1. NC State had hoped at one point this summer to have both
Kaden Magwood and
Zymicah Wilkins officially visit this week together.
That plan fell apart, which sometimes happens in recruiting. Magwood has become one of the most important prep targets in years, and attends Lincolnton (N.C.) Combine Academy. Wilkins is nearly as important, but for other reasons.
Magwood is currently ranked No. 60 by Rivals.com but played like someone is on a mission to be in the top 25 this summer. He has set up numerous official visits, with NC State going first. The key for NC State is to show him why he doesn’t need to take any more official visits or to have staying power if he does.
He goes straight to Ole Miss this weekend, so that’s the tough part for NC State, and then Memphis (Sept. 3), Georgia Tech (Sept. 6), USC (Sept.13), Mississippi State (Sept. 20), Wake Forest (Sept. 27), Auburn (Oct. 10) and Kansas (Oct. 18). We’ll see if he reschedules his hometown school, Louisville.
Magwood’s importance is that NC State won’t have to worry about point guard for the future. He’s good enough to come in and make an impact right away, and not many freshman are. He can play on the ball or off, get big scoring numbers or penetrate and dish to teammates. Plus, he’s just fun and entertaining to watch. NC State was late to the party in offering him, but they are in it now.
Wilkins ended up not coming this week, but instead the Wolfpack will be doing an in-home visit next Wednesday. Some might say that Wilkins not coming is a victim of having NC State football play on a Thursday night instead of Saturday, in that not every family can take a mid-week visit. The in-home visit will play a crucial role because he hasn’t received that much one-on-one in-person time with the NC State staff.
Wilkins fills a low-post need that is crucial. If the D.J. Burns experience impacted anybody in recruiting, it is Wilkins, who attends Arden (N.C.) Chris School, but is from Rutherfordton, N.C. NC State has watched him extensively over the years with Team United traveling team. His only unofficial visit came to NC State last August, and he earned an offer Aug. 2, 2023. He just didn’t want to visit colleges the last year, but now each visit he takes is crucial.
He has scheduled Georgetown (Sept. 6), South Carolina (Sept. 13), Dayton (Sept. 20), Clemson (Sept. 27), Villanova (Oct. 3) and Georgia (Oct. 10), if he ends up taking each visit.
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2. The big men in the state of North Carolina are starting to flex their recruiting offers.
Sometimes a player gets offered by NC State and then it’s just quiet on the recruiting front for a while. Or, a player doesn’t get offered at all, but it’s clear he’s going to be a major prospect, and you just wait.
Well, this was a loud last few weeks for many defensive lineman.
Mount Olive (N.C.) North Duplin junior
Trashawn Ruffin seemed like NC State’s secret for a while. The 6-4, 315-pounder was offered by NC State on Feb. 6, 2024, but the Wolfpack now have company. Florida, USC, Texas A&M, Georgia and West Virginia, have all recently offered, and he’s at Florida State this weekend, who had offered May 22. Add in offers from Virginia Tech and South Carolina, and he’s well on his way.
Florida State, Georgia and North Carolina have offered Winston-Salem (N.C.) Oak Grove junior
Ben Boulware, who can play nose tackle or offensive tackle. Schools will sort that out and the Wolfpack haven’t offered yet.
Clayton (N.C.) High junior defensive end
Keshawn Stancil showed a good motor and productivity in his game at Wake Forest (N.C.) High last Friday. He has earned offers recently from North Carolina, East Carolina, Georgia, Miami (Fla.), Kentucky, Penn State and Florida since June. NC State offered him May 16, 2024.
Fayetteville (N.C.) Seventy-First sophomore nose tackle
John Archer, who is 6-5 and 300-plus pounds, was under the radar for far too long. Florida State became the first school to offer him Wednesday.
Even a freshman “big man in progress” picked up his first offer — Charlotte Providence High defensive tackle
Cory Cunningham. The 6-4, 265-pounder was offered by South Carolina.
Cunningham and Charlotte Country Day freshman wide receiver
Braylon Clark are the two in the class with high major offers in the state of North Carolina. Florida State offered the 6-2 Clark on July 31 before he played a prep game, and North Carolina offered Tuesday.
One theory that could easily happen with 105-man rosters is that schools will try to hoard the big men in the trenches. In basketball, it has always been if you miss on a player, miss on a 7-footer. The came could be held true for prospects who are 6-3 or taller and already over 300 pounds.
3. NC State’s recruitment of Clayton High junior quarterback
Aiden Smalls will be interesting moving forward.
The Wolfpack have a unique viewpoint of Smalls, who played his first two years at Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons, with NCSU coach Dave Doeren’s son. NCAA rules allow Doeren to watch his son play each week, so he’s seen Smalls play more than any other coach in college football — but it was at wide receiver.
Smalls proved he can be a quality wide receiver prospect and earned scholarships from the likes of NC State, Duke and Virginia Tech.
Smalls caught 76 passes for 941 yards and 12 touchdowns in 12 games last year, and injuries skewed the numbers. He added 23 carries for 118 yards and 10 scores and went 10-of-11 passing for 220 yards and four touchdowns. Not many sophomores in the state accounted for 26 touchdowns.
The Wolfpack Central went to watch him play quarterback at his new school at Wake Forest, which is his hometown. He had two of his three older siblings attend Wake Forest. On the first offensive play of the game, he went 70 yards for a touchdown, and the quarterback era was on full display. East Carolina offered him at quarterback on Tuesday.
Now, here comes the complication. NC State has landed Pfafftown (N.C.) Reagan junior quarterback
Jacob Smith, who will also play baseball. Smalls, who is a gifted point guard in hoops, is different than Smith, and it has been quite some time since the Wolfpack took two freshman quarterbacks in the same class.
NC State has never taken two quarterbacks in the Rivals.com era, but then Duke just did it with local quarterback
Dan Mahan of Burlington Williams and
Kavon Simmons of Wake Forest High in the class of 2025. The Blue Devils also did it in 2021 with
Riley Leonard and
Jordan Moore, with the latter become a quality wide receiver.
It’s no secret that at some point, NC State will want more than three quarterbacks on scholarship. That will happen when Smith arrives to presumably join
Cedrick Bailey,
Lex Thomas and
Will Wilson.
But the reality is this, if NC State could get Smalls, if he beats out whoever down the road at quarterback, that’s a good thing. If he doesn’t win the job, then he’d probably would want to get on the field and switch to wide receiver and try to become the next
Jakobi Meyers. And if rosters are expanding to 105 scholarships, then gambling on a prospect like Smalls makes even more sense.
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