by Jarret Johnson for Inside the Red Raiders
The Red Raiders made the cut for 2021 edge defender Jackie Marshall out of East St. John High School in Laplace, Louisiana. Marshall trimmed his list to five on Monday with Baylor, Houston, Louisiana Tech and Oklahoma State joining Texas Tech on the list.
He announced the list Monday via Twitter with the following message:
“I’m blessed to be in the position I’m in. I want to take the time to thank everybody that’s helped during this process and all the schools and coaches that have been in contact with me. With that being said I want to announce my top 5 schools that I want to focus on moving forward.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound edge defender also holds reported offers from the following schools that did not make the cut: Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Lamar, Louisiana, Louisiana-Monroe, Memphis, Miami, Michigan State, Nicholls State, Northwestern State, Ole Miss, South Alabama and Washington State.
Marshall is coveted for his ability to come off the edge as evidenced by his performance last season when he tallied 82 tackles, 38 stops for loss and 11 sacks.
The three-star recruit is rated as the No. 586 overall prospect in the country, the No. 24 linebacker in the nation and the No. 16 overall player in Louisiana by the 247Sports Composite, an average of the major recruiting service rankings. 247Sports itself has Marshall rated a little higher as the No. 17 linebacker in the U.S. and the No. 16 overall recruit in Louisiana.
When Texas Tech linebackers coach Kevin Cosgrove was introduced back in February he said while he planned on focusing his recruiting efforts in Texas he was going to recruit other states he was familiar with as well. One of those being Louisiana after serving last season as an analyst at LSU.
“Well, I’m going to have a big part of Texas and go to areas I’m familiar with beyond that, areas that I have had a lot of success recruiting ” Cosgrove said. “Louisiana’s new, but I have been around there for a year and there’s a strong talent base over there. Probably go up north a bit in to St. Louis and Chicago, kind of expand a bit, but the main part will be Texas recruiting.”
Marshall was one of the first offers Texas Tech doled out after bringing coach Cosgrove on and after making the cut Monday the Red Raiders are perhaps another step closer to landing him.
Texas Tech currently holds eight commits in its 2021 recruiting class, which ranks 43rd in the nation and 7th in the Big 12 according to 247Sports.
