1. One of the recruits I tracked in June was defensive back
Jordan Crim of Camden (S.C.) High, who goes by “Jojo.”
NC State offered Crim on May 21, and there was chatter about him visiting in June, but it never came together. NC State never stopped recruiting him and that has ended up being a good thing in light of Vero Beach (Fla.) High cornerback
Robert Jones, flipping to Illinois (for now), and Atlanta (Ga.) Douglass High defensive back
Jontae Gilbert likely to pick Georgia on Saturday.
Crim checks a lot of boxes because he has position versatility at 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds, and can play cornerback, nickel or free safety in NC State’s scheme.
It also has helped his cause that NC State sophomore cornerback
Brandon Cisse has gotten on the field early and is from nearby Sumter (S.C.) Lakewood High. Camden is 40 minutes north of Sumter.
The key in June was whether Crim would make it through the month uncommitted. He officially visited Georgia Tech, Duke and Virginia Tech, with all eyes on the Hokies at the end of the month.
Those three programs, plus Indiana, Central Florida, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State are his P4 offers, and he has 27 offers total. He was a true Group of Five recruiting darling with 19 offers from G5 or FCS, another aspect he has in common with Cisse.
Crim did a little bit of everything for Camden High — 92 tackles, five tackles for loss, 16 passes broken up and a interception on defense, plus 10 catches for 206 yards and he totaled six touchdowns, including a kick return for a score.
NC State danced and flirted with defensive end
Shymeik Jones last year, who had great physical attributes, but not a lot of production. He picked Appalachian State and flipped to Georgia Tech.
The Camden High coach,
Brian Rimpf, is from Raleigh and attended Leesville Road High and played at ECU. He got drafted at tackle by the Baltimore Ravens in 2004, and he played three years in the NFL. He was the former coach at Fayetteville (N.C.) Jack Britt.
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2. Keeping up with the secondary theme, it looked like in June, the recruitment of senior cornerback
Jayden Shipps had ended.
“Not so fast” is what ESPN’s
Lee Corso made famous. There are still some hot coals between NCSU cornerbacks coach
Brian Mitchell and Shipps, who attends Severn (Md.) Archbishop Spalding.
Shipps was supposed to officially visit NC State on June 7-9, and then he wasn’t. NC State had offered Shipps on Oct. 4, 2023, and he attended a spring practice. Shipps was down to NC State, Virginia and Maryland, but it wasn’t a secret who was the clear leader — the home area Terrapins. NC State essentially knew to put its energy with other players that weekend.
That June 7-9 weekend is when
Robert Jones,
Caden Gordon,
Cam Strong and safety commit
Tristan Teasdell ended up visiting. With Jones not ended up at NC State, the door is open ajar for Shipps again.
NC State was able to have Shipps’ teammate, junior cornerback
Sean Johnson, come to Alpha Wolf, and our understanding is that communication between the Wolfpack and Shipps is still ongoing.
History has shown that a lot of things can happen once a season starts. Maryland doesn’t have a brutal schedule, but go vs. USC, at Oregon, vs. Iowa and at Penn State down the stretch. However, the first six games are all winnable if — how about this for irony? — if quarterback
M.J. Morris does well.
Maryland currently has 21 commits and are ranked No. 27 in the 2025 team rankings by Rivals.com. Part of the appeal for Shipps is that star quarterback commit Malik Washington and defensive line commit Delmar White are teammates at Archbishop Spalding.
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3. As mentioned in a past The Run Down, finding new targets on the offensive line for the class of 2025 was needed, and it has begun.
NC State offered Loxahatchee (Fla.) Seminole Ridge senior guard/tackle
Daniel Pierre Louis, who is a large human being at 6-4 1/2 and 310-pounds going into his last year of high school. Florida State, Memphis and NC State could be his top three, but odds are good that new schools will continue to jump in. He’s high-level in the classroom and wants to major in bioscience.
One of the predictions was that NC State would find a mid-major commit and try to flip him, and that is also now in play.
NC State offered 6-3, 280-pound Troy senior commit
Kage Payne of Cincinnati (Ohio) Kings High. Payne played guard for his high school last year, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he ended up at center in college. The Rivals.com two-star prospect does move well on pulls and getting out to the second level at guard. NC State would likely take him at guard due to the commitment of three-star
Isaac Sowells of Louisville (Ky.) Male.
Besides Troy, Payne has P4 offers from NC State and Syracuse, but Group of Five/FCS offers from Akron, Arkansas State, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Coastal Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Florida Atlantic, Jacksonville State, James Madison, Kent State, Marshall, Massachusetts, Memphis, Miami (Ohio), Ohio, Temple and Toledo. The offer from the Orange did come after the coaching change.
Odds are good that NCSU offensive line coach
Garett Tujague will rebuild the board with several new names popping up.
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