every day. If they aren't talking to him, they're talking to me. The relationship is strong."
Whether Simpson-Hunt or other players stay at Tech or de-commit and play somewhere else, McGuire and his staff know what they're doing. And that's a big step for a first-year head coach.
You can follow Timm Hamm on Twitter at @IndyCarTim
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