Meet the Commits: Chris Bradley

Chris Bradley came to the Frogs with some time to spare before signing day, but was lost a little bit in the mini-surge of #Recruitingisheatingup tweets from Patterson and overlooked slightly.  This is a bit unjustified as there was actually quite a bit of drama going on in Bradley's recruitment, beginning with Patterson and company flipping his commitment away from previous TCU head coach Dennis Franchione down at Texas State, which I'm very much in favor of (If we go down once a year and grab a kid that Fran and company really want at State I'll consider it a good offer).  Still the frogs then had to hold off a late surge of interest from the ESS-EEE-SEE's own Arkansas Razorbacks, who all of the 247Sports Crystal Ballers were predicting Bradley would flip to at one point.  Happily that never eventuated and Bradley will be spending his college in purple and white (Well... mostly black really) and that's a good thing.

Bradley's Evangelical Christian high school runs a very similar defense to Patterson's 4-2-5, which is excellent for scouting as Patterson will be able to look at kids doing exactly what he wants them to do in college and see if they're worthy of an offer.  Chris' hudl shows a kid that has the frame of a good defensive end and making a few big plays, but more tellingly it also shows him keeping his head up and reading plays, so that even when the ball is away from him he still moves into position to make a play.  Think of a slightly taller and not as muscly Stansly Maponga and you'll get a decent idea of the kind of player that Bradley is.  That's not to say that Bradley is an NFL draft pick like Maponga, but their play styles are similar, so if he can work on his pass rush moves you'll be very pleased to see him in purple for the days to come.

Bradley is one of three Louisiana commits in this recruiting class, and it's becoming more clear that though "putting up a fence around the metroplex" is Patterson's first order of business, Louisiana is becoming more and more of a frequent stop for the Frogs on the recruiting trail for good reason.  Though LSU is the dream destination for most recruits from the bayou there's still a ton of talent that the Tigers can't offer even in their 40 person recruiting classes, which leaves a competitive up and coming team like TCU a unique pitch for recruits who grew up hating Ole Miss and company.  It will be interesting in the future to see if the Frogs can pick more gems out of the Louisiana swamp in the future, and getting the coaches in the christian schools down there talking about TCU can only be a good thing.