1. It likely won’t be said publicly, but there is a behind the scenes sense that senior post player
Zymicah Wilkins will have his recruitment be coming to an end.
Wilkins is the rare high-profile player, who has shunned the recruiting process, so for him to reschedule his NC State official visit and arrive Thursday night is crucial news.
Wilkins was a well known future Division I prospect before he played his first game at Rutherfordton-Spindale Central High in Rutherfordton, N.C. Freshman don’t get to take unofficial visits in basketball
recruiting anymore due to NCAA rules, but when Aug. 1 came along at the start of his sophomore year, the expectations were he’d start doing the various unofficial visits. Except he didn’t.
Word eventually leaked out that Wilkins wasn’t taking calls from college coaches or media once that was allowed after June 15, 2023.
When his junior year started at Arden (N.C.) Christ School, the expectations were that he’d really start seeing college, whether football weekends or home basketball games. HIs lone trip was a one-day unofficial visit to NC State on Aug. 2, 2023, and he picked up a scholarship offer.
NC State was supposed to get first crack at Wilkins on Aug. 28-30, but he canceled the trip. He eventually also canceled seeing South Carolina, but he did go on his official visit to Georgetown. Villanova, Clemson, Georgia and Dayton were also in the mix, but it doesn’t look like he’ll take trips to any of them either, but that is to be determined.
One key factor that emerged is that Wilkins wants to play for an African-American coach per several sources. That isn’t overly unusual in basketball recruiting.
Wilkins isn’t going to be the same as
D.J. Burns, but what they have in common is that he can be fed the ball in the post and at 6-7 and 227 pounds or so, he likes to go to work in the post. He’s also likely to be a four-year college player and that is worth one’s weight in gold these days.
Coach
Kevin Keatts doesn’t envision players to be four-year guys at schools anymore, though senior guard
Breon Pass, has done it. Either a player is too good too fast and goes pro, or is impatient and transfers out. Players like Wilkins,
Paul McNeil,
Bryce Heard or
Dennis Parker should be embraced and developed because they all have a chance to really good upperclassmen.
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2a. Will NC State push all the chips into the table for
Gunner Rivers in the class of 2027 at quarterback?
It would make a statement if the Wolfpack say they won’t go after any other class of 2027 quarterbacks. NC State has offered Trae Taylor from the Chicago suburbs and Flower Mound (Texas) Marcus sophomore quarterback
Colton Nussmeier, whose dad is former NFL quarterback
Doug Nussmeeir and whose brother is LSU starting quarterback
Garrett Nussmeier.
Nussmeier was ranked No. 18 overall in the class of 2027 by Rivals.com, with Rivers at No. 20 and Taylor at No. 33.
It wouldn’t take much of a pivot to declare to
Philip Rivers and Gunner that he’s the focus from here on out. If NC State plays the situation in a more traditional normal way, it will be interesting to see who emerges in the future.
Arden Christ School sophomore quarterback
Mason Holtzclaw has been intriguing and attended several NC State recruiting events already. It has been a rough start to the season against an impressive schedule. The Greenies lost 49-3 to fall to 1-3 against NCSU senior commit
Gerritt Kemp and Dacala (Ga.) Hebron Christian last Friday. The schedule doesn’t get any easier with a trip to Charlotte (N.C.) Providence Day tonight.
Holtzclaw through three games is 42-of-73 passing for 380 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions, plus 11 carries for 62 yards and score. His stats from the 61-6 loss to Rabun Gap (Ga.) Rabun Gap-Nacoochee aren’t listed on MaxPreps.com. Christ School has been outscored 146-56 this season.
Holtzclaw has offers from Florida State, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia Tech from P4 programs. He also has offers Appalachian State, Charlotte, East Carolina, Georgia Southern, Louisiana-Monroe, New Mexico State, South Florida, Toledo and UAB.
Evaluating prep quarterback has been hard for NC State, but quarterbacks coach
Kurt Roper seemingly has gotten it right with both freshman
Cedrick Bailey and class of 2025 commit
Will Wilson, though coach Dave Doeren also played a big role in deciding on Wilson.
NC State has proven it can work around dicey quarterback situations, but the program is much smoother when there is a multi-year starter. Watching Holtzclaw, it will be interesting to see if the talent is there, but he doesn’t have the help, or he isn’t working well with the talent that is there.
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2b. In many ways NC State will get a sneak peak at
Gunner Rivers’ recruitment through the process of another famous legacy recruit.
I see a lot of similarities between what Syracuse is going through with senior guard
Kiyan Anthony and what NC State will likely go through with Rivers. In that sense, root for the Orange to land Anthony coming up, who is the son of former SU star Carmelo Anthony.
Carmelo Anthony is one of the top 75 greatest basketball players of all-time and led Syracuse to a national title in his one year there. Due to that title, he’s become synonymous with the Orange, and he’s donated millions there.
Kiyan Anthony definitely has Syracuse near the top of his list, but is still going to consider Auburn, USC, Florida State, Ohio State and Rutgers.
Philip Rivers is arguably one of the top 20 quarterbacks in NFL history, and will be in the top 10 in passing yards for many years, even if Aaron Rodgers or Matthew Stafford pass him in the next two years (or so). It would be a tough blow if younger Rivers picked top 10 school U.
So if Twitter explodes one day that Anthony picks Syracuse, take that as a good sign that maybe Rivers will also want to follow in his dad’s footsteps one day.
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3. Durham Jordan has junior defensive tackle
Noah Clark, but he’s not alone as a D-I defensive line prospect for the Falcons.
Sophomore defensive end
Xavier Perkins is on the cusp of being a key factor in the class of 2027. The 6-3, 245-pounder is pretty good off the edge and has 16 tackles and three sacks this season. He played at Southern Durham last year, where he had 32 tackles as a freshman.
Duke offered him this week and that will likely start a run of offers. NC State rarely goes after slender or undersized defensive ends, but there won’t be any worries about Perkins’ size. If he’s 245 pounds now, he’ll likely be in the 260-plus range in two years.
The class of 2027 is still taking shape, but it’s wide open at the top of it with Charlotte (N.C.) Providence Day defensive end
Griff Galloway, Fayetteville (N.C.) Seventy-First nose tackle
John Archer and Rolesville (N.C.) High safety
Marquis Bryant are likely clubhouse leaders for top prospect in the state of North Carolina.
Clark is looking like he’ll have a wide-open recruitment and could be the rare scenario where he’ll like both North Carolina and NC State along the way. NC State has done a ton of early work to set the foundation, but now he’s at the stage of seeing all the other schools that have recently offered him. He’s approaching it in a good way where he’ll likely go see Georgia or Texas or Tennessee, but then still see the in-state programs too.
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