For some college programs around the country, today will not be the familiar National Signing Day with multiple signees along with all the announcements, videos, signing day ceremonies and the general thrill of everything becoming official after months of effort on the recruiting trail.

The Texas Tech coaches experienced the 'early' signing day thrills this past December, when the program signed 19 prospects.

There is no press conference scheduled for today, National Signing Day, or what we could now deem the artist formerly known as National Signing Day - the February one.

Although the Red Raider faithful were only really tracking one prospect going into the day, the recruiting process never fails to deliver drama and the Texas Tech coaches got their guy after a very late push from another Big 12 program.

Two days ago, Portales (New Mexico) defensive end Philip Blidi announced that he was reopening his recruitment and would choose between Texas Tech and Kansas.

Jayhawks' head coach Les Miles personally visited Blidi in Portales a few times and reportedly sent the standout prospect a limo to take him to the airport for his official visit to Lawrence.

The late push, the official visit and this announcement two days before signing day made things look pretty bleak for Texas Tech. The three-star prospect had visited the Texas Tech campus at least a dozen times and was a longtime commitment, so this could have been a huge blow to the coaches' recruiting class from a defensive line and numbers standpoint.

Matt Wells and his staff continued to communicate with Blidi on a daily basis throughout the week, and ultimately convinced him to trust his instincts and sign with the Red Raiders.

All of this was made official with Blidi and the Texas Tech coaches last night, the night before signing day.

Rated a 5.5 three-star prospect, Blidi chose the Red Raiders over offers from Kansas, UCLA, Utah, SMU and others.

The 6-foot-4, 253-pound defensive end is the No. 19 prospect to sign in the 2020 class, and currently gives Texas Tech the No. 52 overall class in the nation.

Covering recruiting is fun. Come follow recruiting with RedRaiderSports and learn more about Blidi's recruitment and the entire 2020 recruiting class.

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