SI All-American Watch List: 8 Texas Tech commits and 4 Red Raiders targets named

Top 10 position rankings start this week; preseason SI99 out in August

Quarterback Behren Morton headlines 8 Texas Tech commits and four other rising high school seniors considering the Red Raiders who are candidates for the 2020 Sports Illustrated All-American team.

Morton, 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, will face a steep jump in competition from 3A Texas football at the next level, but has the burgeoning arm talent and overall playmaking savvy needed to eventually emerge as a highly-productive starter in Lubbock. The Eastland High School star committed to Texas Tech last fall.

Listed below is the full breakdown of Red Raiders verbals and prime targets on the SI All-American watch list.

VERBAL COMMITS

QB Behren Morton/6-2, 185/Eastland, Texas

DT Solomon Wright/6-0, 270/Vian, Okla.

WR Jerand Bradley/6-5, 200/DeSoto, Texas

DE E'Maurion Banks/6-4, 260/Wichita Falls, Texas

TE Jed Castles/6-6, 215/Wichita Falls, Texas

TE Mason Tharp/6-7, 225/Spring, Texas

DE Charles Esters/6-3, 225/Cedar Hill, Texas

OT Jack Tucker/6-6, 270/Argyle, Texas

TOP TARGETS

DE Ryan Keeler/6-4.5, 250/La Grange Park, Ill.

ATH Nick Martin/5-11, 190/Texarkana, Texas

ATH Melvin Swindle/6-1, 290/Oklahoma City, Okla.

DE Landyn Watson/6-3, 240/Hutto, Texas

More than 1,000 student-athletes, representing every state in the country, are SI All-American candidates. Video highlights, scouting analyses and a list of each player’s college verbal commitment and/or top college contenders can be found on their bio pages, broken down by state, at SIAllAmerican.com.

Over the coming weeks, SI will unveil its preseason top 10 for each of 14 position groups (kicking off with quarterbacks this week). SI will unveil its initial top 99 ranking, the SI99, on August 24.

The evaluation process will continue throughout the season “until the list of 1,000 contenders coalesces around just 25 young men who can say proudly they are the best of the best -- they are Sports Illustrated All-Americans,” said SI Director of Football Recruiting John Garcia, Jr.

The candidates will be narrowed to 250 in October and 99 in November, and will culminate with 25 first-team Sports Illustrated All-Americans saluted at SI’s annual Sportsperson of the Year banquet in New York in December.