by Jarret Johnson for Inside the Red Raiders
Texas Tech added yet another grad transfer at a position of need with the commitment announcement of LSU safety Eric Monroe on Saturday afternoon.
The 5-foot-11, 197-pound defensive back tallied 21 tackles, one stop for loss and two pass breakups in 29 appearances over the past three seasons with the Tigers.
Monroe entered the transfer portal a little over a week ago and the Red Raiders quickly pursued the Texas native. The coaching staff talked with both Monroe and his mother last week which ended up sealing the deal.
Monroe is expected to graduate from LSU this summer which will allow him to transfer to Texas Tech and be immediately eligible to play his final season of college football for the Red Raiders in the fall.
The former four-star recruit was rated as the No. 1 safety in the country, the No. 42 overall player in the nation and the No. 3 overall player in Texas coming out of Galena Park North Shore High School in 2016. Monroe was ranked as the No. 55 overall recruit in the U.S., the No. 3 safety in the nation and the No. 9 overall player in the Lone Star State by the 247Sports Composite, an average of the major recruiting service rankings.
Monroe is the fifth scholarship grad transfer Texas Tech has added this offseason joining former Michigan State linebacker Brandon Boyer-Randle, who has already signed, enrolled and was on-hand for spring ball in March, plus a pair of transfers who signed with the Red Raiders in April in former Wofford offensive lineman Josh Burger, former Duke linebacker Jacob Morgenstern and Alabama running back Chadarius Townsend.
“We’re going to continue to play in that space, continue to play in the grad transfer market. We’re going to have to stay old, I believe, here at Texas Tech. And we’re going to — you know, we’ll keep scholarships for grad transfers,” said Texas Tech head coach Matt Wells. “We’ve been successful with them. I believe this logo’s been successful with them in other sports. Notably, basketball. And just in the last place I was at, we had success with grad transfers. It’s part of the world we live in right now. And those guys, if they’re the right character, the right makeup with the right work ethic and they can fill a need, I believe they’re going to add to our character and our culture here, and we’ll look at them, we’ll bring them in, and I think you’ll see us kind of play in that space, if you will, the next — for certain the next year.”
