Meet the Future Frogs: James McFarland

The second of the two future Horned Frogs to give TCU their verbal commitment this weekend was actually a re-commitment. James McFarland, a high school teammate of Chucky Hunter's from West Monroe, Louisiana, had actually committed to TCU last spring. But he eventually backed off of it, opening his recruiting process back up and taking a hard look at Arkansas and Boise State before confirming his initial decision this weekend.

At 6'3" 240lbs and with a 4.6 forty time, McFarland looks like either a linebacker or a defensive end at the next level. He's certainly bigger than most of the linebackers that TCU has had in the past decade, but many people think a few extra lbs on the Frogs' LBs might not be such a bad thing once Big 12 play starts this fall. I'm just some blogger- but when I watch his video, I see a defensive end.

Rivals has McFarland as a three-star linebacker, ranking him as the 36th-best outside linebacker recruit in the nation and the 16th-best overall recruit coming out of Louisiana. He doesn't have a free highlight tape on youtube, at least that I can find- so those of you that are too cheap for a subscription to purplemenace will just have to trust me on this one.

Meet the Future Frogs: Zach Jackson

I was completely away from the internet this weekend, so I noticed when I got back and checked in on Spit Blood that there was some trepidation about the Frogs losing momentum in recruiting with just over a week left until National Signing Day. The TCU staff got two impressive commitments over the weekend, though- the first of which was Zach Jackson, 6'0" 185 lb safety from Snellville, Georgia.

Jackson played a little bit of everything at Snellville's Brookwood High School, helping them win a Georgia state championship his junior season. He has stated in interviews, though, that he feels his strengths are in pass coverage and hitting ability- so he'd like to use his 4.4 speed to play safety in college. Knowing how the TCU coaching staff loves to stockpile athleticism in the defensive secondary, I'm sure they were glad to hear that.

Despite multiple offers from SEC and ACC schools much closer to home, Jackson originally committed to Illinois. If you follow Big Ten football closely, as I'm sure most of you do not, you would know that the Illini have had quite of bit of coaching turnover lately. That's why, when Jackson was offered a scholarship by Patterson himself on his official visit to TCU's campus this weekend, he didn't hesitate to make the switch.

Sometimes these out of state kids can be a bit of a mystery- just because we here (or at least myself) don't have the same knowledge about individual programs outside of Texas and haven't had a chance to see the kid play or read much about them. Watch his highlight tape, though, and you'll get the sense that he can play:

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