LA Tech announces five additions to 2019 football signing class

LA Tech Announces Additions to 2019 Signing Class

RUSTON, La. – After welcoming 11 new faces to the Bulldog family in December, Louisiana Tech and head coach Skip Holtz announced the addition of five signees to the 2019 class on National Signing Day on Wednesday.

Louisiana Tech’s December signing period featured the Hawaiian Islands as the backdrop while the Bulldogs were preparing to take on the Rainbow Warriors in the 2018 SoFi Hawaii Bowl. On that day, the Bulldog coaching staff inked a total of 11 signees to National Letters of Intent to make up the majority of the 2019 class.

Less than two months later, five new players were added to the signing class as the staff gathered at the Davison Athletics Complex to officially welcome the new Bulldogs to Louisiana Tech.

Overall, the 2019 signing class features a total of 16 new faces as Holtz and his staff brought in six players on the offensive side of the ball, nine on defense and one specialist. Louisiana Tech added 13 players straight out of high school and three transfers, while six of the players signed hail from the state of Louisiana and five from Texas. The Bulldogs also added signees from Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi and Washington.

“This is a special day because this is the culmination of really a year, and in some cases, two years of hard work recruiting these young men,” Holtz said. “We have talked from the beginning about trying to build this from the ground up with the young players, so with 13 high school and three junior college players, I think there is a good mix of what we need with a couple of guys that could come in and potentially give us some time on the offensive line. And the same thing goes for some of the high school guys coming and filling in.”

“When you look at this class, it is not very big in recruiting terms. This may be the smallest class that we have released on signing day, but that also gives us five to play with. When you look at the transfer portals, there are over 1,800 players that have put their name into the transfer portal this year. It’s a completely new venue for everybody and I think we’ve got you know you look at it’s a whole new recruiting tool. I am excited about the guys we added, but there are definitely going to be more additions to this to this football team before we get to fall camp.”

Louisiana Tech’s defensive line was the point of emphasis on Wednesday with the Bulldogs adding three players to that position group in Deshon Hall, Keivie Rose and Malik Wells. In addition to those three players, LA Tech also signed OL Carter Habich and CB Charvis Thornton to National Letters of Intent.

The first NLI arrived 8:04 a.m. on Wednesday morning when DL Keivie Rose (Henderson HS/Henderson, Texas) signed his name on the dotted line. Rose was soon followed by DE Deshon Hall (East Ascension HS/Gonzales, La.) and CB Charvis Thornton (Southern Lab HS/Baton Rouge, La.) a few minutes later, while OL Carter Habich (Garden City CC/Monroe, Wash.) was the fourth signee just before 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, the Bulldogs added their fifth signee of the day in DL Malik Wells (College of DuPage/Naperville, Ill.) to close things out.

The five players signed on Wednesday join the following early signees from December to make up the Louisiana Tech’s 2019 signing day: Christian Archangel – CB, Stevie Ballard – OL, Jacob Barnes – ST, Jonah Brewster – OL, Maki Carabin – LB, Mykol Clark – DE, Antawn Lewis – OL, Kyle Maxwell – WR, Khiry Morrison – S, Jakson Thomson – QB, Allen Walker – LB.

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