1. The key dates coming up will help shape NC State’s class of 2024.
The first one is Saturday with Elijah Groves of Cross Plains (Tenn.) East Robertson, who is down to NC State, Purdue and Kentucky. He’s unofficially visited UK, the closest school to his hometown, and officially visited the Wolfpack and Boilermakers.
The fact that all three colleges are seemingly in the dark has created some suspense. Groves hasn’t wanted to do interviews since officially visiting NC State on June 23-25, so that has helped create the allure where all three schools think they have a good shot at him.
Groves is the ideal complement to NCSU linebacker commits Cannon Lewis and Zane Williams and would be a terrific pickup.
Greensboro (N.C.) Grimsley wide receiver Terrell Anderson will mostly commit before mid-Juy. He’s choosing between NC State and Tennessee, and his length and speed would be a good addition as an outside receiver at NC State.
Rome (Ga.) High nose tackle Justin Terrell will likely tell his future college coach his selection July 4, and then wait to publicly announce July 12. He’s looking at NC State, North Carolina and Virginia, but this will be a rare Wolfpack vs. Tar Heels battle, and the lighter shade of blue might have a slight lead.
Charlotte (N.C.) Providence Day wide receiver Jordan Shipp will pop for a college July 16. He’s down to Michigan, North Carolina and NC State, and this will be dogfight until the end. Shipp and NC State safety commit Brody Barnhardt are good friends, but Shipp was more intertwined with Chargers receiver Channing Goodwin when it came to taking recruiting trips. However, Barnhardt and Shipp both systematically gone about their process in similar fashions, just not linked together.
Burlington (N.C.) Cummings junior wide receiver Jonathan Paylor has made noises about July 28, which is the day of Alpha Wolf. He’s essentially looking at NC State and South Carolina, with North Carolina and Maryland in the second tier.
No one or two recruits can somber the mood of Alpha Wolf, which should have a good amount of 2025 and 2026 prospects on hand, sprinkled with some 2024 commits. Another date, July 27, the day before Alpha Wolf, is ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte, N.C.
What Paylor does, and then Alex Taylor of Greensboro (N.C.) Grimsley decides will have a far-reaching impact. Will Taylor (or Paylor) be expected at Alpha Wolf could rival “Is Noah Rogers on campus” hype.
It’s safe to say that Gastonia (N.C.) Ashbrook tackle Trent Mitchell will decide by mid-July, with NC State, Maryland and East Carolina the final three. He’s a must get for the Wolfpack.
Andrews (N.C.) High tackle Andrew West could also decide in July, but only if he’s OK in not officially visiting Georgia Tech. Duke is also strongly in the mix, but like Mitchell, this is the kind of recruitment the Wolfpack have to win.
Tackle Deryc Plazz of Jacksonville (Fla.) Andrew Jackson High is still holding on to committing Sept. 23, with NC State and Miami (Fla.) the current co-leaders. He tweeted out the date “July 7,” but he said that was unrelated to recruiting.
Guard Robby Martin of Huntington (W.Va.) High is the wild card due to being mostly silent his recruitment. NC State, West Virginia and Pittsburgh get mentioned the most, and he knows the Wolfpack and Mountaineers the best.
Defensive end Josh Alexander-Felton of Orlando (Fla.) Edgewater High is in the beginning stages of his recruitment seemed content to figuring things out in the fall.
2. Jonathan Paylor was offered by NC State at the end of his freshman year, but every other player remaining on Wolfpack’s 2024 board was offered much later.
Perhaps in a change of philosophy or growing pressures of other colleges offering freshman or the players are just that darn good, the Wolfpack have already offered eight in-state 2026 prospects and at least 27 total.
Out of the 27, only a few were based on going to NC State’s June camps. The big winners from the camps include quarterback Jacob Smith of Pfafftown (N.C.) Reagan, wide receiver Brody Keefe of Charlotte (N.C.) Myers Park, tackle Leo Delaney of Charlotte Providence Day, tackle Junior Saunders of Greensboro (N.C.) Page and linebacker Chad Fairchild of Hampton (Ga.) Lovejoy High.
Cornerback Dontrae Walls of Newport News (Va.) Oscar Smith was offered as an eighth grader following camp in 2022.
Smith and Brandon will get the attention, and NC State is presumably in terrific shape with Smith, a Wolfpack baseball commit. The two will square off Sept. 1 at Reagan.
Brandon has put basketball to the side this summer and everyone in the recruiting business is bullish on how good he might be this season, especially with Taylor and Anderson to throw to. His value might come out even more if he can keep it going in 2024 without Taylor and Anderson.
Reidsville (N.C.) High defensive end/tight end Kendre Harrison and Cornelius (N.C.) Hough cornerback Samari Matthews have 19- and- 16-scholarship offers already respectively. They have the can’t-miss tag already, and in Harrison’s case, that’s telling because he is also a major basketball prospect.
However, what is impressive about the future is four young offensive linemen are on the rise. Besides Delaney and Saunders, there is South Garner (N.C.) High tackle Ekene Ogboko and Clemmons (N.C.) West Forsyth tackle Pierre Dean. That quartet of guys could be as good as recent memory.
The top four offensive linemen in the 2024 class didn’t come close to having this early start on recruiting — Waxhaw (N.C.) Marvin Ridge guard Kai Greer (Stanford), Mooresville (N.C.) Lake Norman tackle Ethan Calloway (undecided), Cornelius Hough tackle Eagan Boyer (Penn State), Ramseur (N.C.) Eastern Randolph center Jani Norwood (North Carolina) and Clemmons West Forsyth tackle Desmond Jackson (North Carolina). Only Calloway was offered by NC State from that top five.
Add a few more offensive lineman and that 2026 class will be defined by the men in the trenches, like the wide receiver position has led the way in 2024 and the defensive line could be the main theme in 2025.
Some other 2026 prospects who NC State hasn’t offered, but could at some point include safety L.J. Porter at Charlotte Christian and quarterback Jackson Debe could get a long look at Charlotte Providence High.
Raleigh Sanderson sophomore running back Brilison McCullers could be interesting after rushing for 980 yards and nine touchdowns on 169 carries, and he caught 20 passes for 145 yards and two scores as a freshman.
The class of 2020 felt like a mega-class at the time due to its sheer numbers. The headliners for that year were quarterback Drake Maye (UNC), running backs Will Shipley (Clemson) and Evan Pryor (Ohio State) and nose tackle Payton Page (Clemson).
Fifty-one of the top 60 players in the state went to colleges now in Power Five Conferences. But to put things in perspective, over 15 of the top 60 have already transferred. Shipley, Maye and UNC linebacker Power Echols have had the best college careers so far from that class, but a lot of question marks remain.
Perhaps 2026 won’t have the sheer volume of 2020, but it could more star power at the top. What remains to be seen is if players at all the positions emerge.
The first one is Saturday with Elijah Groves of Cross Plains (Tenn.) East Robertson, who is down to NC State, Purdue and Kentucky. He’s unofficially visited UK, the closest school to his hometown, and officially visited the Wolfpack and Boilermakers.
The fact that all three colleges are seemingly in the dark has created some suspense. Groves hasn’t wanted to do interviews since officially visiting NC State on June 23-25, so that has helped create the allure where all three schools think they have a good shot at him.
Groves is the ideal complement to NCSU linebacker commits Cannon Lewis and Zane Williams and would be a terrific pickup.
Greensboro (N.C.) Grimsley wide receiver Terrell Anderson will mostly commit before mid-Juy. He’s choosing between NC State and Tennessee, and his length and speed would be a good addition as an outside receiver at NC State.
Rome (Ga.) High nose tackle Justin Terrell will likely tell his future college coach his selection July 4, and then wait to publicly announce July 12. He’s looking at NC State, North Carolina and Virginia, but this will be a rare Wolfpack vs. Tar Heels battle, and the lighter shade of blue might have a slight lead.
Charlotte (N.C.) Providence Day wide receiver Jordan Shipp will pop for a college July 16. He’s down to Michigan, North Carolina and NC State, and this will be dogfight until the end. Shipp and NC State safety commit Brody Barnhardt are good friends, but Shipp was more intertwined with Chargers receiver Channing Goodwin when it came to taking recruiting trips. However, Barnhardt and Shipp both systematically gone about their process in similar fashions, just not linked together.
Burlington (N.C.) Cummings junior wide receiver Jonathan Paylor has made noises about July 28, which is the day of Alpha Wolf. He’s essentially looking at NC State and South Carolina, with North Carolina and Maryland in the second tier.
No one or two recruits can somber the mood of Alpha Wolf, which should have a good amount of 2025 and 2026 prospects on hand, sprinkled with some 2024 commits. Another date, July 27, the day before Alpha Wolf, is ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte, N.C.
What Paylor does, and then Alex Taylor of Greensboro (N.C.) Grimsley decides will have a far-reaching impact. Will Taylor (or Paylor) be expected at Alpha Wolf could rival “Is Noah Rogers on campus” hype.
It’s safe to say that Gastonia (N.C.) Ashbrook tackle Trent Mitchell will decide by mid-July, with NC State, Maryland and East Carolina the final three. He’s a must get for the Wolfpack.
Andrews (N.C.) High tackle Andrew West could also decide in July, but only if he’s OK in not officially visiting Georgia Tech. Duke is also strongly in the mix, but like Mitchell, this is the kind of recruitment the Wolfpack have to win.
Tackle Deryc Plazz of Jacksonville (Fla.) Andrew Jackson High is still holding on to committing Sept. 23, with NC State and Miami (Fla.) the current co-leaders. He tweeted out the date “July 7,” but he said that was unrelated to recruiting.
Guard Robby Martin of Huntington (W.Va.) High is the wild card due to being mostly silent his recruitment. NC State, West Virginia and Pittsburgh get mentioned the most, and he knows the Wolfpack and Mountaineers the best.
Defensive end Josh Alexander-Felton of Orlando (Fla.) Edgewater High is in the beginning stages of his recruitment seemed content to figuring things out in the fall.
2. Jonathan Paylor was offered by NC State at the end of his freshman year, but every other player remaining on Wolfpack’s 2024 board was offered much later.
Perhaps in a change of philosophy or growing pressures of other colleges offering freshman or the players are just that darn good, the Wolfpack have already offered eight in-state 2026 prospects and at least 27 total.
Out of the 27, only a few were based on going to NC State’s June camps. The big winners from the camps include quarterback Jacob Smith of Pfafftown (N.C.) Reagan, wide receiver Brody Keefe of Charlotte (N.C.) Myers Park, tackle Leo Delaney of Charlotte Providence Day, tackle Junior Saunders of Greensboro (N.C.) Page and linebacker Chad Fairchild of Hampton (Ga.) Lovejoy High.
Cornerback Dontrae Walls of Newport News (Va.) Oscar Smith was offered as an eighth grader following camp in 2022.
Smith and Brandon will get the attention, and NC State is presumably in terrific shape with Smith, a Wolfpack baseball commit. The two will square off Sept. 1 at Reagan.
Brandon has put basketball to the side this summer and everyone in the recruiting business is bullish on how good he might be this season, especially with Taylor and Anderson to throw to. His value might come out even more if he can keep it going in 2024 without Taylor and Anderson.
Reidsville (N.C.) High defensive end/tight end Kendre Harrison and Cornelius (N.C.) Hough cornerback Samari Matthews have 19- and- 16-scholarship offers already respectively. They have the can’t-miss tag already, and in Harrison’s case, that’s telling because he is also a major basketball prospect.
However, what is impressive about the future is four young offensive linemen are on the rise. Besides Delaney and Saunders, there is South Garner (N.C.) High tackle Ekene Ogboko and Clemmons (N.C.) West Forsyth tackle Pierre Dean. That quartet of guys could be as good as recent memory.
The top four offensive linemen in the 2024 class didn’t come close to having this early start on recruiting — Waxhaw (N.C.) Marvin Ridge guard Kai Greer (Stanford), Mooresville (N.C.) Lake Norman tackle Ethan Calloway (undecided), Cornelius Hough tackle Eagan Boyer (Penn State), Ramseur (N.C.) Eastern Randolph center Jani Norwood (North Carolina) and Clemmons West Forsyth tackle Desmond Jackson (North Carolina). Only Calloway was offered by NC State from that top five.
Add a few more offensive lineman and that 2026 class will be defined by the men in the trenches, like the wide receiver position has led the way in 2024 and the defensive line could be the main theme in 2025.
Some other 2026 prospects who NC State hasn’t offered, but could at some point include safety L.J. Porter at Charlotte Christian and quarterback Jackson Debe could get a long look at Charlotte Providence High.
Raleigh Sanderson sophomore running back Brilison McCullers could be interesting after rushing for 980 yards and nine touchdowns on 169 carries, and he caught 20 passes for 145 yards and two scores as a freshman.
The class of 2020 felt like a mega-class at the time due to its sheer numbers. The headliners for that year were quarterback Drake Maye (UNC), running backs Will Shipley (Clemson) and Evan Pryor (Ohio State) and nose tackle Payton Page (Clemson).
Fifty-one of the top 60 players in the state went to colleges now in Power Five Conferences. But to put things in perspective, over 15 of the top 60 have already transferred. Shipley, Maye and UNC linebacker Power Echols have had the best college careers so far from that class, but a lot of question marks remain.
Perhaps 2026 won’t have the sheer volume of 2020, but it could more star power at the top. What remains to be seen is if players at all the positions emerge.
