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Adam Goldman, Owner FranchiseCoach.net
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DM: @FranchiseCoach
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We are less than two weeks to the start of the football season. We had a chance to stop by Carter-Finley Stadium Friday, and it appears from the naked eye that the fan enhancement projects in the North End Zone are coming along but not near completed yet.
They are also still working on replacing the seats in the South End Zone that had faded to a maroon color over the years and will be replaced by the more vibrant red with material that will hold up much better.
Concessions were being worked on and chair backs were being laid down in the stands. It definitely has a vibe of a stadium that was getting prepared for a packed crowd for the opener against South Florida.
As for the team, it held its second scrimmage on Thursday and is getting much closer to settling in on the depth chart. Obviously the secondary has been one of the most intense position battles of the preseason. In the race for starting strong safety, both sophomore Jakeen Harris and Florida State transfer Cyrus Fagan, a senior, have had their moments. We still lean towards Harris getting the nod based on what we have heard, with redshirt freshman Khalid Martin making a strong return from his scary injury at Virginia Tech last fall to potentially get into the two-deep behind senior Tanner Ingle at the other safety position.
Corner is another spot where there will be intense competition. Interestingly, Fagan has switched to wearing No. 4, which is also the number of sophomore corner Cecil Powell, who had been expected to compete for a starting job. Powell missed the spring game with an injury and was not cleared for the start of fall camp. Powell also has a redshirt year available to him.
We have heard positive things about the return of senior Chris Ingram from a long absence due to a knee injury he suffered midway through the 2019 season, to the point where could it be possible he could contend for a starting spot with redshirt freshman Shyheim Battle?
•••
Offensively, the right side of the line is where the competition has been. Our best guess at the moment is that redshirt junior Bryson Speas is a good bet to start somewhere, be it tackle or guard. The question is who might join Speas? We still think it’s most likely that Speas ends up at tackle with either redshirt sophomore Derrick Eason or redshirt senior Chandler Zavala besides him at guard.
It should be noted that offensive coordinator Tim Beck singled out redshirt sophomore junior college tackle transfer Anthony Belton as someone who has stepped up.
As we noted last week, a pair of freshmen that have left positive impressions are receiver Julian Gray and running back Demie Sumo. Gray is probably more likely to have a chance to get a few meaningful snaps this fall, between the two.
Defensively, end Travali Price was the name we heard most often when it came to who impressed the most among the early enrollees in the spring, but linebacker Caden Fordham was not far behind, and we continue to hear that Fordham is doing well. The issue with Fordham is similar to Sumo, it’s a crowded depth chart.
•••
We noted in our football recruiting board update on Thursday evening that there were three names at the top of NC State’s list: three-star receiver Wesley Grimes from Raleigh Millbrook, three-star offensive tackle Andre Roye from Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances and offensive tackle Jalen Klemm from Gibsonia (Pa.) Pine Richland.
Here is the latest on where we understand things stand with each as football season gets started:
• Grimes — He will announce his choice on Sept. 7. Conventional wisdom in the recruiting circles point towards Wake Forest. We have had some tell us that they have reasons to believe it’s not as locked in as some think, but the we would lie if we said that the overall vibe is the Deacons are the favorites.
We have probably been less certain that he is bound for Winston-Salem than others, however.
• Roye — Presumably next on the commitment date list is Roye, who will announce his choice on Sept. 22. He is down to four schools: Maryland, NC State, Penn State and Rutgers. Many have felt that it has been Maryland and Penn State at the top of his list for months now. There are also questions of how aggressively and all-out the Nittany Lions are going after Roye, however.
NC State did get Roye on campus, and receivers coach Joker Phillips is well liked at St. Frances, but we’d be a bit surprised if NC State was the choice.
• Klemm — The hardest one to read as Klemm does not do a lot of interviews and does not share much about his recruitment even among the sources we have talked to about it. He did acknowledge that he might prefer the West Coast in a recent interview with the Pittsburgh Gazette. Due to his father’s NFL and now coaching career, Klemm has moved around, but a lot of his father’s family remains on the West Coast, and he apparently enjoyed his time living in Los Angeles.
Adam Goldman, Owner FranchiseCoach.net
Email: agoldman@franchisecoach.net
DM: @FranchiseCoach
•••
We are less than two weeks to the start of the football season. We had a chance to stop by Carter-Finley Stadium Friday, and it appears from the naked eye that the fan enhancement projects in the North End Zone are coming along but not near completed yet.
They are also still working on replacing the seats in the South End Zone that had faded to a maroon color over the years and will be replaced by the more vibrant red with material that will hold up much better.
Concessions were being worked on and chair backs were being laid down in the stands. It definitely has a vibe of a stadium that was getting prepared for a packed crowd for the opener against South Florida.
As for the team, it held its second scrimmage on Thursday and is getting much closer to settling in on the depth chart. Obviously the secondary has been one of the most intense position battles of the preseason. In the race for starting strong safety, both sophomore Jakeen Harris and Florida State transfer Cyrus Fagan, a senior, have had their moments. We still lean towards Harris getting the nod based on what we have heard, with redshirt freshman Khalid Martin making a strong return from his scary injury at Virginia Tech last fall to potentially get into the two-deep behind senior Tanner Ingle at the other safety position.
Corner is another spot where there will be intense competition. Interestingly, Fagan has switched to wearing No. 4, which is also the number of sophomore corner Cecil Powell, who had been expected to compete for a starting job. Powell missed the spring game with an injury and was not cleared for the start of fall camp. Powell also has a redshirt year available to him.
We have heard positive things about the return of senior Chris Ingram from a long absence due to a knee injury he suffered midway through the 2019 season, to the point where could it be possible he could contend for a starting spot with redshirt freshman Shyheim Battle?
•••
Offensively, the right side of the line is where the competition has been. Our best guess at the moment is that redshirt junior Bryson Speas is a good bet to start somewhere, be it tackle or guard. The question is who might join Speas? We still think it’s most likely that Speas ends up at tackle with either redshirt sophomore Derrick Eason or redshirt senior Chandler Zavala besides him at guard.
It should be noted that offensive coordinator Tim Beck singled out redshirt sophomore junior college tackle transfer Anthony Belton as someone who has stepped up.
As we noted last week, a pair of freshmen that have left positive impressions are receiver Julian Gray and running back Demie Sumo. Gray is probably more likely to have a chance to get a few meaningful snaps this fall, between the two.
Defensively, end Travali Price was the name we heard most often when it came to who impressed the most among the early enrollees in the spring, but linebacker Caden Fordham was not far behind, and we continue to hear that Fordham is doing well. The issue with Fordham is similar to Sumo, it’s a crowded depth chart.
•••
We noted in our football recruiting board update on Thursday evening that there were three names at the top of NC State’s list: three-star receiver Wesley Grimes from Raleigh Millbrook, three-star offensive tackle Andre Roye from Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances and offensive tackle Jalen Klemm from Gibsonia (Pa.) Pine Richland.
Here is the latest on where we understand things stand with each as football season gets started:
• Grimes — He will announce his choice on Sept. 7. Conventional wisdom in the recruiting circles point towards Wake Forest. We have had some tell us that they have reasons to believe it’s not as locked in as some think, but the we would lie if we said that the overall vibe is the Deacons are the favorites.
We have probably been less certain that he is bound for Winston-Salem than others, however.
• Roye — Presumably next on the commitment date list is Roye, who will announce his choice on Sept. 22. He is down to four schools: Maryland, NC State, Penn State and Rutgers. Many have felt that it has been Maryland and Penn State at the top of his list for months now. There are also questions of how aggressively and all-out the Nittany Lions are going after Roye, however.
NC State did get Roye on campus, and receivers coach Joker Phillips is well liked at St. Frances, but we’d be a bit surprised if NC State was the choice.
• Klemm — The hardest one to read as Klemm does not do a lot of interviews and does not share much about his recruitment even among the sources we have talked to about it. He did acknowledge that he might prefer the West Coast in a recent interview with the Pittsburgh Gazette. Due to his father’s NFL and now coaching career, Klemm has moved around, but a lot of his father’s family remains on the West Coast, and he apparently enjoyed his time living in Los Angeles.
