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Tech pledges first Tuberville recruitBy Don Williams | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Monday, January 25, 2010
Story last updated at 1/25/2010 - 12:26 am
Joe Carmical isn't sure how new Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville found him. Nor does the Arkansas high school star know the details of how Tuberville got a hold of his high school highlights video.
He's just grateful it happened.
Carmical, who led Monticello High School to the Arkansas Class 5A state championship this season as a quarterback and linebacker, capped a whirlwind courtship with Tech by making an oral commitment during a campus visit this weekend. Carmical said he is 6-foot-2 and 231 pounds and has been told by Tech coaches that he projects as an inside linebacker.
He is the first purely Tuberville recruit to pledge to Tech; Carmical said he wasn't recruited by former coach Mike Leach's staff.
"Coach James Willis came to our house on Monday and we talked for a solid three hours, and the whole time it felt like he was reading my mind,'' Carmical said of the new Tech defensive coordinator. "We agreed on everything.
"Then we got out there and it was a beautiful campus, a strong fan base, people everywhere wearing their hats and talking Tech ball. The stadium was great. That's where I belong. It fit. It clicked. It was the place I needed to be.''
Carmical led Monticello to a 14-0 season as a senior, making all-state and being a finalist for state offensive player of the year. He said he ran for 20 touchdowns and passed for 19, but colleges largely ignored him.
As for reasons why, Monticello coach Van Paschal said he didn't use Carmical at linebacker until his senior year; prior to that, he had been a quarterback and defensive end - and he was too small to be a Division I prospect at defensive end. And as dominant as the Billies were in 2009, Carmical wound up not playing much on defense.
"I only got to play about two defensive drives a game because we got ahead so fast,'' he said, "so we had a backup come in for me on defense.''
Until Tech started recruiting Carmical in the last week, it appeared he would be shut out on offers from BCS conference schools.
"The opportunity finally came, and I've been talking to people for a while who were telling me just to be patient and it would come,'' he said. "The opportunity finally arrived, so it's very exciting.''
Before Tech jumped in, Carmical said he had scholarship offers only from Marshall, Central Arkansas and Arkansas State. He said a North Carolina assistant had been lobbying recently to get him a scholarship with the Tar Heels, and he said Kansas also had shown interest.
"I was kind of a versatile player here, and part of the trouble seemed to be that when I went to camp they didn't really know where to put me,'' he said.
Carmical said he's scored 30 on the ACT, carries a grade-point average above 4.0 and will graduate as valedictorian in a class of 160. In addition to starring in the classroom and on the football field, Carmical also was Arkansas' state champion shot putter for all classifications last spring with an effort of 54 feet, 3 inches.
"When you watch the film - I think that's the key - he just makes plays,'' Paschal said. "I think that's going to be the biggest thing is he's got a lot of football sense, not to mention the other, and he's a competitor. He knows how to win. I think those all go together.''
Carmical said he's excited at the prospects of Tech's new staff trying to implement a Southeastern Conference-style defense. He particularly likes that he'll train at linebacker under coaches with a linebacker background, starting with Willis who played it in the NFL for seven years.
"I'm really excited about playing linebacker under coach Willis and coach Tuberville,'' Carmical said. "Coach Tuberville coached linebackers for 19 years before he got in the head-coaching part, so this is exciting.''
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