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2017 Football Recruiting

Things remain active on the Wake Forest recruiting front. There are a handful of new offers each week. Most of them are being extended to recruits who make the trip to Winston-Salem for an unofficial visit. Visits themselves are picking up with more and more recruits having their Spring Break. Some kids are coming to North Carolina specifically to visit Wake, others are on broader college tours.

Other than the visits though, hard news is scarce. There aren’t too many recruits narrowing lists just yet. Recruiting websites and message boards aren’t very active. With that being said, here are a few notes:

THE QB SPOT

I posted over a week ago that Daulton Hyatt (Arab, AL) had come off the board when he committed to Arkansas. I’d also posted that things had cooled off between Hyatt and Wake long before he committed to the Hogs.

There was also news that Hendon Hooker (Greensboro, NC) has officially eliminated Wake. Hooker is set to make a decision this week. While early signs had been pointing towards Hooker selecting Notre Dame, there has been recent momentum for Virginia Tech.

For a couple of weeks now it has seemed clear that Wake’s #1 QB target is Taylor Powell (Fayetteville, AR). Powell visited Wake for Junior Day and has had an offer for a few months. Powell had a bit of a roller coaster weekend earlier this month. He started off the weekend with an overnight visit to Alabama but came away without an offer (Alabama says they want to continue to evaluate Powell, and they plan to tape a workout in April for Saban to watch). Then he drove from Tuscaloosa to Dallas for the Elite 11 competition where he didn’t do quite as well as expected (he didn’t do badly, but left Dallas tweeting only “#motivation”). Presumably while driving home from Dallas he learned that Hyatt had taken the Arkansas spot (Powell didn’t have an offer from Arkansas, but he was in contention for one and his father is on the team’s medical staff). Then before the day was over Powell added his 4th P5 offer when Vanderbilt extended an offer. Quite a weekend.

Right now I think Powell’s recruitment looks like a head-to-head battle with Vandy. Maryland could be in the picture, but I’d be surprised if they were a serious contender. Powell hasn’t visited Maryland and is serious about being pre-med. One Vandy writer seems optimistic about the ‘Dores landing Powell, but that same guy was optimistic that Vandy would land Traveon Redd and flip Taleni Suhren. So we’ll see.

If things with Powell don’t work out, I assume that Wake would turn to dual-threat QB Johnathon Lewis (Jersey City, NJ), but that’s anything but certain at this point. Lewis was reportedly set to visit Wake last week and I read that he is high on his Wake offer. Lewis also has offers from BC, Iowa and Rutgers. He was also offered by the previous Georgia staff.

After Powell and Lewis, it’s a real guessing game as to what Wake’s QB board might look like. I’ll take a shot at who might be on there:

Myles Brennan (Bay Saint Louis, MS) might jump to the top of the list if he were to make the trip to Winston-Salem for a visit. Brennan is ranked as the #22 pro-style QB on QBHitList.com.

Tanner Morgan (Union, KY) showed a lot of Wake interest early and actually holds a Wake offer. He’s visited Wake twice and seems like a great kid. I haven’t seen any link between Wake and Morgan lately and his recruiting interest has been entirely non-P5 lately (think Western Kentucky, Western Michigan, Akron etc). However, Morgan had a good day at Elite 11-Atlanta. He made the regional finals in a loaded group of QBs (QBHitList ranked Morgan 6th on the day and Daulton Hyatt 11th). Could things pick back up with Wake? Morgan is the #77 ranked pro-style QB on QBHitList.com.

Henri Colombi (Fort Lauderdale, FL) was the #2 performer in a weak field at Elite 11-Miami. If memory serves me correct he’s camped at Wake. Colombi had an Arkansas offer before that spot filled. Colombi is ranked as the #27 pro-style QB on QBHitList.com. He’s also a 5.6 on Rivals.

Jake Haener (Danville, CA) recently told Scout that Wake has recently made contact. Haener has offers from schools like Hawaii, but is still looking for his first P5 offer. Haener knows Kyle Kearns personally. He hasn’t had his turn at the Elite 11 regionals yet. He is ranked as the #36 pro-style QB on QBHitList.com.

Cam Roane (Coffeyville, TX) hasn’t been connected to Wake at all but is the closest thing to a true breakthrough Elite 11 performance so far this season. The lefty was ranked by some as the top performer at a strong Elite 11 Dallas field. Roane’s only offer is from Arkansas State. Roane is ranked as the #40 pro-style QB on QBHitList.com, but Rivals now ranks him #17.


OTHER THOUGHTS

The P5 school that Wake seems to overlap with the most this year is Vanderbilt. There’s also more overlap with Georgia Tech, especially when it comes to offensive linemen. The fact that Wake is competing more with GT isn’t surprising given the increased attention that Wake seems to be paying to the state of Georgia.

It isn’t yet clear what type of store Duke is going to be shopping in this year (so to speak). There doesn’t seem to be the same buzz about Duke recruiting that there was this time last year. It will be interesting to see if there is more direct competition between Wake and Duke this cycle.

Nike’s “The Opening” made a stop in Atlanta last weekend and the event was attended by tons of Wake targets. I’m eager to see the combine results when they get posted. I’m especially interested to see some numbers on recent LB commit Jake Simpson.

I’m willing to do a deeper dive update into Wake’s recruiting for a different position group (OL? WR?) if there is interest from anyone. Just let me know and if there’s interest I’ll put something together in the next few days.
 
We are interested in most anything your have to post. Your reports have been great. Thanks!!!
 
94, I love your work and check this thread 3-4 times daily for your updates. I would love more!
 
Whatever you have, bring it on! Best thing on here.
 
Saw this tweet yesterday from Chad Simmons (one of Scout's top national guys):

"The Opening Atlanta yesterday may have been the most talented camp I have ever attended. The depth there was unreal."

Probably explains why Wake is hitting Georgia and Alabama so hard this year.
 
Wake commit Jamal Riggins tweeted that he has added an offer from LSU.
 
Who is our last recruit from Arkansas? I can't think of anybody.
 
In my opinion there's no bigger target for Wake this cycle than DE Mike Allen. He's planning another trip to Wake. I don't know the date, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is for the Spring Game. I've lost count of how many times he's visited Wake. I think this might be visit #4. Mentions Wake prominently in every interview that I can recall. Told Scout that his mother is very focused on academics and that she will have a big influence on his decision.
 
My daughter went to LSU and I follow them pretty closely as my "second" team. Riggins is clearly not one of their top targets not to say he does not have an offer and is not a really good prospect.
 
Duke picked up a verbal from a 4* LB.
 
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