For those who have been around the site a while, it is a familiar tradition in the summer that we gather thoughts from the assistant football coaches, and in the War Room we post their comments on the newcomers at their respective position groups. We start this summer with new offensive line coach John Garrison, who arrived this spring after stints at Nebraska, UNLV and FAU.
We will be rolling out the other assistant coaches over the next few weeks before camp starts. Although we have not yet received a specific start date for fall camp, our best guess is it will be around Aug. 2, give or take a day or two.
On redshirt freshman Jalynn Strickland:
“I watched film on Jalynn when he first got here, and he was extremely athletic and a big ‘ole rascal that moves well. It’s just getting him healthy is the biggest thing. For a guy that size [6-6 and 329 pounds] with broad shoulders and how well he moves, he doesn’t need to add so much weight where it is restricting his movement. He just needs to get healthy, get in shape and he’ll be ready to go.”
On redshirt freshman Gabriel Gonzalez:
“Since the day that he has gotten here, he has had an injury. He just got cleared a couple of weeks ago [in June]. The last few weeks in spring ball, he did individual with me. You can see the talent and ability there. Now, it’s putting together a summer and seeing what he can do. This is the first time he’s been healthy since he’s been there.”
On freshman and early enrollee Timothy McKay:
“He started at right guard [in spring game] and the week before that he was playing tackle. To be honest with you, you never want to do that to a true freshman. Different injuries happened and different things transpired during the spring. You want to play your best players and he just become that guy.
“I think he has settled in nicely at the guard spot. I think that is where he’ll be, but the experience he gained playing tackle for two, three weeks is huge. If something were to happen down the road, that’s a guy I’d feel comfortable with because of his athleticism, his ability, intelligence. He can handle it at a very young age. He was 16 when he got here, pretty incredible.”
On freshman and early enrollee Zovon Linday and summer enrollees Dylan McMahon and Ikem Ekwonu:
“They come in and even Zovon is up to 290, and he was a guy that needed to add weight.
“With Ikem and Dylan, they are ready built as far as size goes. There isn’t a tremendous amount of body sculpting there because these are guys that love the weight room and trained hard and worked hard. Now, they have to learn the playbook and all the intricacies of playing the offensive line. Size-wize, physicality, speed, athleticism, they got it. It is just going to come down to being healthy and execute and knowing what their assignments are. That is my job. That is the fun job.
“McMahon is center or guard but he’s an inside guy. Lindsay is more of a tackle. He has been playing both [tackle spots], which is good for a young guy. For him to experience both, he can find out what his strengths are and his weaknesses, and then go from there.
“Ekwonu, I know when he was wrestling that he had lost some weight. … He is probably up to 290-something now that he’s done with wrestling.”
***
It appears that the major summer wave of football recruiting is over after the announcements that two State targets — three-star linebacker Jayland Parker from Westside High in Macon, Ga. and defensive back Joseph Johnson from Life Christian Academy in Richmond, Va. — are headed elsewhere.
NC State knew the situation with Parker when he both cancelled his visit to NC State and subsequently kept his scheduled announcement for July 2. When Parker made no attempts to reschedule his NC State trip, the writing was clearly on the wall. As we noted earlier in the week, new Colorado coach Mel Tucker has an ambitious goal he is hoping to meet of getting Georgia players to Colorado to jumpstart the program. Tucker is the former defensive coordinator at Georgia, and thus far he is having some success with his wish. Parker becomes the third top-100 recruit in the state to pick CU.
Johnson’s recruitment did not come into clear focus until the day before his announcement. Coming out of the weekend NC State sources did not have a feel for what Johnson was going to do on Tuesday. Normally, that is not a good indicator. That said, there was conflicting information elsewhere which showed that perhaps Johnson and his family were doing a good job of keeping things under wraps.
However, by Monday afternoon there were heavy vibes that Penn State was going to be the choice. The Nittany Lions apparently did a good job of covering all their bases with Johnson, winning over the family and the coaches at his high school, even reaching out to assistants there who were close to Johnson.
Recruiting in a word is fluid, but we think this closes the chapter for NC State on Johnson’s somewhat weird recruitment (even the high school with is a newer one involved NC State having to do some work to make sure it was certifiable).
We will be rolling out the other assistant coaches over the next few weeks before camp starts. Although we have not yet received a specific start date for fall camp, our best guess is it will be around Aug. 2, give or take a day or two.
On redshirt freshman Jalynn Strickland:
“I watched film on Jalynn when he first got here, and he was extremely athletic and a big ‘ole rascal that moves well. It’s just getting him healthy is the biggest thing. For a guy that size [6-6 and 329 pounds] with broad shoulders and how well he moves, he doesn’t need to add so much weight where it is restricting his movement. He just needs to get healthy, get in shape and he’ll be ready to go.”
On redshirt freshman Gabriel Gonzalez:
“Since the day that he has gotten here, he has had an injury. He just got cleared a couple of weeks ago [in June]. The last few weeks in spring ball, he did individual with me. You can see the talent and ability there. Now, it’s putting together a summer and seeing what he can do. This is the first time he’s been healthy since he’s been there.”
On freshman and early enrollee Timothy McKay:
“He started at right guard [in spring game] and the week before that he was playing tackle. To be honest with you, you never want to do that to a true freshman. Different injuries happened and different things transpired during the spring. You want to play your best players and he just become that guy.
“I think he has settled in nicely at the guard spot. I think that is where he’ll be, but the experience he gained playing tackle for two, three weeks is huge. If something were to happen down the road, that’s a guy I’d feel comfortable with because of his athleticism, his ability, intelligence. He can handle it at a very young age. He was 16 when he got here, pretty incredible.”
On freshman and early enrollee Zovon Linday and summer enrollees Dylan McMahon and Ikem Ekwonu:
“They come in and even Zovon is up to 290, and he was a guy that needed to add weight.
“With Ikem and Dylan, they are ready built as far as size goes. There isn’t a tremendous amount of body sculpting there because these are guys that love the weight room and trained hard and worked hard. Now, they have to learn the playbook and all the intricacies of playing the offensive line. Size-wize, physicality, speed, athleticism, they got it. It is just going to come down to being healthy and execute and knowing what their assignments are. That is my job. That is the fun job.
“McMahon is center or guard but he’s an inside guy. Lindsay is more of a tackle. He has been playing both [tackle spots], which is good for a young guy. For him to experience both, he can find out what his strengths are and his weaknesses, and then go from there.
“Ekwonu, I know when he was wrestling that he had lost some weight. … He is probably up to 290-something now that he’s done with wrestling.”
***
It appears that the major summer wave of football recruiting is over after the announcements that two State targets — three-star linebacker Jayland Parker from Westside High in Macon, Ga. and defensive back Joseph Johnson from Life Christian Academy in Richmond, Va. — are headed elsewhere.
NC State knew the situation with Parker when he both cancelled his visit to NC State and subsequently kept his scheduled announcement for July 2. When Parker made no attempts to reschedule his NC State trip, the writing was clearly on the wall. As we noted earlier in the week, new Colorado coach Mel Tucker has an ambitious goal he is hoping to meet of getting Georgia players to Colorado to jumpstart the program. Tucker is the former defensive coordinator at Georgia, and thus far he is having some success with his wish. Parker becomes the third top-100 recruit in the state to pick CU.
Johnson’s recruitment did not come into clear focus until the day before his announcement. Coming out of the weekend NC State sources did not have a feel for what Johnson was going to do on Tuesday. Normally, that is not a good indicator. That said, there was conflicting information elsewhere which showed that perhaps Johnson and his family were doing a good job of keeping things under wraps.
However, by Monday afternoon there were heavy vibes that Penn State was going to be the choice. The Nittany Lions apparently did a good job of covering all their bases with Johnson, winning over the family and the coaches at his high school, even reaching out to assistants there who were close to Johnson.
Recruiting in a word is fluid, but we think this closes the chapter for NC State on Johnson’s somewhat weird recruitment (even the high school with is a newer one involved NC State having to do some work to make sure it was certifiable).
