1. Mount Olive (N.C.) North Duplin junior nose tackle
Trashawn Ruffin was one of the first priorities in the class of 2026 for NC State.
NCSU defensive line coach
Charley Wiles offered Ruffin on Feb. 6, 2024, and the Wolfpack had him in camp the previous June. A lot has changed since then.
NC State seemingly did all it could with Ruffin, and he picked Texas A&M on Oct. 18, 2024. The last player from the state of North Carolina to play for the Aggies didn’t end so well — wide receiver
Moose Muhammad III. He caught 81 passes for 1,163 yards and 12 touchdowns in his four years, and was dismissed from the team toward the end of the year.
Ruffin, and now former NC State wide receiver
Kevin Concepcion, are the next wave of players to go to Aggieland. However, NC State hasn’t given up, and Ruffin did come to a game last November, and has been welcoming NC State’s recruiting pitches.
Ruffin also has announced that he was done with recruiting and shutting it down, but that stance hasn’t lasted too long. He does state he is still a Texas A&M commit, but NC State and others will still be pushing hard.
Here is a Q&A with Ruffin where he explains what the recruiting dynamic has been like for him.
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What was it like the last time you went to a NC State game, which was when Stanford was in town Nov. 2?
“The atmosphere was good. That was like my third time, well that was my second game. I went to the Syracuse game [Oct. 12] and I went to this one. The atmosphere was great man.”
You are committed to Texas A&M, but you know some schools will keep trying. How are you handling that?
“I kind of still want to like visit schools and stuff and see how their recruiting is. I always wanted to know how the recruiting business felt. I feel good about it, you know, I ain't got no doubts or nothing about it [going to Texas A&M].”
What would you want to see more from NC State in the future?
“I don't see nothing more. Just keep doing what they're doing. Keep recruiting me hard like they're doing.”
What's the big thing about Texas A&M that won you over?
Everything, the hospitality man. How they treat me and how I feel at home when I'm on campus and everything.”
How did the Aggies learn about you? Did coach Mike Elko recruit you at all while at Duke?
“I think it was just a random day, he [Texas A&M recruiting general manager Derek Miller] called me up, talking to me about my family, gave me all my information. Whatever really jumped everything was my ninth offer, which was Georgia. As soon as that hit, like 10 minutes later, they called me up and said, ‘Man, we’re gonna offer you. We can’t let the Bulldogs get ahead of us.’ That’s how it started.
“I honestly didn’t know [Elko was at Duke] until they told me about it. One of my teachers told me about it because his favorite team was Duke, and Elko was over there.”
What impressed you about Texas A&M compared to what you had seen at other colleges?
“The atmosphere at the stadium. How big everything was, man. Just everything.”
What's kind of been the approach with Coach Wiles at NC State?
“We just have one-and-one conversations about every week. He calls me about twice a week. We just talk about football, you talk, you talk about the problems and the good things that they have every week when they play games. We just talk about recruiting.”
What other schools have been trying this winter?
“South Carolina and NC State have. Michigan is still trying to recruit me hard, and LSU too.”
You have given up playing hoops this winter, what is keeping you busy?
“I’ll be doing winter track. I placed third in the state last year [in the shot put]. That’s one of my big goals for this year [winning the state title].”
At this time last year, NC State was about to offer you a scholarship and Charlotte had. What is it like to look back over the last year?
“Great. I mean, great, man. I love, I love, love, love this feeling, man. I just love this for me and my family, man. Everybody in my family is enjoying it.”
In the end, will it help NC State that they are nearby and were the first P4 school to believe in you?
“Yeah, it will help a little bit. It would. I'm considering it.”
2. NC State has its recruiting footprint in the south and usually up to the DMV/Maryland area.
New tight ends coach
Gavin Locklear has been pushing hard into the midwest. Does he have midwest ties? Not sure. The Apex (N.C.) High graduate is showing that it doesn’t hurt to at least try.
NC State went in the class of 2026 with four offers out to tight ends before Locklear took over. Some of that is timing and some of that is that former NC State offensive coordinator and tight ends coach
Robert Anae was similar to when NC State had
Jon Tenuta as defensive coordinator — recruiting is not what drove them after coaching for 30-40 years. NC State suffered whenever a player popped up in the western part of the state, and the Wolfpack were short on tight end numbers and needed
Justin Joly arrive from Connecticut in the portal to save the position.
Reidsville (N.C.) High two-sport star was an obvious target with his uncle playing hoops at NC State,
C.C. Harrison, and his cousin is current NCSU guard
Breon Pass. The big schools and NIL heavy hitters took things over a the picked Oregon on Nov. 30. UNC won’t likely give up, but we’ll see if the final chapter has happened.
The next offer went out to another legacy —
Corbyn Fordham of Jacksonville (Fla.) Bolles School. He’s the younger brother of NC State redshirt junior middle linebacker
Caden Fordham. He was on campus a lot and I do think he gave the Wolfpack a sincere look, but he also received an offer from conceivably every top 25 school east of the Mississippi River it felt like. He was also a Florida State legacy, with his father playing there. Corbyn Fordham ended up picking Ohio State on Nov. 28, a few days before Harrison’s decision.
NC State is still fighting for its third pre-Locklear offer, Greensboro (N.C.) Grimsley junior tight end
D.J. Howerton. He’s tall, lanky and runs fluidly, but is rarely used in Grimsley’s passing game, even though he’s really good friends with quarterback
Faizon Brandon, the junior Tennessee commit.
I was able to see Howerton play three games this past season, and he caught three passes for 36 yards in them. That is where camps and 7-on-7 can help showcase Howerton. He finished with 17 catches for 297 yards and seven touchdowns for the 16-0 Whirlies.
Rivals.com has
Khalid Worthy of Sandy Springs (Ga.) Holy Innocents Episcopal listed at wide receiver, but he’s getting looks at tight end, and NC State offered him Nov. 19, 2024. Worthy also has offers from Georgia State, Marshall, South Florida and Hampton.
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3. Now on to the new at tight end.
William Vaughn was injured when I went to see Kings Mountain (N.C.) High his sophomore year, but he looks terrific on film as a flex tight end type this past fall. For whatever reasons, the Wolfpack were slow to offer him, but Locklear corrected things by quickly seeing him and offering him in January.
Locklear then offered junior tight ends from Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.
Lincoln Watkins is up to 29 offers and the 6-4, 228-pounder from Port Huron (Mich.) Northern High is ranked the No. 15 tight end in the country by Rivals.com. Locklear went to see him Wednesday.
Watkins has P4 offers from NC State, Arizona State, Boston College, Duke, Illinois, Kansas, Louisville, Maryland, Miami (Fla.), Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oregon, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Rivals.com three-star prospect
Gavin Mueller is already college-sized at 6-6 and 240 pounds. He attends South Elgin (Ill.) High, and that is a school in the western suburbs of Chicago that isn’t known for producing Division I athletes.
He has P4 offers from NC State, Cincinnati, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Additionally, Akron, Kent state, Marshall and Toledo have offered.
Locklear offered three tight ends from Ohio.
Landen Miree of Cincinnati Princeton High is ranked No. 24 nationally at tight end,
P.J. MacFarland is from Middletown (Ohio) Lakota East High and
Cooper McCutchan attends famed Cincinnati Moeller High.
The 6-4, 225-pound MIree has a monster list with 34 scholarship offers. His P4 offers are NC State, Arizona State, Auburn, Cincinnati, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Houston, Illinois, Indiana. Kentucky, LSU, Louisville, Maryland, Michigan State, Missouri, Oregon, Pittsburgh, SMU, Texas A&M, Central Florida, Vanderbilt, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The lanky 6-5, 205-pound MacFarlane has P4 offers from Cincinnati, Duke, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Miami (Fla.), Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Pittsburgh, Virginia and Washington.
The 6-4, 215-pound McCutchan is up to 21 offers, including NC State, Boston College, Cincinnati, Duke, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Virginia and West Virginia from P4 leagues.
There are always a few simple rules to live by in NC State recruiting of late. It’s hard to beat Georgia on a player they want, and if NC State is going to venture out of the recruiting footprint, they’ll need to lock in an unofficial visit or official visit. Watkins is expected to be in town this week and that’s a big deal.
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