Teams in the market for a big quarterback with a strong arm that can run need look no further than Humble, Texas, recruit John Holcombe - and there is still plenty of opportunity to make a play for him.

Holcombe recently picked up just his fourth offer from Howard and SMU before that at the end of January, but has held an offer from Illinois for some time. Although he doesn’t have a long offer list just yet, there is definitely a sense of building momentum with his recruitment.

“Oklahoma State just DM’d me,” he said last week at his 7-on-7 team’s scrimmage last weekend. “Indiana just came by, Duke came by and Florida came by - and Texas Tech, the head coach just came by. They all said the same thing, they want get the process started and start getting to know me.”

Not a bad list of programs looking to get the ball rolling, but for Holcombe, it was Red Raiders Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury made the biggest impression on him.

“If there’s an offer I want right now, it’s Texas Tech,” he said. “Their offense is air-raid; they really love throwing the ball, so if I had to go to any school out of that group, I’d love to go to Texas Tech.”

More on Texas Tech

“[Kingsbury] is a great guy, just a great guy,” he said. “When he came to my school he had this real nice suit on, that’s what I saw first and I was like, ‘man this is nice.’ We started talking and he seems like he’s a really cool coach and it would be nice to play in that offense under him.”

On Illinois

“They’ve been in contact with me just letting me know that they’re still interested,” he said. “They’ve been talking to me here and there asking me how I’ve been doing and stuff like that. I think they knew before they offered me that schools were going to be getting in heavy contact with me, but they haven’t been treating me any different.”

On SMU

“I still feel like they’re interested in me,” he said in relation to William Brown’s mid-January commitment. “It’s a great school and I love the campus. It’s not too big, not too small, and Matt Davis - I know him personally, used to train with him and he’s a great guy. Watching their games, they love to throw the ball, so it would be great to go there as well.”

Holcombe hit the road this weekend and was in Atlanta for a visit to Georgia Tech and if the interest from others is any indication, will find himself on several more campuses before the end of spring. He’s got the sort of size and arm strength that college coaches are going to be battling for once more eyeballs get on him in person. Without a ton of major offers on his list heading into the spring, he’s definitely setting himself up to be the focus of a major sweepstakes in the coming months.