Our early hunch is that the recruiting cycle for the class of 2017 may play out a little slower and deliberately than many fans may anticipate/desire. There are several reasons for this.
One is the fact that the Pack only has 11 seniors on the roster. Typically that leads to smaller than normal classes on signing day. That was not the case this past cycle for State when they signed 23 instead despite having just 10 scholarship seniors to begin the year.
But it’s worth noting that the Pack was also technically under the 85 limit at the start of last season, thus they were able to give scholarships to walk-ons like Gavin Locklear and Nicholas Lacy. Two players got medical hardships (linebacker M.J. Salahuddin and defensive tackle Kenton Gibbs), which is also a rarity.
The Pack also has three verbal commitments in their eyes when you count former signee Marcelias Sutton from Warsaw, N.C. The product of James Kenan High is at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., and we are hoping to interview Sutton this weekend.
Once confirmed, Sutton will be added to State’s commitment list on Rivals.com. We are told that the Pack views him as a pledge in the class. That goes with tight end Damien Darden from C.B. Aycock High in Pikeville, N.C., and cornerback Chris Ingram from Mooresville (N.C.) High.
Darden’s physical maturation continues to impress. We are told that at the recent junior day he measured at 6-foot-4 and is now taller than four-star signee Thaddeus Moss from Charlotte Mallard Creek High. There is some speculation that if Darden hits the camp/combine scene this spring and summer he could see his stock and profile rise, but there is little concern that Darden will be anything but solid to the Pack.
Ingram fits the Pack getting longer at corner. He measured a solid 6-foot at NCSU’s camp, but more impressive was his wingspan at 6-foot-6 plus. He’s also a good athlete and shows natural cover skills, so it’s no surprise that schools like Clemson and UNC continue to aggressively pursue Ingram.
A year ago at this time we were fairly convinced that Orangeburg (S.C.) Orangeburg-Wilkinson corner James Valdez would be a commit that would take visits and continued to be recruited. Shortly after 2015 signing day he picked up an offer from Michigan, weeks after his commitment to NCSU over South Carolina surprised recruiting observers.
Valdez though proved rock solid till the end (and in the eyes of some around NC State is the forgotten prize of the class). This staff over time has proven good at holding onto commitments, losing just defensive tackle Kobe Smith (switched to Kentucky before ending up at South Carolina) in the last cycle, and having quarterback Austin King (to Indiana) and defensive tackle Jabari Zuniga (to Florida) the previous year. In Dave Doeren’s first full class, he only lost safety Jefferie Gibson to Clemson. There were a lot more potential decommits (too many to list) that NCSU held.
So if NC State can hold onto Ingram, the Pack already has almost a fifth of the early target number of around 15-16 commits. Thus they are going to be selective in their approach to offers.
Another factor to why it may (emphasis on may) be more deliberate under Doeren, NC State works from inside the state borders out. But the early returns have been fairly unanimous, the talent in the 2017 class is not as strong as previous years. For instance, NC State’s early top priority in the 2017 class are defensive end and linebacker.
Other than Rocky Mount High linebacker Sherrod Greene and (if grades improve) Wake Forest High linebacker Darius Hodge, the Pack does not look like it can fill their needs in-state at those positions.
The in-state class is strong at defensive tackle (Charlotte Mallard Creek High’s Grant Gibson, Wake Forest High Xach Gill and Garner High Matthew Butler are three prime Wolfpack targets). There are some also intriguing possibilities at quarterback, receiver and offensive line but it’s not a deep list of options.
One of those signal callers is Greensboro Dudley’s Hendon Hooker, whom we get the sense is rising fast on State’s recruiting board. We are told that the Pack’s new offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz even has a distant connection to Hooker that has helped break the ice since Drinkwitz was hired and smoothened out the transition between the departed Matt Canada and Drinkwitz.
NC State is doubling down its efforts in Georgia and Florida. They will have seven assistant coaches with territories in those two states going forward. Thus expect a lot of names to emerge in April/May during the spring evaluation period.
North Carolina has certainly made a big splash on the in-state recruiting scene, but we would caution NCSU fans from getting overly angst about that development.
The Pack certainly loved four-star athlete Ryan Jones from Mallard Creek High in Charlotte. We are led to believe they considered Jones a top three player in the state. That said, we were at Mallard Creek this week for a photo shoot with Moss and the word around the school is the Jones’ recruitment is probably far from over (although UNC should probably be more concerned about high profile programs at the moment).
NCSU offered defensive end Jake Lawler from Charlotte South Mecklenburg at its camp last summer, but there was some hesitancy about how hard to go after him because Lawler measured 6-foot-2 there, and the Pack’s strong preference is for length at defensive end (backed up by recent history).
Offensive lineman Jonah Melton from Mebane’s Eastern Alamance High was another kid that State offered and liked, but they also considered him an interior line player after he measured 6-foot-3 with just an average wingspan (less than 6-5). He also has limited athleticism, not breaking 5.8 seconds in the 40-yard dash in two runs at NCSU’s camp. By comparison, interior line signees Harrison Gee and Joe Sculthorpe were a half-second faster before their junior years.
We are led to believe some schools cooled some on receiver J.T. Cauthen of Cuthbertson High in Waxhaw after he didn’t build as much on his sophomore year during his junior campaign, which was aided in part by Oklahoma-bound quarterback Austin Kendall missing time with injury. We do not know if State was in that boat, but the general feel is that Cauthen is a solid possession receiver prospect. There are others in the state (like Emeka Emezie from Marvin Ridge High in Waxhaw and Jacquarii Roberson from Hertford County High in Ahoskie) that can fit that bill.
We do know that the Pack was not actively recruiting recent defensive line commit Jordon Riley, who seems set to transfer from Riverside High to Southern High in Durham.
This is a lengthy way of saying that while State did offer and probably would have taken many of these UNC commits, with the exception of Jones they were not irreplaceable on the Pack’s board.
One is the fact that the Pack only has 11 seniors on the roster. Typically that leads to smaller than normal classes on signing day. That was not the case this past cycle for State when they signed 23 instead despite having just 10 scholarship seniors to begin the year.
But it’s worth noting that the Pack was also technically under the 85 limit at the start of last season, thus they were able to give scholarships to walk-ons like Gavin Locklear and Nicholas Lacy. Two players got medical hardships (linebacker M.J. Salahuddin and defensive tackle Kenton Gibbs), which is also a rarity.
The Pack also has three verbal commitments in their eyes when you count former signee Marcelias Sutton from Warsaw, N.C. The product of James Kenan High is at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., and we are hoping to interview Sutton this weekend.
Once confirmed, Sutton will be added to State’s commitment list on Rivals.com. We are told that the Pack views him as a pledge in the class. That goes with tight end Damien Darden from C.B. Aycock High in Pikeville, N.C., and cornerback Chris Ingram from Mooresville (N.C.) High.
Darden’s physical maturation continues to impress. We are told that at the recent junior day he measured at 6-foot-4 and is now taller than four-star signee Thaddeus Moss from Charlotte Mallard Creek High. There is some speculation that if Darden hits the camp/combine scene this spring and summer he could see his stock and profile rise, but there is little concern that Darden will be anything but solid to the Pack.
Ingram fits the Pack getting longer at corner. He measured a solid 6-foot at NCSU’s camp, but more impressive was his wingspan at 6-foot-6 plus. He’s also a good athlete and shows natural cover skills, so it’s no surprise that schools like Clemson and UNC continue to aggressively pursue Ingram.
A year ago at this time we were fairly convinced that Orangeburg (S.C.) Orangeburg-Wilkinson corner James Valdez would be a commit that would take visits and continued to be recruited. Shortly after 2015 signing day he picked up an offer from Michigan, weeks after his commitment to NCSU over South Carolina surprised recruiting observers.
Valdez though proved rock solid till the end (and in the eyes of some around NC State is the forgotten prize of the class). This staff over time has proven good at holding onto commitments, losing just defensive tackle Kobe Smith (switched to Kentucky before ending up at South Carolina) in the last cycle, and having quarterback Austin King (to Indiana) and defensive tackle Jabari Zuniga (to Florida) the previous year. In Dave Doeren’s first full class, he only lost safety Jefferie Gibson to Clemson. There were a lot more potential decommits (too many to list) that NCSU held.
So if NC State can hold onto Ingram, the Pack already has almost a fifth of the early target number of around 15-16 commits. Thus they are going to be selective in their approach to offers.
•••
Another factor to why it may (emphasis on may) be more deliberate under Doeren, NC State works from inside the state borders out. But the early returns have been fairly unanimous, the talent in the 2017 class is not as strong as previous years. For instance, NC State’s early top priority in the 2017 class are defensive end and linebacker.
Other than Rocky Mount High linebacker Sherrod Greene and (if grades improve) Wake Forest High linebacker Darius Hodge, the Pack does not look like it can fill their needs in-state at those positions.
The in-state class is strong at defensive tackle (Charlotte Mallard Creek High’s Grant Gibson, Wake Forest High Xach Gill and Garner High Matthew Butler are three prime Wolfpack targets). There are some also intriguing possibilities at quarterback, receiver and offensive line but it’s not a deep list of options.
One of those signal callers is Greensboro Dudley’s Hendon Hooker, whom we get the sense is rising fast on State’s recruiting board. We are told that the Pack’s new offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz even has a distant connection to Hooker that has helped break the ice since Drinkwitz was hired and smoothened out the transition between the departed Matt Canada and Drinkwitz.
NC State is doubling down its efforts in Georgia and Florida. They will have seven assistant coaches with territories in those two states going forward. Thus expect a lot of names to emerge in April/May during the spring evaluation period.
•••
North Carolina has certainly made a big splash on the in-state recruiting scene, but we would caution NCSU fans from getting overly angst about that development.
The Pack certainly loved four-star athlete Ryan Jones from Mallard Creek High in Charlotte. We are led to believe they considered Jones a top three player in the state. That said, we were at Mallard Creek this week for a photo shoot with Moss and the word around the school is the Jones’ recruitment is probably far from over (although UNC should probably be more concerned about high profile programs at the moment).
NCSU offered defensive end Jake Lawler from Charlotte South Mecklenburg at its camp last summer, but there was some hesitancy about how hard to go after him because Lawler measured 6-foot-2 there, and the Pack’s strong preference is for length at defensive end (backed up by recent history).
Offensive lineman Jonah Melton from Mebane’s Eastern Alamance High was another kid that State offered and liked, but they also considered him an interior line player after he measured 6-foot-3 with just an average wingspan (less than 6-5). He also has limited athleticism, not breaking 5.8 seconds in the 40-yard dash in two runs at NCSU’s camp. By comparison, interior line signees Harrison Gee and Joe Sculthorpe were a half-second faster before their junior years.
We are led to believe some schools cooled some on receiver J.T. Cauthen of Cuthbertson High in Waxhaw after he didn’t build as much on his sophomore year during his junior campaign, which was aided in part by Oklahoma-bound quarterback Austin Kendall missing time with injury. We do not know if State was in that boat, but the general feel is that Cauthen is a solid possession receiver prospect. There are others in the state (like Emeka Emezie from Marvin Ridge High in Waxhaw and Jacquarii Roberson from Hertford County High in Ahoskie) that can fit that bill.
We do know that the Pack was not actively recruiting recent defensive line commit Jordon Riley, who seems set to transfer from Riverside High to Southern High in Durham.
This is a lengthy way of saying that while State did offer and probably would have taken many of these UNC commits, with the exception of Jones they were not irreplaceable on the Pack’s board.
