1. This week has turned into NC State senior wide receiver commit week.

The traveling road show went to watch Cornelius (N.C.) Hough at Charlotte Chambers on Monday in a reschedule game. It got ugly in the second half with Hough surging to a 28-3 at halftime, and it led to a 58-3 defeat and running clock.

It was good to see NCSU senior wide receiver commit Arrion Concepcion, even if it wasn’t the easiest game. He caught six passes for 34 yards and returned two kickoffs for 68 yards, showing he’ll be a slot guy in college.

I won’t compare him to his brother Kevin Concepcion, a sophomore star receiver for NC State, but they do have similarities in their movements. His recruitment was altered by the fact that colleges likely all knew he would be going to NC State if Kevin was happy there, and he never did officially visit any other schools.

Concepcion has an out-going personality and you can sense the burning desire he has. My guess is that he’ll find a way to be a possession receiver in the slot in college.

Tonight’s game is Monroe (N.C.) High at Marshville (N.C.) Forest Hills, which is a long time in the making. Forest Hills has senior NC State wide receiver commit Je’rel Bolder, and Monroe features senior athlete Jordan Young, who is set to pick his college Nov. 2.

The backdrop to this game, is that would have been a natural to attend last year, except for one problem, NC State played at Virginia Tech on a Friday night. That is the downside of college games being played on a Friday night. Then on top of that, the game got called in the third quarter due to a brawl in the stands.

So, there is a lot of buildup for this game to go all four quarters and have things settled on the field (also likely an increased police/security presence).

Bolder will be fun to watch and he has topped 100 yards in three of five games this season, with Forest Hills off to a 3-2 start. I have seen him in camps in shirts and shorts, but never in a game.

Young I got to watch last year but the game was a blow out, and maybe I didn’t get the full essence of what makes him the No. 203 overall player in the country in the class of 2025 by Rivals.com. Young caught a touchdown pass and blocked a punt for a touchdown.

It also will be good to get some fact or fiction with Young, who has had others talking, but not him directly. Is Alabama still lurking? Is it a Clemson vs. NC State battle? Has what he’s seen on the field this fall alter his original thoughts. He’s been to Alpha Wolf, Tennessee vs. NC State in Charlotte, Louisiana Tech at NC State and NC State at Clemson since late July.

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2. The linebacker board continues to grow with offers out to players committed to other colleges.

This week, Zacari Thomas is a perfect example of a player who fits the formula in trying to get a player to flip.

Thomas plays at Gray (Ga.) Jones County High and verbally committed to Boston College on June 16, 2024, over offers from Georgia Tech, Kansas and Cincinnati from P4 leagues, plus Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Liberty, Marshall, Temple, Toledo and Western Kentucky.

NC State offered Thomas on Wednesday and he plays downhill at 6-2 and 215 pounds. Thomas runs well, has some good physicality and looks good off the edge on blitzes.

Thomas definitely seems to play more in space or pass coverage than say Irmo (S.C.) Dutch Forks outside linebacker Josh Smith, who will be officially visiting South Carolina and Ole Miss in the near future.

For a player like Thomas, playing closer to home at a program that consistently wins 7-to-9 games each year could be much more enticing than going to Boston College, unless he wants to be in a major city and enjoy snow. Gray, Ga., is just north of Macon, Ga., a six-hour car ride.

Speaking of South Carolina, the Gamecocks are definitely getting a nice recruiting bump with Ole Miss coming to town at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. It’s the perfect time slot for recruits to come from the state of North Carolina and still get home before 11 p.m.

If that becomes a thing with South Carolina always having big recruiting weekends — the Gamecocks hosted LSU on Sept. 14 — then future key dates will Texas A&M coming Nov. 2 and Missouri on Nov. 16.

NC State has now offered this fall the following linebackers: Thomas (Boston College), Smith (who was Coastal Carolina), Isaiah Deloatch (Rutgers), Bailey Benson (Wake Forest), Jaquel Holman (South Carolina), Bradley Gompers (Duke) and Anthony Addison (South Carolina).

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3. NC State running backs coach Todd Goebbel likes his backs from Georgia, and offered junior Ty’Jaevian “Jae” Lamar of Moultrie (Ga.) Colquitt County.

Lamar has blown up since late August with offers from NC State, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Mississippi, South Florida and Liberty over the last five weeks.

If the high school sounds familiar, that is where redshirt freshman outside linebacker Kamal Bonner of the Wolfpack attended. The program seemingly always has guys and Florida State is a recruiting power in the state of Georgia, and has landed four players from the program over the years. Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, Miami, South Carolina, Arkansas and Ole Miss have also gotten players from Colquitt County High.

NC State turned to the state of Georgia to get running backs Jayden “Duke” Scott in the class of 2024, and R.J. Boyd in the class of 2025.

Lamar has breakaway speed, a compact running style and is north-south with some wiggle. NC State has offered six running backs thus far in the class of 2026 with three from Georgia, two from Florida and one from South Carolina.

Fayetteville (N.C.) Seventy-First junior running back Jayson Franklin attended last week’s home game against Northern Illinois and he camped last June. He has 47 carries for 444 yards and six touchdowns in five games this season, and he’s also an accomplished outside linebacker. Franklin, like many in the state of North Carolina, will be at the Ole Miss at South Carolina game Saturday.

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