Tight end Mike Tyler of Columbia (S.C.) Hammond School picked LSU on Saturday. He had officially visited NC State in June.

NC State football commitments in action — Week 0​

Two of the four NC State commits with games this Friday played. I talked to the coaches at Lantana (Fla.) Santaluces High and Atlanta (Ga.) Lakeside High, and should be catching up with the coach at Waycross (Ga.) Ware County today. Wide receiver Jamar Browder is fine, but he didn't play Friday, and neither did running back R.J. Boyd, who I'll learn more details on today. R.J. said he had fun watching his younger brother play.

For those looking for a fantasy football league, the live draft will be 8 p.m. Sept. 3.

If there are any issues in signing up for the league, let me know. I'll probably do a few settings tweaks coming up, but basic head-to-head with normal groupings of QB/RBs/WRs/TE/K/Defense.

The Wolfpack Central fantasy football​

Narveson nails a 59 yarder last night for the Titans over Seattle…I’d like to think that punched his ticket to the NFL. Congratulations!

NC State senior center Zeke Correll, senior quarterback Grayson McCall, senior defensive end Davin Vann and junior outside linebacker Sean Brown are the captains this season.

The other thread is getting too long.
There are several Pack recruits, current swimmers and alumni who have qualified for the Olympic trials.
Berkoff has the best chance to make the team but unfortunately she is in one of the strongest events for the USA. Kennedy Noble, Rhyan White (Wolfpack elite) and Leah Shackley (recruit) are also in the mix.
Among alumni, Held and Ress seem to have the best chance.
What makes the trials so much fun is the swimmers who come from outside the favorites who make the team.

1. The news of the day wasn’t positive for NC State with wide receiver Shamarius Peterkin of Winston-Salem (N.C.) Mount Tabor picking Virginia Tech over the Wolfpack.

It’s a tough loss and the coaches put their all into it over the last 20 months or so, dating back to Peterkin’s sophomore year. This isn’t spin because I try to keep this a non-spin zone, in some recruiting cycles, this would really sting, but NC State has done such a 180 in its ability to recruit receivers of late, that Peterkin would have felt like a cherry on top.

NC State landed two elite transfers at wide receiver in junior Wesley Grimes from Wake Forest and redshirt freshman Noah Rogers from Ohio State, to join current sophomore wide receiver Kevin Concepcion.

NCSU had added five freshmen receivers in Jonathan Paylor, Keenan Jackson, Terrell Anderson, Jimmar Boston and Christian Zachary.

The class of 2025 has Je’rel Bolder of Forest Hills, N.C., Arrion Concepcion of Charlotte, N.C., and Jamar Browder of Lantana, Fla.

If Bolder remains a four-star prospect by Rivals.com, that would give the Wolfpack seven four-star performers at wide receiver. Bolder is currently ranked No. 235 overall in the class of 2025.

Four of the recruits are Rivals.com three-star prospects — Boston and Zachary, and Arrion Concepcion and Browder are currently three-star recruits.

Grimes was ranked No. 223 in the class of 2022, and Rogers was ranked No. 134 overall in the class of 2023. Kevin Concepcion was a four-star prospect.

Paylor was ranked No. 65 in the class of 2024, and classmate Anderson was ranked 218. Additionally, Jackson was a four-star prospect.

NC State also is firmly in the hunt for Monroe (N.C.) High senior Jordan Young, who has the ability to play either wide receiver or defensive back in college — or both. NCSU is the lone college to offer Young the chance to play both positions in college.

In the big picture, NC State will be in good shape and maybe a class of 2025 receiver becomes too good to pass up. The original plan was to always take at least four receivers in the class of 2025, with Peterkin and Malik Clark in the mix. Clark ended up picking Florida State.

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2. Where the drama began with Peterkin is that he simply doesn’t care about hyping himself. He lets his play do the talking.

Some players embrace the hoopla of recruiting and some don’t. NC State commit Gus Ritchey could have a job in the media one day when his playing career is open. He’s a great and enthusiastic communicator.

Peterkin is fine with in-person interviews, but he’s not going to go out of his way and he’s not eager about texting or calling with his phone. One source said he was good in getting up with college coaches, so that is good. That showed in that he didn’t contact the Virginia Tech coaches that he was coming until around 10 a.m. That’s right on brand.

The absolute about Peterkin’s commitment choice was that it was going to be nearby. Going into late July, it also started to materialize that it wouldn’t be North Carolina, which was his favorite school growing up. It proved telling when he said NC State and Virginia Tech would allow him to play football and basketball, but it never go to that stage with the Tar Heels, though he did mention Julius Peppers doing both sports.

Friday gave me flashbacks to another somewhat secretive recruitment — New Bern (N.C.) High defensive back Mike Hughes in the class of 2015. Hughes gave hints about picking NC State and hung out with the Wolfpack recruits at the Shrine Bowl in mid-December 2014. He was fine to interview in person, but reaching him on the phone, unlikely to happen. I dubbed him “The Ghost.”

That 262-mile round trip drive to New Bern on Dec. 23, 2014, brought a torrential downpour. NC State didn’t know what he’d do minutes leading up to the announcement, which was probably the red flag in the situation. He picked North Carolina.

NC State had a fun and productive class of 2015, but only Jarius Morehead worked out in the secondary. Safety Freddie Phillips tore his Achilles’ and transferred, and Vernon Grier logged some cornerback time in practice and also transferred.

It turns out that Hughes would live up to his considerable progress, but it took three schools and some brushes with the law to do it. He left UNC after one year for junior college, and ended up at Central Florida. The Minnesota Vikings drafted him No. 30 in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, and he’s on his fourth team now, the Atlanta Falcons. His defensive coordinator in 2023 — former NC State defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen, who was with the Wolfpack from 2013-16. He didn’t recruit Hughes, but probably saw Des Kitchings attempt at doing it then.

As a peek behind the curtain, nobody was probably quite certain what Peterkin would do Friday, but if they weren’t there in person, they also likely wouldn’t reach him on the phone to discuss his decision. How the job is sometimes.

Looking for an Arena or SSE parking pass. Is anyone selling?

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Broken collarbones usually are at least eight weeks.

Pittsburgh Steelers​

Though the Steelers' offense won its first "seven shots" drill of training camp in Sunday's practice, the defense won the day. Not only did cornerback Donte Jackson grab the first interception of camp, picking off a misplaced Justin Fields' throw, but rookie inside linebacker Payton Wilson turned heads by ripping the ball away from tight end Pat Freiermuth in an 11-on-11 period.

"I thought the guys were really aggressive in terms of going after the football, punching it out, raking it, and so forth," coach Mike Tomlin said. "And that's just a component of laying a foundation for some things that are important to us."

Wilson got his first extended look with the first team defense in Sunday's practice, primarily playing alongside Patrick Queen as veteran Elandon Roberts got a partial rest day. In addition to the forced fumble, Wilson also tipped another Fields pass over the middle intended for Connor Heyward.

"He's highly conditioned," Tomlin said of Wilson. "I think it starts there, and it's showing itself in the form of hustle and finish and sometimes hustle and finish puts you in position to do some of the things that you mentioned. We don't ask a lot of the new guys, but we do ask him to come ready for the work."

The third-round NC State product is one part of a well-rounded inside linebacking corps, complementing Queen and Roberts with his length and speed. After Sunday's practice, Wilson stayed on the field to get some work on the JUGS machine, pausing briefly to get a few pointers from Minkah Fitzpatrick.

"Russell Wilson says it all the time: Your mental is 80 percent of this game and just being confident and flying around," Wilson said after the JUGS work. "Yeah, I'm going to make mistakes, but I'm making 'em 110 percent." -- Brooke Pryor

(Last update: July 28)

ESPN camp updates

Payton Wilson learning from vets

Steelers camp winners and losers (5:25 mark PW mention as a winner and kudos from the vets)

Here at Winston-Salem (N.C.) Mount Tabor where senior wide receiver Shamarius "Snook" Peterkin is picking between NC State and Virginia Tech on Friday.

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Latest @Rivals recruiting intel: Buzz around Georgia Tech, Alabama, N.C. State, LSU and South Carolina trending for several top targets

Scoop: https://n.rivals.com/news/rivals-recruiting-intel-alabama-georgia-tech-n-c-state-lsu-buzz

South Carolina landed senior sleeper recruit Jaquel Holman on June 8, with Pittsburgh his other P4 offer. NC State must sense there is some wiggle room for the 6-1, 195-pounder from Blackville (S.C.) Blackville Hilda High.

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Figured some of y’all would enjoy this breakdown of the Iverson sets (and the actions off of those sets) we’ve employed under Keatts. Brian Geisinger does a great job with these. Also includes a quick look at what we might see next season.

https://briangeisinger.substack.com/p/nc-states-iverson-series?showWelcomeOnShare=true

I had heard this was happening this morning, and NC State has offered Rutgers senior commit Isaiah Deloatch of Durham Hillside. Deloatch has camped at NC State multiple times in the past and was once viewed as a safety type but when I watched him last year, it was clear he was a outside linebacker.

He’s a project, but he had good track times and is a stellar student, so worth taking a chance on. I have read that he could be a junior academically if he went to a public college in North Carolina.

He really likes Rutgers and I have heard that the Scarlet Knights really have their act together with NIL now and have 30 commits, including five 4-star prospects (plus an elite hoops class coming in). Rutgers has really targeted the second tier players in North Carolina the last three years.

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