LUBBOCK, Texas — Spring football is in full swing and many changes are happening for Texas Tech football.
The most obvious one would be the 242-million-dollar remodeling of the southeast endzone at the Jones AT&T stadium, but that change is hard to miss when you live in Lubbock. However, the roster for the upcoming season looks different, and in this day and age of the transfer portal, it’s a lot to keep up with. Here’s the pre-season springtime look at the new 2024 Texas Tech football roster transfers.
WR Caleb Douglas
First up on the list is wide receiver Caleb Douglas, coming in with two years of eligibility from the University of Florida for two seasons, where he started seven games for the Gators before a lower leg injury ended his season in 2023. During his freshman year in Gainesville, he tallied ten catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns and his first colligate catch was a 62-yard touchdown against Eastern Washington. The 4-star recruit from the 2022 class isn’t new to Texas as he grew up in Missouri City where he ranked fourth all-time in receiving yards with 1,221 at Hightower High School.
The junior stands at 6 feet 4 inches and 205 pounds seemingly one of Texas Tech’s bigger pass catchers. In recent spring practices, Douglas has looked healthy and recovered from his season-ending injury last season, although injuries in the Texas Tech offense aren’t foreign territory.
“We had to become more of a run offense because of our injuries to our quarterbacks (last season), but I also think we’ve added Josh Kelly, Caleb Douglas and Micah Hudson and have guys on this on the team like Coy Eakin,” Texas Tech Head Coach Joey McGuire said in February about the offense.
Fun fact: Caleb goes by ‘Pay Day’ on the field.
QB Cameran Brown
Quarterback Cameran Brown is the lone quarterback the Red Raiders grabbed from the portal. He comes with three seasons of eligibility from West Georgia. Brown finished his freshman colligate season with 914 yards and 10 touchdowns in the air and 478 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. As impressive as Brown seems to be, he did miss the final game at West Georgia due to injury.
His talents in the pocket speak for themselves in the stat line, but Brown also aspires to be a special teams threat for the Red Raiders.
“He’s 230 pounds and you’re going to see him in different areas,” McGuire said following the first spring practice. “I mean Coach Perry is trying to get him on special teams right now if that tells you anything about what kind of makeup. And he’s sat in a couple of special teams meetings and Coach Kittley’s had to come get him because the quarterbacks are meeting at the same time. And he’s like ‘Coach Perry said I’m going to play special teams too’.”
Fans may see Brown all over the field, but as far as his main gig as quarterback is concerned, he reminds the coaching staff of a former Red Raider quarterback.
“Cameran Brown brings a whole different level whenever you’re talking about running quarterback power (and) running quarterback counter. You know running some of the stuff we did with Donnovan and we didn’t want to do with Berhen we didn’t do as much with him late. So he (Cameran) brings a whole different scheme, as far as what he does with the quarterback run game. He does have a big arm and I’ve been happy with the way he’s throwing the ball. The biggest thing is continued accuracy but that will come with his footwork and understanding of the playbook.”
Joining three other quarterbacks, two of which have started already in the scarlet and black, Brown has his work cut out for him. In true Joey McGuire fashion though the QB’s room is stiff with competition.
“If we were going into the game tomorrow, because of his (Cameran) knowledge of the playbook it’d be Jake (Strong). But I would say Cameran Brown would play just as much as Jake would we would want to use him in a lot of different areas.
Fun fact: Cameran may show up in special teams this season.
WR Josh Kelly
Already the topic of conversation after inner squad scrimmage No. 1 this season, transfer wide receiver Josh Kelly might be essential to the Red Raider’s offensive scheme in the upcoming 2024 season. Kelly comes from Washington State, where he spent one season, and before that, he spent his first three seasons at Fresno State. In his four years of colligate play, he’s caught 148 passes for 2,228 yards and 12 touchdowns. Kelly committed to Texas Tech in mid-December over Utah, where he was anticipated to attend. When working for one of the country’s top passing offenses, Kelly was just 77 yards shy of hitting 1,000 at Washington State and he ranks 35th in the nation in receiving yards from his 1-year stint for the Cougars.
However, in just a few short months in the Hub City, he’s already proving he’s as good as advertised.
“The offense really got going because we started getting the ball to Josh Kelly,” McGuire said following the first scrimmage of spring football. “Man, he made some amazing plays and more than just catches. He made some really great moves in space and he got us going so the offense really got rolling.”
Though he’s adding to Coach Justin Johnson’s room in the slot position, when Kelly first arrived, he requested jersey #3, which McGuire said ‘not yet’.
“Everything I thought that guy was going to be that’s what he is,” McGuire said. “He’s got really strong hands, he’s a strong route runner, and loves football. I’ll tell you, he wore number three and that’s a big deal to him. I told him number three is earned here and I said ‘I have no problem you wearing number three here, but you’ve got to earn it’.”
Fun fact: Kelly’s grandma is from the same town as Joey McGuire, Crowley, Texas.
TE Johncarlos Miller II
“Freaky athleticism,” Tight Ends Coach Josh Cochran said.
Standing at 6 feet 5 inches and 245 pounds Johncarlos Miller II comes into Lubbock more than ready with three years of experience and two years left of eligibility. Turning heads early, after day one of spring football McGuire said how impressed he was with JC.
“He showed up big time,” McGuire said, “right at the end of the big team redzone (drill) he made a big catch in the endzone right at the down falling out of bounds.”
After three years at Elon University, Miller had 21 starts, 52 catches, 658 yards and 7 touchdowns. He’s also Elon’s all-time career leader in receiving yards by a tight end.
“He’s made some catches in these first practices that just leave our eyes wide open,” Cochran said. “He can run, he can jump, but he just brings a level of rawness coming from the FCS level that a coach loves. It’s almost like a lump of clay that you can kind of mold it like you want it. He has all the tools and the work ethic and we are really excited about him.’”
Fun fact: JC caught a 70-yard reception in a win over Delaware.
TE Jalin Conyers
Tight end Jalin Conyers makes his third colligate stop at Texas Tech with one final year left. After seeing little playing time his freshman year at Oklahoma, Conyers spent the next three years at Arizona State University.
“Feel great about him being back,” McGuire said. “He’s an explosive athlete, he’s as good honestly in the first two years he could have played receiver and maybe even started for us at outside receiver. Really feel good about Jalin.”
By “being back” McGuire refers to Conyers breaking his foot, specifically his pinkie toe, early this spring right after transferring to Texas Tech. However, the coaching staff knows Jalin’s abilities after catching 74 passes for 846 yards and six touchdowns as a Sun Devil.
“I think Jalin has a pro mindset. As little as he can do on the field right now, he’s doing a heck of a lot behind the scenes. He’s going to be a huge contribution to the offense. He’s played a lot of ball, so we aren’t worried about him.”
Fun fact: Conyers is from the Texas panhandle.
DB Devynn Cromwell
“A guy I really like,” McGuire said, “he’s an old guy, it’s a funny story when we recruited him,” McGuire said.
Enter defensive back Devynn Cromwell, who has been playing Canadian football for four years at the University of Guelph in Canada. He was named Ontario University Athletics All-Star twice in his career. Cromwell recorded 26 tackles, which happens to be a lot tougher in Canadian football at the DB position.
“Whenever we said the receivers will actually be in a stance and they won’t be running at you,” McGuire said, “he goes ‘coach I can cover these guys’. And he did, he had a big interception today.”
Secondary Coach Marcel Yates said out of the corner position, Cromwell stands out and he’s not afraid to tackle.
Fun fact: He’s the only Canadian on the Texas Tech football roster.
P Jack Burgess
About 9,000 miles from home, Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia, punter Jack Burgess makes Lubbock his new home. Burgess originally played rugby and then spent the last two years at Weber State University.
“It’s hard to be a punter in college football early,” Special Teams Coordinator Kenny Perry said. “That’s kinda when I flipped and said ‘let’s go get a portal kid’. Jack is a rugby guy so it’s a little different for me just from the production standpoint of what he can do. But he’s also a traditional guy.”
Burgess has big cleats to fill when it comes to punting at Texas Tech following Austin McNamara who is currently pursuing the NFL.
“The expectation is the same: He’s got to do what Austin (McNamara) did for us. Will it be the same? Probably not right now, but he’s got a really strong leg. It’s more so Jack learning to do our system and then me developing our system into Jack, if that makes sense,” Perry said. From a traditional punter standpoint, he can hit the ball; he’s just inconsistent.”
Fun fact: Jack never played football until he became a punter.
DL De’Braylon Carroll
De’Braylon Carroll becomes a Red Raider in his sixth year of college after spending the past five seasons at Rice University playing four of those on the defensive line. He recorded 101 tackles, 39 of them solo, in his 42 games total.
“He brings maturity,” D-Line Coach Zarnell Fitch said. “He’s played a lot of snaps. What I love about that kid is that he brings an attitude to the group, too. I’m glad we got him; he’s going to be really good for us.”
Fitch has known Carroll since he played at Duncanville High School, and he coached at Texas Christian University in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
In his senior year at Rice, Carroll recorded his career best in tackles, tackles for loss, sacks and total pressures and was Rice’s highest-graded defender by Pro Football Focus at 81.6.
Fun fact: Carroll once sacked Quinn Ewers.
TE Jason Llewellyn
A familiar face to not only Texas football players but Big-12 football players too, Jason Llewellyn brings the run game to the tight end’s room. From Aledo, Texas, Llewellyn went to OU for the past two seasons seeing action in 13 games.
“Jason’s doing a really good job being in the run game,” Cochran said, “he’s a technician in the run game already. You can just tell he’s been coached really well, at the high school and college level.”
Llewellyn redshirted this past season after playing in just three games but played in 10 games as a freshman. During his freshman year, he missed out on playing against Texas Tech when the Red Raiders won overtime at the Jones AT&T stadium.
“He’s bringing the physicality, and he’s an extremely highly intelligent football player. He knows where to be, he knows where the grass is in the passing game so he has a little bit of savviness to his game.”
Fun fact: Jason helped Aledo win a state title in 2022.
OL Davion Carter
Davion Carter, a center and guard transfer and all-in-one offensive lineman, makes stop number three at Texas Tech. Carter spent the first four years of his career in the Southeast, the first two seasons at Northwest Mississippi Community College and the previous two seasons at the University of Memphis. Making himself hard to pass up in the portal. Carter only allowed one sack in his 1,000 chances at Memphis.
“Really smart knows football,” Clay McGuire said, “he’s a talented kid and has a good first step. He’s definitely going to be an inside guy he’s a kid based on stature. He’s a really smart kid. I think he’s a kid that he could also play any of those 3 inside positions. I definitely see him as an inside guy and he’ll be competing for one of those positions.”
Carter has extensive experience, which benefits Texas Tech well, but he shares the same story with other Red Raider guards. He helped lead NMCC to back-to-back championships and catapulted to several awards during his first four years of college football.
OL Vinny Sciury
The highly sought-after left guard from Toledo, Vinny Sciury, picked Texas Tech to spend his last year of eligibility in college football. Sciury started 33 out of the 39 games he’s played in and when he hopped in the transfer portal, he got offers from multiple SEC programs, being one of the best interior offensive linemen on the market.
In his junior year at Toledo, Sciury was named to the All-Mid-American Conference First Team. Head Coach Joey McGuire has praised Sciury ever since he committed to Texas Tech and he could be a solid starter candidate for the 2024 season.
Fun fact: Vinny won a conference championship in the Mid-American Conference.
OL Sterling Porcher
Sterling Porcher, a 315-pound 6 feet 4 inches offensive lineman, comes from South Carolina originally but spent his first two years of college football at Junior College Iowa Western and then two seasons at Middle Tennessee State.
“Sterling’s done a good job,” OL coach Clay McGuire said. “We have experience at that position we just don’t have experience here (Texas Tech) at that position.”
After working through the JUCO ranks, Sterling started all 12 games for MTSU at the offensive left tackle position.
“Even though they’ve played a lot of games,” Clay McGuire said, “it’s kind of a thing where they haven’t played a lot of games here in this offense. I thought Sterling’s done a good job of picking things up really fast, though; we’ll just keep working our program into those guys.”
Fun fact: Sterling used to play for the Blue Raiders.
