1. Columbus (Ohio) Westland High senior running back Kentrell Rinehart will be making his college decision at 5:30 p.m. ET on www.instagram.com/Rivalsdotcom.
NC State is favored to land him with Iowa as the main competition. NC State and Iowa running backs coach Ladell Betts, an accomplished running back himself, must have the same taste in backs. The two schools battled over Kendrick Raphael of Naples, Fla., in the class of 2023. Raphael originally picked the Hawkeyes in late June and then flipped to NC State in the fall.
Rinehart would join R.J. Boyd of Waycross (Ga.) Ware County High at running back at NCSU. Big picture, NC State would have Raphael, redshirt freshman Dylan Smothers and freshmen Isiah Jones and Jayden “Duke” Scott, plus redshirt junior fullback Jordan Poole. Jones will likely redshirt this season after an injury-marred senior year at Rolesville (N.C.) High.
Of the group, Rinehart brings a little more open-field speed than Raphael and Smothers. He’s also bigger at 6-2 and 220 pounds than all the backs.
Scott is talented at being an inside and outside runner and brings good size at a listed 212 pounds. He proved in high school he could carry the load his senior year after getting dinged up his first few years of high school.
Smothers is the X-factor because out of all the young backs, he’s the best in the passing game, both as a receiver and in blitz pickup. Rinehart might have good hands, but he wasn’t used in the passing game at his previous high school, Columbus Bishop Ready. The flip side to that, he also won’t be needed to carry the ball an astonishing 341 times at Westland High. Even the biggest of running backs have a “pitch count” on how many hits they can take in a career.
Conversely, Boyd had 114 carries for 694 yards and 10 scores last year, and he’s more of a project at the position. Both Boyd and Rinehart are “one cut and go” kind of runners. They don’t dance much. Boyd isn’t as fast, but he has enough wiggle in the hole and the power to break through weaker tackling attempts and that is how he gets his big runs. In the old days, he’d be a fullback.
Havelock (N.C.) High outside linebacker Donovan Darden officially visited June 14-16, and both Cameron White of Seffner (Fla.) Armload and Jaiden Braker of Snellville (Ga.) South Gwinnett both did the mid-week visit June 19-21.
Of the three, I sensed that Braker is the most ready to commit, followed by Darden and White. Braker has a wide-ranging list with NC State, Rutgers, South Carolina, Kentucky and Utah. That covers the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.
Braker is a pure outside linebacker with good size, speed and plays downhill with aggressiveness. His HUDL video did not show much in pass coverage, but his athleticism should translate to pass defense. He’s the classic NC State recruit of being a high 3-star who has NFL potential.
White officially visited NC State, Central Florida, West Virginia, Syracuse and Louisville. If that isn’t a classic list for a NC State recruit this cycle, I don’t know what is. Add in Georgia Tech and it would have checked a lot of boxes.
White plays violent and is the most likely of the three to be a middle linebacker one day. He wants to hit people, moves around in the box and flashed some good instincts against the pass. He might not be as fast as Braker, but they’d complement each other well.
Darden was offered June 1 and has decided to not rush in with a quick decision. He went to see NC State, Illinois and South Carolina, so that means a battle of defensive coordinators with NC State ties with Tony Gibson, Clayton White (Gamecocks) and Aaron Henry (Illinois).
Darden has only been playing linebacker for less of a season. He was a quarterback at Havelock at one point, and is good friends with tight end Javonte Vereen of NC State. Darden would strictly be an outside linebacker in college, but he plays well in space and is a fluid athlete. NC State would redshirt him and he’d develop over time.
NC State has typically added linebackers late or flipped them from other schools in the fall the last two years — Joshua Ofor, Elijah Groves (Kentucky), Kelvon McBride (Vanderbilt) and Kamal Bonner (Georgia Tech). Add in junior college transfer Wyatt Wright, and the Wolfpack usually eventually meet their linebacker goals each year under Gibson.
The Wolfpack split on the southeast corner of the state duo in tackle Michael Gibbs of Wilmington, N.C., and Antoni Ogumoro of Jacksonville, N.C., who now attends Elgin (Okla.) High and picked Tennessee. They were the original duo targeted, and Gibbs capped off his commitment last Sunday. NC State originally liked Gibbs at guard, but after gaining 58 pounds since winter, he’s now being projected at tackle. He’ll be a classic project for the NC State strength and conditioning program.
Center Isaac Sowells of Louisville (Ky.) Male has enjoyed the recruiting process from start to finish and was a regular unofficial visitor to NC State, and then capped off his official visit June 21-23. Kentucky, South Carolina and Miami (Fla.) remain in the mix with NC State and he’ll announce July 18.
The other official visitor that NC State brought in was tackle Austin Pay of Highland (Utah) Lone Peak High, who came June 14-16. Pay will definitely be a fall decision and is essentially a class of 2027 recruit due to his Morman Mission. His father played with NCSU offensive line coach Garett Tujague at BYU, and his older brother is the Cougars starting center this season.
Pay went to Arkansas, Oregon, NC State and swapped in BYU for Texas A&M for his fourth visit, and also has Utah in the mix.
In a best case scenario where Sowells solidifies the center spot, the Wolfpack still have work to do. That could be mean flipping an offensive lineman or two down the road, or finding a player who emerges this season. Recruiting offensive lineman is more about finding guys with the right build and motor and then molding their technique, so the guess is that NC State will look at some offensive lineman who are committed to MAC, Sun Belt and AAC schools, who want to be in the P4.
Odds are someone will emerge and graduate from mid-major to high major with a good senior year. Not saying it will be him, but Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons senior Jack Sheehan is someone the staff knows well, who has offers from Coastal Carolina, Old Dominion, Marshall, Troy, East Carolina and Miami (Ohio), but hasn’t broken through with a P4 offer.
NC State is favored to land him with Iowa as the main competition. NC State and Iowa running backs coach Ladell Betts, an accomplished running back himself, must have the same taste in backs. The two schools battled over Kendrick Raphael of Naples, Fla., in the class of 2023. Raphael originally picked the Hawkeyes in late June and then flipped to NC State in the fall.
Rinehart would join R.J. Boyd of Waycross (Ga.) Ware County High at running back at NCSU. Big picture, NC State would have Raphael, redshirt freshman Dylan Smothers and freshmen Isiah Jones and Jayden “Duke” Scott, plus redshirt junior fullback Jordan Poole. Jones will likely redshirt this season after an injury-marred senior year at Rolesville (N.C.) High.
Of the group, Rinehart brings a little more open-field speed than Raphael and Smothers. He’s also bigger at 6-2 and 220 pounds than all the backs.
Scott is talented at being an inside and outside runner and brings good size at a listed 212 pounds. He proved in high school he could carry the load his senior year after getting dinged up his first few years of high school.
Smothers is the X-factor because out of all the young backs, he’s the best in the passing game, both as a receiver and in blitz pickup. Rinehart might have good hands, but he wasn’t used in the passing game at his previous high school, Columbus Bishop Ready. The flip side to that, he also won’t be needed to carry the ball an astonishing 341 times at Westland High. Even the biggest of running backs have a “pitch count” on how many hits they can take in a career.
Conversely, Boyd had 114 carries for 694 yards and 10 scores last year, and he’s more of a project at the position. Both Boyd and Rinehart are “one cut and go” kind of runners. They don’t dance much. Boyd isn’t as fast, but he has enough wiggle in the hole and the power to break through weaker tackling attempts and that is how he gets his big runs. In the old days, he’d be a fullback.
What is left — Part I
2. NC State targeted three linebackers and are still awaiting their decisions.Havelock (N.C.) High outside linebacker Donovan Darden officially visited June 14-16, and both Cameron White of Seffner (Fla.) Armload and Jaiden Braker of Snellville (Ga.) South Gwinnett both did the mid-week visit June 19-21.
Of the three, I sensed that Braker is the most ready to commit, followed by Darden and White. Braker has a wide-ranging list with NC State, Rutgers, South Carolina, Kentucky and Utah. That covers the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.
Braker is a pure outside linebacker with good size, speed and plays downhill with aggressiveness. His HUDL video did not show much in pass coverage, but his athleticism should translate to pass defense. He’s the classic NC State recruit of being a high 3-star who has NFL potential.
White officially visited NC State, Central Florida, West Virginia, Syracuse and Louisville. If that isn’t a classic list for a NC State recruit this cycle, I don’t know what is. Add in Georgia Tech and it would have checked a lot of boxes.
White plays violent and is the most likely of the three to be a middle linebacker one day. He wants to hit people, moves around in the box and flashed some good instincts against the pass. He might not be as fast as Braker, but they’d complement each other well.
Darden was offered June 1 and has decided to not rush in with a quick decision. He went to see NC State, Illinois and South Carolina, so that means a battle of defensive coordinators with NC State ties with Tony Gibson, Clayton White (Gamecocks) and Aaron Henry (Illinois).
Darden has only been playing linebacker for less of a season. He was a quarterback at Havelock at one point, and is good friends with tight end Javonte Vereen of NC State. Darden would strictly be an outside linebacker in college, but he plays well in space and is a fluid athlete. NC State would redshirt him and he’d develop over time.
NC State has typically added linebackers late or flipped them from other schools in the fall the last two years — Joshua Ofor, Elijah Groves (Kentucky), Kelvon McBride (Vanderbilt) and Kamal Bonner (Georgia Tech). Add in junior college transfer Wyatt Wright, and the Wolfpack usually eventually meet their linebacker goals each year under Gibson.
What is left — part II
3. Offensive line recruiting is never easy, and part of that is not having many in-state prospects to go after.The Wolfpack split on the southeast corner of the state duo in tackle Michael Gibbs of Wilmington, N.C., and Antoni Ogumoro of Jacksonville, N.C., who now attends Elgin (Okla.) High and picked Tennessee. They were the original duo targeted, and Gibbs capped off his commitment last Sunday. NC State originally liked Gibbs at guard, but after gaining 58 pounds since winter, he’s now being projected at tackle. He’ll be a classic project for the NC State strength and conditioning program.
Center Isaac Sowells of Louisville (Ky.) Male has enjoyed the recruiting process from start to finish and was a regular unofficial visitor to NC State, and then capped off his official visit June 21-23. Kentucky, South Carolina and Miami (Fla.) remain in the mix with NC State and he’ll announce July 18.
The other official visitor that NC State brought in was tackle Austin Pay of Highland (Utah) Lone Peak High, who came June 14-16. Pay will definitely be a fall decision and is essentially a class of 2027 recruit due to his Morman Mission. His father played with NCSU offensive line coach Garett Tujague at BYU, and his older brother is the Cougars starting center this season.
Pay went to Arkansas, Oregon, NC State and swapped in BYU for Texas A&M for his fourth visit, and also has Utah in the mix.
In a best case scenario where Sowells solidifies the center spot, the Wolfpack still have work to do. That could be mean flipping an offensive lineman or two down the road, or finding a player who emerges this season. Recruiting offensive lineman is more about finding guys with the right build and motor and then molding their technique, so the guess is that NC State will look at some offensive lineman who are committed to MAC, Sun Belt and AAC schools, who want to be in the P4.
Odds are someone will emerge and graduate from mid-major to high major with a good senior year. Not saying it will be him, but Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons senior Jack Sheehan is someone the staff knows well, who has offers from Coastal Carolina, Old Dominion, Marshall, Troy, East Carolina and Miami (Ohio), but hasn’t broken through with a P4 offer.
