Champion hurdler commits to Tech football team
New Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire and his charter staff plan to recruit players who are attention getters not only on the football field but in track and field.
Tuesday provided another example.
Miquel Dingle, one of the nation's fastest high-school 110-meter hurdlers, committed to the Red Raiders as a linebacker prospect. Dingle, from Duncan (S.C.) Byrnes, is listed by his high-school team at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds.
The Byrnes' team page on Maxpreps showed him with 38 tackles, including seven tackles for loss, in nine games last season as a junior. The team finished 6-6.
Tech was the second college football program to offer him a scholarship after North Carolina-Charlotte.
Dingle ran the 110 hurdles in a wind-legal 13.68 seconds at the South Carolina Class 5A Upper State meet on May 14. Six days later, he ran 13.56 (no wind indicator) at the South Carolina High School League state championships.
The 13.56 ranks tied for seventh in the nation in all conditions this season among high-school hurdlers.
The sub-14-second times represented a breakthrough, as Dingle's times in his four previous meets this spring ranged from 14.21 to 14.72.
Tech director of player personnel James Blanchard recently told The Athletic that his evaluation process on a potential recruits begins not with watching his football video, but with looking at his track and field numbers.
“If he has the movement and the athletic traits, then we can teach him to be a good football player,” Blanchard said.
Dingle is the 21st player to commit to Tech's 2023 recruiting class. He is a son of Mike Dingle, a former South Carolina running back who played one season in the NFL after the Cincinnati Bengals made him an eighth-round draft pick in 1991.
Tech 2023 commitments
The following high-school juniors have made oral commitments to Texas Tech for the Red Raiders' 2023 class. Oral commitments are non-binding until a player signs a letter of intent.
Jake Strong, 6-2, 200, QB, Justin Northwest; L.J. Martin, 6-2, 205, RB, Canutillo; Demarion "D.J." Crest, 6-3, 185, WR, El Paso Parkland; Kaleb Smith, 6-1, 175, WR, Frisco Reedy; Tyrone West, 6-2, 185, WR, Humble; Chris Palfreeman, 5-10, 160, IR, Fort Worth All Saints Episcopal; Kaden Carr, 6-5, 300, OT, Lubbock-Cooper; Dylan Shaw, 6-4, 290, OT, Corpus Christi Flour Bluff; Daniel Sill, 6-5, 260, OT, College Station; Amier Washington, 6-4, 260, DE, Orange Little Cypress-Mauriceville; Tre'Darius Brown, 6-4, 315, DT, Natchitoches (La.) Central; Jayden Cofield, 6-3, 325, DT, Manor; Isaiah Crawford, 6-4, 210, OLB, Post; John Curry, 6-3, 187, ILB, Coronado; Miquel Dingle, 6-2, 205, LB, Duncan (S.C.) Byrnes; Anquan Willis, 6-1, 220, OLB-RB, Wichita Falls Rider; Marcus Ramon-Edwards, 6-4, 205, S-OLB, Trinity Christian; Jmaury Davis, 6-0, 180, S, Clarendon; Brenden Jordan, 6-0, 185, S, Mansfield; Chapman Lewis, 6-1, 170, S, Burleson Centennial; Calvin Simpson-Hunt, 6-0, 175, CB, Waxahachie.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: College football: Champion hurdler commits to Texas Tech football team
