1. Today could be the start of a nice run off offensive recruiting talent.
Havelock (N.C.) High junior tight end/H-back Javonte Vereen is choosing among NC State, Louisville and Maryland at 2 p.m. today. The timing of the move is interesting because Vereen was very eager to hear from college football’s elite just two weeks ago.
The key with Vereen is that he has a clear path on how he’d get used by NC State, plus tight ends and special teams coach Todd Goebbel has done a textbook job of identifying him before other colleges and then locking him. He’d fit right in with Trent Pennix and Christopher Toudle if he picks the Wolfpack.
One source thought the turning point in Vereen’s recruitment was taking an unofficial visit to Florida on March 19, but not getting an offer during the trip. That was surprising to some in Vereen’s camp. The major moment in Vereen’s recruitment was after Georgia offered, they pushed super hard for him to make a decision and he simply wasn’t ready for that. UGA landed two other tight ends and didn’t need Vereen anymore. The hard push can work but it isn’t for every recruit.
Vereen is 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, but his two older brothers have both become much larger in their respective sports, plus Vereen is just 17. Older brother Jashun Vereen grew to 6-5 and 220 and played defensive end at North Carolina Central last year. Jermaine Vereen played basketball at Johnston C.C. in Smithfield, N.C., and is 6-7 and 186 pounds.
Javonte Vereen plans to eventually graduate in Dec. 2022 and enroll for spring football. The hope is that he could be around 220-230 pounds by then. He’s a natural athlete, who played basketball and baseball last year — playing catcher and center field — and is now out for track and field this spring.
If NC State locks in Vereen to go with Wake Forest (N.C.) Heritage quarterback Lex Thomas and West Charlotte (N.C.) High tackle Darion Rivers, that would put NC State well on its way on the offensive side of the ball. NCSU is in good shape with junior wide receivers Noah Rogers, Nathan Leacock and Kevin Concepcion, plus athlete Tamarcus Cooley can play multiple positions on both sides of the ball.
Running back Daylan Smothers, who plays with Concepcion at Charlotte Chambers High, has been a high priority at running back. The fact NC State has only offered seven running backs, one of which just picked Michigan this week (Benjamin Hall), is perhaps telling.
NC State has offered 14 offensive lineman, with six of them from Georgia, and junior tackle Charlie Symonds of Connecticut is a Wolfpack legacy. The recruitment of Pfafftown (N.C.) Reagan lineman Sam Pendleton is going as good as it possibly can. Conversely, Belmont (N.C.) South Point junior tackle Sullivan Absher is coming out with a top three today, with Clemson, North Carolina and Notre Dame the likely three.
NC State doesn’t expect to be done at tight end, but the pressure to land one isn’t quite the same if Vereen commits.
2. The head coach of a prominent NC State football recruiting target brought up how much COVID slowed down the recruitment of his star player.
The Rivals.com four-star prospect has been on a few trips to colleges this spring, including to NC State, but the coach brought up some good points. He felt as if what his player is doing now is what would have happened during the 2020-2021 school year. That his guy essentially lost a year of recruiting activity. Schools started to offer him in the fall and he started to go to college games at the start of his junior year.
That got me thinking, and it’s clear how revved up the 2024 class is going to be in comparison. The Wolfpack Central just had a pair of stories on Charlotte Providence Day sophomore wide receivers Jordan Shipp and Channing Goodwin. They’ve been to a NC State game and practice already. They both were offered Jan. 25, and have had other Power Five schools offer them. They are in a spot nine months before the 2023 four-star prospect was. Shipp and Goodwin should know everything about NC State if they want to, sooner rather than later.
Conversely, I had another conversion with Maiden (N.C.) High coach Will Byrne and he talked a little about the timeline with three-star junior wide receiver Chris Culliver. He said Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay spotted Culliver last June, but needed Culliver to visit, so the coaching staff could get a better feel for him and see his size in-person. It took some time for that to happen and as a result, his offer came this past January.
NC State is in an OK spot with Culliver, but the competition is fierce, and Clemson could be jumping in. Ohio State, North Carolina and Florida State are in the mix, but the Buckeyes are after some other big fish at wide receiver, including Rolesville (N.C.) High junior Noah Rogers, who will be unofficially visiting April 14-16.
3. The approach has made NC State fans and other fan bases nervous, but Sam Pendleton is really putting on a clinic on how to be recruited. He’s also making it look easy, which it isn’t.
As we’ve mentioned in the past, Pendleton’s recruitment has radically changed since his first interview with The Wolfpack Central going into November. At that time, he had NC State, Duke and group of five offers.
Now, he has a top five of NC State, Clemson, Michigan, Penn State and Virginia Tech, but as we suspected, Notre Dame is also firmly in the mix. Not every family is able to take unofficial visits, but he’s systematically gone to see the various schools multiple times and is building meaningful relationships with the offensive line coaches.
What has to give NC State a lot of hope is that he’s at the stage where he wants to keep coming back to Raleigh, as a way to see why he should play for the Wolfpack. He’s looking for reason’s to attend NC State.
NCSU has one ace in the hole with Pendleton — offensive line coach John Garrison has seen him play live. He’s the only coach on his list that has shared that experience with Pendleton. As a coach or media member, it’s just not the same if you haven’t been able to watch a game of a recruit.
Pendleton was on the fast track to have his commitment by March, but the new schools that jumped in slowed that down. That has also probably helped out NC State. The Wolfpack have the homecourt advantage of being around 90 minutes away. If he had committed in late February, that would have meant multiple trips to NC State wouldn’t have occurred.
One of the most textbook recruits I’ve observed over the years was power forward Ryan Kelly of Raleigh (N.C.) Ravenscroft. He ended up picking Duke, but he gave seven schools a legit shot of recruiting him in a very organized manner. Kelly’s dad played basketball at Yale and his mom played volleyball at Pennsylvania, and his grandfather played basketball at Fordham. Two other uncles played college basketball. They understood the recruiting process.
Pendleton’s recruitment could be the new standard in football recruiting.
Havelock (N.C.) High junior tight end/H-back Javonte Vereen is choosing among NC State, Louisville and Maryland at 2 p.m. today. The timing of the move is interesting because Vereen was very eager to hear from college football’s elite just two weeks ago.
The key with Vereen is that he has a clear path on how he’d get used by NC State, plus tight ends and special teams coach Todd Goebbel has done a textbook job of identifying him before other colleges and then locking him. He’d fit right in with Trent Pennix and Christopher Toudle if he picks the Wolfpack.
One source thought the turning point in Vereen’s recruitment was taking an unofficial visit to Florida on March 19, but not getting an offer during the trip. That was surprising to some in Vereen’s camp. The major moment in Vereen’s recruitment was after Georgia offered, they pushed super hard for him to make a decision and he simply wasn’t ready for that. UGA landed two other tight ends and didn’t need Vereen anymore. The hard push can work but it isn’t for every recruit.
Vereen is 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, but his two older brothers have both become much larger in their respective sports, plus Vereen is just 17. Older brother Jashun Vereen grew to 6-5 and 220 and played defensive end at North Carolina Central last year. Jermaine Vereen played basketball at Johnston C.C. in Smithfield, N.C., and is 6-7 and 186 pounds.
Javonte Vereen plans to eventually graduate in Dec. 2022 and enroll for spring football. The hope is that he could be around 220-230 pounds by then. He’s a natural athlete, who played basketball and baseball last year — playing catcher and center field — and is now out for track and field this spring.
If NC State locks in Vereen to go with Wake Forest (N.C.) Heritage quarterback Lex Thomas and West Charlotte (N.C.) High tackle Darion Rivers, that would put NC State well on its way on the offensive side of the ball. NCSU is in good shape with junior wide receivers Noah Rogers, Nathan Leacock and Kevin Concepcion, plus athlete Tamarcus Cooley can play multiple positions on both sides of the ball.
Running back Daylan Smothers, who plays with Concepcion at Charlotte Chambers High, has been a high priority at running back. The fact NC State has only offered seven running backs, one of which just picked Michigan this week (Benjamin Hall), is perhaps telling.
NC State has offered 14 offensive lineman, with six of them from Georgia, and junior tackle Charlie Symonds of Connecticut is a Wolfpack legacy. The recruitment of Pfafftown (N.C.) Reagan lineman Sam Pendleton is going as good as it possibly can. Conversely, Belmont (N.C.) South Point junior tackle Sullivan Absher is coming out with a top three today, with Clemson, North Carolina and Notre Dame the likely three.
NC State doesn’t expect to be done at tight end, but the pressure to land one isn’t quite the same if Vereen commits.
2. The head coach of a prominent NC State football recruiting target brought up how much COVID slowed down the recruitment of his star player.
The Rivals.com four-star prospect has been on a few trips to colleges this spring, including to NC State, but the coach brought up some good points. He felt as if what his player is doing now is what would have happened during the 2020-2021 school year. That his guy essentially lost a year of recruiting activity. Schools started to offer him in the fall and he started to go to college games at the start of his junior year.
That got me thinking, and it’s clear how revved up the 2024 class is going to be in comparison. The Wolfpack Central just had a pair of stories on Charlotte Providence Day sophomore wide receivers Jordan Shipp and Channing Goodwin. They’ve been to a NC State game and practice already. They both were offered Jan. 25, and have had other Power Five schools offer them. They are in a spot nine months before the 2023 four-star prospect was. Shipp and Goodwin should know everything about NC State if they want to, sooner rather than later.
Conversely, I had another conversion with Maiden (N.C.) High coach Will Byrne and he talked a little about the timeline with three-star junior wide receiver Chris Culliver. He said Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay spotted Culliver last June, but needed Culliver to visit, so the coaching staff could get a better feel for him and see his size in-person. It took some time for that to happen and as a result, his offer came this past January.
NC State is in an OK spot with Culliver, but the competition is fierce, and Clemson could be jumping in. Ohio State, North Carolina and Florida State are in the mix, but the Buckeyes are after some other big fish at wide receiver, including Rolesville (N.C.) High junior Noah Rogers, who will be unofficially visiting April 14-16.
3. The approach has made NC State fans and other fan bases nervous, but Sam Pendleton is really putting on a clinic on how to be recruited. He’s also making it look easy, which it isn’t.
As we’ve mentioned in the past, Pendleton’s recruitment has radically changed since his first interview with The Wolfpack Central going into November. At that time, he had NC State, Duke and group of five offers.
Now, he has a top five of NC State, Clemson, Michigan, Penn State and Virginia Tech, but as we suspected, Notre Dame is also firmly in the mix. Not every family is able to take unofficial visits, but he’s systematically gone to see the various schools multiple times and is building meaningful relationships with the offensive line coaches.
What has to give NC State a lot of hope is that he’s at the stage where he wants to keep coming back to Raleigh, as a way to see why he should play for the Wolfpack. He’s looking for reason’s to attend NC State.
NCSU has one ace in the hole with Pendleton — offensive line coach John Garrison has seen him play live. He’s the only coach on his list that has shared that experience with Pendleton. As a coach or media member, it’s just not the same if you haven’t been able to watch a game of a recruit.
Pendleton was on the fast track to have his commitment by March, but the new schools that jumped in slowed that down. That has also probably helped out NC State. The Wolfpack have the homecourt advantage of being around 90 minutes away. If he had committed in late February, that would have meant multiple trips to NC State wouldn’t have occurred.
One of the most textbook recruits I’ve observed over the years was power forward Ryan Kelly of Raleigh (N.C.) Ravenscroft. He ended up picking Duke, but he gave seven schools a legit shot of recruiting him in a very organized manner. Kelly’s dad played basketball at Yale and his mom played volleyball at Pennsylvania, and his grandfather played basketball at Fordham. Two other uncles played college basketball. They understood the recruiting process.
Pendleton’s recruitment could be the new standard in football recruiting.
