A great weekend in Lubbock

Every coaching staff in college football is at full throttle right now. We're just over a week and a half away from National Signing Day, meaning those coaches are busy doing two things and two things only: locking down current commitments and making sure they're solid while simultaneously attempting to pull in other prospects to put the final touches on their 2016 recruiting class.

With that usually comes one big weekend in January where the majority of the committed class makes a trip out to their future campus for an official visit.

Coach Kingsbury and his Red Raider staff decided to circle the January 22nd weekend as their landmark OV dates, corralling most of the 2016 pledges in Lubbock for a few days ti give them both a feel for what to expect out of Texas Tech and lend them a chance to bond with a large number of their future teammates.

So, 15 of Texas Tech's commits did just that, heading out to Lubbock for the weekend this past Friday. The prospects were bombarded with all things red and black for two days, and the overwhelming consensus was that it was an incredible weekend out in West Texas.

“I probably had the best time on this visit that I’ve had ever," said Odessa (Texas) Permian cornerback and commit Desmon Smith. "We connected, like everybody, we all just connected so well, and it was just a good atmosphere. It was just a great place to be.”

Like Smith, Houston (Texas) Episcopal offensive tackle and Red Raider pledge Gio Pancotti felt he bonded quite a bit with his future teammates over the weekend. That includes his future unit-mates, fellow offensive line commits Zach Adams and Travis Bruffy.

“We all joke around with each other a lot. Me and Zach actually became really close throughout the whole thing. We even already talked about being roommates and everything."

But, it's not like this was a first time meet-and-greet for the members of Texas Tech's 2016 recruiting class. They're already a really tight group, which Desmon Smith pointed out.

“It was definitely pretty fun. We all have a group message on Twitter where we all constantly communicate, and we had all been looking forward to the visit for a while. Once we all got there, we all just connected and interacted. It was a great experience and great opportunity to get to meet our teammates and just hang out with them this weekend.”

Sure, bonding with your classmates is one of the biggest components and reasons for the visit, but learning about the inner workings of the football program is key as well. Along with several of his fellow commits, Keller (Texas) defensive end Houston Miller felt that new strength and conditioning coach Rusty Whitt's program is going to change things for the better out in West Texas.

"It's a whole new game now. Coach Whitt, he's crazy smart when it comes to all this. He's a great coach. I don't even have words to explain him and what they're doing. He's really intense. He knows what it's like to be blessed, and he made sure we knew what it was like and understood that every day we have a job to do, and if he has to get into us to do it, then we don't understand that. The program is going to completely change from here. It's a new game."

Speaking of new assistants, Miller will have a new position coach when he gets on campus in DL coach Kevin Patrick. While he interacted with University of Miami Hall of Famer in the past when he was an assistant at North Texas, this was the first real chance for Miller and the rest of the defensive line commits to spend time around Patrick as a group.

"It was so cool. We even had a position meeting with all us, the D-line commits," he said. "Coach Patrick was telling us what the plan was. He was talking to us about how he wasn't just going to coach us on football. He's going to coach us on how to be men and things like that. It was just so cool being about to be with him and talk like that."

Like Miller, Pancotti and Smith also got to spend time in the film room talking ball with their future coaches: OL coach Lee Hays and defensive coordinator David Gibbs.

“We talked about the defense we’re going to run, watched some film and videos, and really just talked a lot about how he wants to use us," said Smith. "Our aggressiveness, our speed, and just what we can do in the future, building on our weaknesses and capitalizing on our strengths as well.”

“Well, we actually got to watch film,” noted Pancotti. “We were watching film with Coach Hays, and that’s actually when you get to see the real coaching side of him. All this recruiting visit stuff, he’s obviously real cool and nice, and he could be like a dad or something like that. But, as soon as you get into the film room, you get to see the coaching side of him. I know there’s a whole nother side of that when practice starts, and this is just the surface. He let us know what his expectations are for us.”

Now, with their visit in the books, each prospect is ready to put his pen to paper and sign with the Red Raiders a week from Wednesday.

“I’m super excited. I can’t wait until signing day,” Pancotti said. “That week is probably going to be one of the best weeks of my life coming up.”

And Miller agreed.

“Just everything we learned, it was just a great atmosphere and a great place to be. I just loved the visit. I can't wait to sign, man."