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Please email hclaussen@jfqlending.com or shoot NC State alum Hunter Claussen a private message (@WolfPackMortgageGuy). You can check out their website JFQLending.com as well.
•••
We were tossing around a story idea for next week, and in the process of that began to notice something that could be a noteworthy development through the first half of the season. Has NC State finally figured out its secondary for the future?
You may recall in the 2016 and 2017 classes NC State signed seven defensive backs, a group that was supposed to make up the core of the defensive backfield. Emphasis was greatly placed on size, as NC State at that time was working somewhat under a mantra of, “They may not look or be Clemson-type players when they get here, but when we develop them they will.”
Of those seven defensive backs, the only one who remains on the roster is injured — senior corner Chris Ingram. The rest either were dismissed or transferred out, which now-Notre Dame corner Nick McCloud being the highlight and also Tim Kidd-Glass, now at Liberty, starting some before losing the nod to others at safety.
NC State has not abandoned size and length in the secondary, but less emphasis has been placed on it. Between the 2018 and 2020 classes, it also seems to have finally found the potential fixes to a position group that has been a battle to figure out.
The 2019 class in particular offers hope, as three members are flashing: safety Jakeen Harris and corners Cecil Powell and Shyheim Battle.
Reflecting back on their recruitments, Battle was the headliner, but interestingly behind the scenes while coaches were excited and loved the potential he showed at a summer camp before his junior season, there wasn’t a feeling that he was a sure-thing, either. We had one source formerly close to the program who wondered if he might be a safety.
Battle famously picked NC State over Clemson. To be fair, the vibe was that the Tigers really liked Battle but also had questions about his athleticism, and hence preferred Battle be patient before making any decisions.
Battle’s development between when he first got to NC State to the beginning of fall camp this year though was really impressive, from what we have gathered.
Harris was an interesting recruitment. When former NC State defensive assistant Ted Roof brought his name to the staff during the evaluation period, there was a lot of excitement about him. Harris committed in the summer, and there was a feeling around that fall and winter was that he one of the more underrated and underrecruited players in the class, perhaps because didn’t have great size.
Powell was a late-find, who was discovered when NC State was searching the landscape after the December 2018 signing period and learned that Powell had chosen not to sign with Baylor. NC State knew that Powell looked like a good athlete, but they expected him to be a safety. Powell though turned out to be one of the fastest guys on the team and stuck at corner.
Then in the 2020 class, it already appears that Joshua Pierre-Louis and Devan Boykin look like keepers.
•••
Then there is also a new name in the freshmen/sophomores on the defensive backfield. Usually during the summer, The Wolfpacker will interview each of the assistant coaches to prepare for our football preview magazine. The gameplan for each sitdown is simple: ask about all the scholarship players.
Former NC State cornerbacks coach George Barlow was always one of the nicest interviews but also one of the more challenging ones to lock down a time. In the summer before the 2019 season, we finally found a time to talk to Barlow before the start of a camp that day. Barlow knew the drill, and he had written down on a piece of paper each player’s names not to forget anyone.
Time was running short and we noticed he had one more name written down that we did not recognize. As he folded up the paper to get ready for camp, we asked Barlow who that was. His answer, paraphrasing, “That’s Isaac Duffy. He’s probably the best walk-on I’ve had. He’s going to play, at least on special teams.”
Duffy of course filled in more than capably for Harris in last Saturday’s win over Duke after the latter was ejected for targeted.
•••
We noted in the War Room last week how football recruiting was getting quiet, and if that point wasn’t clear then it should be now.
Three-star defensive tackle Devin Lee from OLA in McDonough, Ga., is off the board after committing to Ole Miss. There was no circling back on defensive tackle Marquise Brunson from Princess Anne High in Virginia Beach, Va. When he announced that he was making a commitment this week, we checked with sources and the answer was clear the Wolfpack was not involved, still.
We were also able to get more information on three-star defensive tackle Javon Nelson from Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Riverdale High, and Nelson could be another case like Brunson’s. We confirmed that the Wolfpack is not involved, at least at the moment. He released a top five that also included Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Virginia Tech, but we know that there are real question marks about at least three of those programs actually recruiting Nelson.
Thus, we will be temporarily pausing the weekly release of the top players list until/unless the board expands in football recruiting.
What we know is the Wolfpack wants three-star offensive tackle Yousef Mugharbil from Murphy (N.C.) High, but the train may have left for Florida already on that one. Some even thought that Mugharbil would have committed to UF by now, so that might be a minor victory for NC State. For now, that’s the best anyone can read into it.
•••
We said in last week’s War Room that NC State is taking a hard look at Old Dominion defensive line transfer Keion White, a Garner native who had 19 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks last year while being named second-team All-Conference USA.
The early vibes have been positive on White and NC State, but as we cautioned last week, he is likely to be in high demand before it’s all over. Furthermore, White has time on his side.
The transfer portal is going to be a very unique thing to watch this year. While talking with a source tied in at another ACC program, this source noted that there are real financial question marks that particular athletics department may be facing with regards to scholarship bills. It is not a given that many schools will be able to meet the scholarship bills for all the athletes whose eligibility have been frozen, which now extends to both the fall and winter sports.
NC State might be in a better position on football because it had a small senior class, and it already knew that three were likely to return — receiver C.J. Riley and tight ends Dylan Autenrieth and Dylan Parham. All three were previously granted sixth seasons of eligibility by the NCAA, thus they were accounted for in planning for the numbers.
In addition, there were discussions in the summer about senior corner Chris Ingram potentially taking a medical redshirt this year (Ingram had yet to redshirt), so his potential return was potentially accounted for when originally calculating the numbers.
NC State is currently sitting at 91 scholarships committed for next season. That number includes the three players already mentioned but not Ingram. If Ingram and all the seniors returned, that would put NC State at 100 players on scholarship, but that’s an unlikely event when it comes to the seniors. Plus there will always be other attrition to free up scholarships.
Regardless, due to the scholarship questions it is expected that a higher-than-normal amount of players will look into entering the transfer portal, increasing the supply for a school like NC State that will be seeking a couple of older fits to fill in the gaps on what should be a stout roster in 2021.
Please email hclaussen@jfqlending.com or shoot NC State alum Hunter Claussen a private message (@WolfPackMortgageGuy). You can check out their website JFQLending.com as well.
•••
We were tossing around a story idea for next week, and in the process of that began to notice something that could be a noteworthy development through the first half of the season. Has NC State finally figured out its secondary for the future?
You may recall in the 2016 and 2017 classes NC State signed seven defensive backs, a group that was supposed to make up the core of the defensive backfield. Emphasis was greatly placed on size, as NC State at that time was working somewhat under a mantra of, “They may not look or be Clemson-type players when they get here, but when we develop them they will.”
Of those seven defensive backs, the only one who remains on the roster is injured — senior corner Chris Ingram. The rest either were dismissed or transferred out, which now-Notre Dame corner Nick McCloud being the highlight and also Tim Kidd-Glass, now at Liberty, starting some before losing the nod to others at safety.
NC State has not abandoned size and length in the secondary, but less emphasis has been placed on it. Between the 2018 and 2020 classes, it also seems to have finally found the potential fixes to a position group that has been a battle to figure out.
The 2019 class in particular offers hope, as three members are flashing: safety Jakeen Harris and corners Cecil Powell and Shyheim Battle.
Reflecting back on their recruitments, Battle was the headliner, but interestingly behind the scenes while coaches were excited and loved the potential he showed at a summer camp before his junior season, there wasn’t a feeling that he was a sure-thing, either. We had one source formerly close to the program who wondered if he might be a safety.
Battle famously picked NC State over Clemson. To be fair, the vibe was that the Tigers really liked Battle but also had questions about his athleticism, and hence preferred Battle be patient before making any decisions.
Battle’s development between when he first got to NC State to the beginning of fall camp this year though was really impressive, from what we have gathered.
Harris was an interesting recruitment. When former NC State defensive assistant Ted Roof brought his name to the staff during the evaluation period, there was a lot of excitement about him. Harris committed in the summer, and there was a feeling around that fall and winter was that he one of the more underrated and underrecruited players in the class, perhaps because didn’t have great size.
Powell was a late-find, who was discovered when NC State was searching the landscape after the December 2018 signing period and learned that Powell had chosen not to sign with Baylor. NC State knew that Powell looked like a good athlete, but they expected him to be a safety. Powell though turned out to be one of the fastest guys on the team and stuck at corner.
Then in the 2020 class, it already appears that Joshua Pierre-Louis and Devan Boykin look like keepers.
•••
Then there is also a new name in the freshmen/sophomores on the defensive backfield. Usually during the summer, The Wolfpacker will interview each of the assistant coaches to prepare for our football preview magazine. The gameplan for each sitdown is simple: ask about all the scholarship players.
Former NC State cornerbacks coach George Barlow was always one of the nicest interviews but also one of the more challenging ones to lock down a time. In the summer before the 2019 season, we finally found a time to talk to Barlow before the start of a camp that day. Barlow knew the drill, and he had written down on a piece of paper each player’s names not to forget anyone.
Time was running short and we noticed he had one more name written down that we did not recognize. As he folded up the paper to get ready for camp, we asked Barlow who that was. His answer, paraphrasing, “That’s Isaac Duffy. He’s probably the best walk-on I’ve had. He’s going to play, at least on special teams.”
Duffy of course filled in more than capably for Harris in last Saturday’s win over Duke after the latter was ejected for targeted.
•••
We noted in the War Room last week how football recruiting was getting quiet, and if that point wasn’t clear then it should be now.
Three-star defensive tackle Devin Lee from OLA in McDonough, Ga., is off the board after committing to Ole Miss. There was no circling back on defensive tackle Marquise Brunson from Princess Anne High in Virginia Beach, Va. When he announced that he was making a commitment this week, we checked with sources and the answer was clear the Wolfpack was not involved, still.
We were also able to get more information on three-star defensive tackle Javon Nelson from Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Riverdale High, and Nelson could be another case like Brunson’s. We confirmed that the Wolfpack is not involved, at least at the moment. He released a top five that also included Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Virginia Tech, but we know that there are real question marks about at least three of those programs actually recruiting Nelson.
Thus, we will be temporarily pausing the weekly release of the top players list until/unless the board expands in football recruiting.
What we know is the Wolfpack wants three-star offensive tackle Yousef Mugharbil from Murphy (N.C.) High, but the train may have left for Florida already on that one. Some even thought that Mugharbil would have committed to UF by now, so that might be a minor victory for NC State. For now, that’s the best anyone can read into it.
•••
We said in last week’s War Room that NC State is taking a hard look at Old Dominion defensive line transfer Keion White, a Garner native who had 19 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks last year while being named second-team All-Conference USA.
The early vibes have been positive on White and NC State, but as we cautioned last week, he is likely to be in high demand before it’s all over. Furthermore, White has time on his side.
The transfer portal is going to be a very unique thing to watch this year. While talking with a source tied in at another ACC program, this source noted that there are real financial question marks that particular athletics department may be facing with regards to scholarship bills. It is not a given that many schools will be able to meet the scholarship bills for all the athletes whose eligibility have been frozen, which now extends to both the fall and winter sports.
NC State might be in a better position on football because it had a small senior class, and it already knew that three were likely to return — receiver C.J. Riley and tight ends Dylan Autenrieth and Dylan Parham. All three were previously granted sixth seasons of eligibility by the NCAA, thus they were accounted for in planning for the numbers.
In addition, there were discussions in the summer about senior corner Chris Ingram potentially taking a medical redshirt this year (Ingram had yet to redshirt), so his potential return was potentially accounted for when originally calculating the numbers.
NC State is currently sitting at 91 scholarships committed for next season. That number includes the three players already mentioned but not Ingram. If Ingram and all the seniors returned, that would put NC State at 100 players on scholarship, but that’s an unlikely event when it comes to the seniors. Plus there will always be other attrition to free up scholarships.
Regardless, due to the scholarship questions it is expected that a higher-than-normal amount of players will look into entering the transfer portal, increasing the supply for a school like NC State that will be seeking a couple of older fits to fill in the gaps on what should be a stout roster in 2021.
