Four-star OT Conner Dyer commits to Texas Tech

The Texas Tech Red Raiders have landed another important part of their future offense on Tuesday with a pledge from Mesquite (Texas) Horn offensive tackle Conner Dyer:

Decided I'm going to be a Red Raider. Guns Up! pic.twitter.com/fp8YJgOp7F

— Conner Dyer (@Dyer_Football) July 29, 2014

A consensus four-star prospect, the 6'4, 275-pound Dyer chose the Red Raiders over offers from the likes of LSU and Oklahoma, the two schools that were also considered serious contenders for his services. He's also the top-rated true offensive lineman the Red Raiders have landed since Le'Raven Clark in the 2011 class.

In recent months, Texas Tech had trended in his 247Sports Crystal Ball predictions and sat with 53 percent of the projections at the time of his commitment, ahead of Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Baylor.

He also held offers from Arizona State, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Miami, Navy, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Oregon, SMU, Stanford, TCU, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Toledo, UCLA and Virginia.

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The No. 233 player in the nation, Dyer is ranked as the No. 21 offensive tackle and the No. 35 player in the state of Texas by the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Since there are differing projections on Dyer, the first order of business is determining his likely future position in college. At 6'4, Dyer is on the short side for a college offensive tackle -- most coaches prefer prospects to be at least 6'5 or have extremely long arms. The 6'4 seems legitimate since he was measured at a Nike event.

The other consideration in projecting Dyer involves his overall athleticism and body quickness, two other necessary attributes to remain outside in college.

In that regard, the Mesquite Horn product also comes up a little bit lacking. He doesn't have the high-level movement abilities possessed by good collegiate tackles and physically looks like a guard.

He can do a nice job in outside zone of creating knockdowns, normally a difficult task with the lateral steps taken in that particular blocking scheme, and he can bend well enough to allow his lower-body strength to tell when coming downhill to create displacement.

At the second level, Dyer does a nice job of acquiring defenders by keeping his base wide and allowing the athleticism that he does have to change direction when necessary.

With Dyer's pledge, head coach Kliff Kingsbury currently has eight players committed in the 2015 recruiting class, which now ranks No. 51 nationally in the 247Sports Composite team rankings and No. 6 in the Big 12. Dyer joins Stephenville quarterback Jarrett Stidham, the nation's top dual-threat quarterback in the country by 247Sports, and Honolulu (Hawai'i) Farrington defensive tackle Breiden Fehoko as the four-star prospects in the class.