Thursday was finally a good day for NC State football recruiting, right?
The Wolfpacker teased three-star quarterback Aaron McLaughlin from Alpharetta (Ga.) Denmark High’s commitment after word quietly trickled out (very) late Wednesday evening that he had let the coaches know, and thanks to Chad Simmons we were able to have a story ready to go with quotes as soon as McLaughlin was ready to go public. It was originally expected to go down at 1 p.m., but apparently McLaughlin was so excited he couldn’t help but go at 12:30.
The recruitment and commitment of McLaughlin was a long time coming. There was a moment last summer, specifically when he visited for a camp June 22, where the confidence level around Raleigh that McLaughlin would end up with NC State was quite high. Arkansas, more than anyone, was considered the chief challenger.
Then Auburn made a late surge and swiped him near the end of summer. In our opinion, it was not that McLaughlin was seeking a brand name program. Other factors, including having his star receiver teammate Ze’Vion Capers already committed, did the trick for Auburn more than anything.
When McLaughlin opened up his recruitment in February, NC State pounced. The quarterback board was slow to materialize in the winter at that point, and McLaughlin gave NC State its opening.
Often times when the verdict goes elsewhere you will read from other insiders that school so and so, like Louisville and Miami in this case, had backed off or were not ready to take him. We do not know if that was truly the case, but Louisville was sure aggressive giving McLaughlin recruiting graphics, and a look at Miami’s quarterback board suggests it did not have a ton of other options.
Our guess is that once the recruiting dead period was extended once again, McLaughlin realized that the time was now to go ahead and make a decision.
The Wolfpacker teased three-star quarterback Aaron McLaughlin from Alpharetta (Ga.) Denmark High’s commitment after word quietly trickled out (very) late Wednesday evening that he had let the coaches know, and thanks to Chad Simmons we were able to have a story ready to go with quotes as soon as McLaughlin was ready to go public. It was originally expected to go down at 1 p.m., but apparently McLaughlin was so excited he couldn’t help but go at 12:30.
The recruitment and commitment of McLaughlin was a long time coming. There was a moment last summer, specifically when he visited for a camp June 22, where the confidence level around Raleigh that McLaughlin would end up with NC State was quite high. Arkansas, more than anyone, was considered the chief challenger.
Then Auburn made a late surge and swiped him near the end of summer. In our opinion, it was not that McLaughlin was seeking a brand name program. Other factors, including having his star receiver teammate Ze’Vion Capers already committed, did the trick for Auburn more than anything.
When McLaughlin opened up his recruitment in February, NC State pounced. The quarterback board was slow to materialize in the winter at that point, and McLaughlin gave NC State its opening.
Often times when the verdict goes elsewhere you will read from other insiders that school so and so, like Louisville and Miami in this case, had backed off or were not ready to take him. We do not know if that was truly the case, but Louisville was sure aggressive giving McLaughlin recruiting graphics, and a look at Miami’s quarterback board suggests it did not have a ton of other options.
Our guess is that once the recruiting dead period was extended once again, McLaughlin realized that the time was now to go ahead and make a decision.
