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Deac94’s National Signing Day 2016 Class Overview, Metrics and Info Extravaganza

Deac94

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I don’t expect anyone to read all of this. Since different people are interested in different things, I thought I’d try to provide a little something for everyone. Most of the info is geared towards those that didn’t follow the recruiting thread throughout the year.

This post has my “5 Things to Know About This Class”, my “Recruiter of the Year” and some profiles of individual commits that I put together from info in the recruiting thread (plus a few bits of info that I’ve been saving).

The next post in the thread takes a deep dive into trends and observations about the commits offer sheets and has several lists that will help you compare this year’s class to both previous years and to some of Wake’s ACC peers.

Enjoy!


Five Things to Know About This Class

#1: This Class is the Product of Clawson’s First Full Cycle – Recruiting now is more like an 18 month cycle, so this class is the first one that was done entirely Clawson’s way. The Clawson model includes identifying and recruiting targets earlier in the process (Suhren, Kamara and Carney were all being recruited heavily by Wake as early as July 2014), and places a heavy emphasis on frequent on campus visits that maximize in-person contact. It also used a reconfigured primary recruiting territory that starts at home in North Carolina and extends north to Baltimore and south to Orlando. Wake is now entirely withdrawn from Texas and largely withdrawn from South Florida (both areas were still receiving attention early in the 2015 cycle).

#2: Don’t Expect This Class to Have a Big Impact Early – There are some exciting recruits in the class - for sure - but some of that talent is raw and many play positions (i.e. QB, OL and DL) were you can’t expect a big impact until they’ve been in a college program for 2 full years. They’ll be some early contributors of course, but don’t expect this class to arrive in force before 2018.

#3 The Summer “Clawson Camps” Remain Very Important – To understand Wake football recruiting, you need to under the enormous role played by the summer camps. A large number of scholarships appear to be reserved for talent identified at the summer camps. Nearly 100% of the recruits that attend Wake’s camps have no P5 offers. The staff then picks out the ones that they believe can be developed into ACC-level talents. It’s a little frustrating for fans (even for me) because it fills the class with under-the-radar type recruits and ensures a relatively low class ranking on Rivals. This year the staff extended 7 offers based on camp performances. In each case it was the recruit’s first P5 offer. EVERY SINGLE ONE ultimately committed to Wake. 100%. Many schools follow the same process with their camps, but I wonder how many use it to fill one-third of their class like Wake did. So how you feel about this class largely depends on how much you trust the staff’s ability to ID talent during these in-person evaluations. I think talent ID is one of the staff’s strongest attributes so I’m cautiously optimistic. Also note that three of the Camp offerees (Greg Dortch, Tyler Watson and Boogie Basham) were later offered by Power 5 schools. With that being said, I think that Clawson’s success is very much tied to the scholarships he has invested in these camp participants over the last two years. He needs to convert 50%-60% of them into quality ACC-level talent or he simply won’t be successful. I’m willing to bet he pulls it off.

#4 The Staff Played Great Defense – Five Wake commits were targeted during January’s recruiting “silly season”. All declined to even visit another school. Huge. Huge. Huge. I don’t think the staff has received enough credit for this.

#5 The Vibes – Some other posters have mentioned the great “feeling” that they have about this class. I get it. I feel the same way. The vibe has been off-the-charts. This class is very pro-Wake on social media. They had a regular presence on campus throughout the summer and fall (for example, I believe Jamie Newman attended every home game, and Traveon Redd unassumingly attended FAN FEST for crying out loud!). They’ve also made it clear in interviews that they aren’t coming to Wake just to lose games by fewer points than previous teams. All that combines to get fans excited, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.


Recruiter of the Year
At Wake, we don’t as much info as other schools about who is the primary recruiter for each commit so it’s difficult for fans to evaluate the performance of the assistant coaches. With that being said, I would give my first (annual?) recruiter of the year award to Nick Tabacca. Tabacca was the area recruiter for nearly one-third of the class (Sulaiman Kamara, Traveon Redd, Greg Dortch, LaRonde Liverpool, Brandon Chapman and Boogie Basham). He was also the positional recruiter for Taleni Suhren, Tyler Watson and Je’Vionte Nash. That’s a tremendous haul. While not empirical, I also recall him being mentioned in interviews more than any other assistant.

A summary of the info that has been written in the recruiting thread about some of the commits in this class, including a look back at their recruitments:

QB Jamie Newman (Graham HS / Graham, NC)
Profile: When Newman first came on the recruiting scene there was some speculation that he would end up as a LB recruit, not a QB. However Newman has since answered all the questions about his QB potential and then some. The primary driver of the Newman hype was, of course, his performance at the Elite 11 QB “camp-etition” last spring and summer. Newman travelled to 3 Elite 11 Regionals (DC, Atlanta and Charlotte). He impressed at all of them, but what impressed Trent Dilfer and the Elite 11 instructors was that he took the coaching instruction and kept coming back to more Elite 11 events dramatically improved from the time before. His three performances added together with his competitiveness, work ethic, and coachability ultimately won him a spot in the Elite 11 semifinals in California. At the semi’s, Newman probably finished in the bottom quartile, however he also clearly outperformed some of the most well-known 4-star QBs in the class.

While Newman remains a raw talent, the upside is tremendous. He’s big (6’4 / 237), mobile and has a strong arm. Combine that with off-the-charts intangibles and there’s plenty of reason for excitement. Of course, the skill-set is thought to be raw and further from his future ceiling than many other QBs so patience will be required. My advice to Deacon fans is to give him time to refine his skills and bring all of the pieces of the puzzle together. With QB recruits there are no guarantees, but I can guarantee you this: if it all comes together it is going to be a beautiful thing.

Recruitment: Newman had six P5 offers, but in the spring most were expecting that he would choose between Vanderbilt and West Virginia. He may have been favoring Vanderbilt, but in an extraordinary 12-hour period of falling dominoes Deuce Wallace flipped his commitment to Vanderbilt (from Northwestern) freeing up Newman to commit to Wake Forest just hours before David Moore was planning to commit to Wake. West Virginia fans were shocked at being left at the altar, as they believed that Newman was theirs after the Vanderbilt spot filled up.



OL Taleni Suhren (Ardrey Kell HS / Charlotte, NC)
Profile: Rivals #31 offensive tackle in the country. Suhren had been a top target for Wake Forest since July 2014. After he committed to Wake he emerged on the national scene in the spring when his Nike Regional Camp performance earned him one of only 20 OL invites to Nike’s most elite event (“The Opening”) at their campus in Beaverton, OR. This is an event that typically only 1 in 3 4-star recruits earn invites to. On top of The Opening, Suhren also earned a Senior Bowl invite and drew praise from analysts during the game and in practices during the week. Suhren grew up playing rugby in California. Can play OG or OT, but OT is the likely destination. Lots of tenacity and aggression on the field. He likes to play OL because he always gets to hit somebody. He says he wants to dominate his opponent every play. Goal-oriented academically.

Recruitment: Committed to Wake in April. Had offers from schools like Duke, Tennessee, West Virginia, Vanderbilt and Virginia. Vanderbilt pretty much took out an ad in January that they were making flipping Suhren a top priority, however Suhren remained solid an declined to visit Nashville.


DE Zander Zimmer (Bishop Moore HS / Orlando, FL)
Zimmer was already a hot commodity in non-P5 recruiting circles when Wake offered him at its Elite Junior Day in February 2015. I believe that offer caused more schools to look at his junior year film and from there his offer list went straight into the stratosphere. ACC schools like Duke, UNC, Pitt, Virginia and Syracuse piled in. Academic schools like Cal, Northwestern and Vanderbilt piled in. Even OREGON piled in. However, Zimmer had apparently already found what he was looking for at Wake. He committed and then stayed solid throughout the entire process.



DT Sulaiman Kamara (Hermitage HS / Richmond, VA)
Profile: A 4-star on Scout. Consistently recognized for his high-motor and intensity level when he competes at a camp. A comment like “no one out works Kamara” or “he approaches every drill with intensity” were common. BIG, jovial personality in interviews. Should be fun to have him in the program. I read on recruiting websites for two different schools that teams were high on him until he got on campus and then they were disappointed by his measurables and backed off in his recruitment. This doesn’t make sense to me. We have official Nike combine results that show he is 6’1.5 and 287.

Recruitment: I crossed him off my list at one point because he seemed fixated on Duke and UNC. Penn State entered the picture in a big way in February. He visited there in March, and Penn State appeared to be recruiting him hard until about June when they took a number of DT commits. By September it was clear that the main contenders for Kamara were UVA and Wake Forest. I viewed his commitment as a clean win over UVA. Kamara drew some January interest from ECU and Maryland, but apparently those schools gained no traction with Kamara.

One thing to note is that throughout his recruitment he consistently said that Wake was recruiting him the hardest. Even when he appeared to be favoring Duke, or when he was being actively recruited by Penn State. He claimed daily contact with Wake, especially Coach Tabacca. In one interview he talked in general terms about something “special” that the staff did for him on his first visit to Wake (he declined to provide details). What gets me excited about this commitment is not his rating as much as the anecdotal evidence that he was a recruit that the staff wanted badly.


DE Emmanuel Walker (Lake Marion HS / Santee, SC)
Profile: You could easily make an argument that he is the top overall recruit in the class. He’s reportedly 6’4 / 210 with a 4.47 40, but that’s very unofficial. His strengths are speed, quickness and ability to come off the edge and rush the passer (and Lord knows we need pass rushers). Had 27 sacks last season in 10 games. Played mostly DE as a senior, but his coach used him situationally at linebacker and safety (!!). Was named first team all-state by USA Today. He camped at Michigan, Ohio State, Miami and Alabama last summer. He’s raw, and will need time in the weight room before he will be able to play DE at the college level.
I loved this quote from his high school coach: “I told Wake Forest they are getting a kid who is a team player, who has never let any success go to his head. Some teachers here at Lake Marion can’t even believe he’s a football player because he has no ego. He puts his pads on and plays, takes them off and says ‘Coach, I’ll see you later’. He never wanted the spotlight; but his talent and great attitude are putting him in the spotlight more and more.”

Recruitment: Completely under-the-radar when Wake offered him. He got discovered in a big way. In just a few weeks he added offers from Georgia, Penn State and UNC. Fortunately for Wake he became a victim of numbers at those schools when spots filled up. Their loss is a big gain for Wake Forest. A very big gain. I had a panic attack last week when I realized that a cluster of Oklahoma coaches had shown up in his Twitter follows. But all’s well that ends well.


S Traveon “Tra” Redd (Magna Vista HS / Ridgeway, VA)
Profile: A versatile safety that projects to be an asset in both coverage and run support. Hits with authority. Asked to play a number of roles on his Magna Vista state championship team he was largely successful at whatever role he was asked to play. Drew a lot of P5 interest. Naysayers say that he’s an inch or two too short or a step too slow to be elite. His challenge will be to prove them wrong.

Recruitment: Perhaps the biggest nail-biter of a recruitment this cycle. Redd was another Junior Day offer and multiple times visitor to Wake this spring. Schools like West Virginia, Maryland, Indiana and N.C. State offered but never really gained any traction with Redd because he narrowed his focus to two schools that would help him accomplish his academic goals – Wake Forest and Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt writers were VERY confident they would land Redd, but in the single best moment in the recruiting year he FLIPPED THE WAKE HAT on live TV in July.

ETA as an Impact Player: Normally I would say 2017 if everything goes well in the weight room, but if you watched our safety play last season…



OL Tyler Watson (Milton HS / Alpharetta, GA)
Profile: A very interesting recruit. Played mostly DL during his junior year. At the time he was about 225. Between his junior and senior year he took his weight up to 255 and headed out to camps as an offensive lineman. When schools got to see him in person, things took off. There’s some projection involved with Watson for sure, but he has the length, frame and athleticism to project as a much-coveted offensive tackle at the college level. Watson also competes in wrestling and weightlifting. Goal-oriented academically.

Recruitment: He received his first offer on April 29 (from App State). Keep in mind by late-April schools typically aren’t giving out that many new offers. However, between April 29 and now Watson would add TWENTY EIGHT more offers, including Wake on July 24. He would commit to Wake in early September. At the time Wake was his only P5 offer. However, by January he had added Maryland, Illinois, Syracuse and Indiana. There were several stories on Watson published on various recruiting websites during this time and all had the same theme: there wasn’t much hope of changing his Wake Forest commitment. He listened to Maryland a little longer than the others because of a pre-existing relationship with one of the coaches, but in the end he stayed completely loyal to Wake.
A side note: Watson delivered one of the better quotes that I have seen this year. He told an ECU reporter (I’m paraphrasing but only slightly): “I’m looking for a school that has both great academics and a strong football program and ECU has a strong football program” (cue the rimshot)


RB Cade Carney (Davidson Day HS / Davidson, NC)
Profile: A RB with a versatile skill-set. He can run the ball. He’s also a very effective pass catcher. He was first team all-Charlotte Observer as a kick returner. Put up video game-like numbers against weaker competition after transferring to Davidson Day. UNC was planning on using him as more of a receiver. He will be an RB at Wake, but exactly how Wake plans to use him remains to be seen.

Recruitment: A head-scratcher. Carney was a hot commodity in 2013, attracting offers from Wake, UNC and N.C. State. He added Georgia Tech in 2014, but then gradually fell off the recruiting radar. At one point I thought Wake was basically recruiting Carney unopposed. That changed after Carney blew the doors off of his Nike combine in Charlotte, putting on a performance that ranked as the third highest combine score by any recruit at any Nike Regional anywhere in the country last year. That seemed to bring UNC into mix in a serious way, but curiously no one else. I viewed his commitment in the summer as a clean win over UNC.
ETA as an Impact Player: Could be early given his position and versatility, the fact that he is physically ready to compete at the college level, and that he enrolled in January.


SLOT/KR Greg Dortch (Highland Springs HS / Richmond, VA)
Profile: Perhaps the recruit that is best known to Wake fans. Many of us have enjoyed the ride on the social media hype train for the past several months. Dortch profiles as a boom-or-bust recruit. The diminutive Dortch has a combines breathtaking highlights, elite-level elusiveness and instincts with surprisingly slow 40 times. Highly productive last season. Not only did Dortch make plays all year, he was at his best in his team’s biggest games. Players like Dortch need the right system to succeed and there will be a burden on Coach Ruggiero to put Dortch in positions to be successful while avoiding a lot of direct hits. His size will present a challenge for Wake’s QBs because he is a small target. The downside scenario for Dortch is a one dimensional special teams player that has trouble overcoming his lack of straight line speed or translating his knack for big plays from the high school level to the college game. The upside scenario is a fan favorite, dynamic playmaker, and explosive offensive talent that provides us with a number of those “do you remember when…” moments that we talk about for a couple of decades.
Recruitment: When Wake offered in July Dortch has no offers other than James Madison and Norfolk State (!!). At one point he tweeted a picture of the mountain of mail that he had received during his recruitment and it looked like it was 80+% from Wake. However, his senior season performance and the resulting media and social media attention drew interest from Virginia Tech and offers from Maryland and Iowa State. Dortch reportedly scheduled an official visit to Maryland, but cancelled it after solidifying his commitment during his official visit to Wake.


ROVER/ATH Jacquez Williams (Liberty County HS / Hinesville, GA)
Profile: From an athleticism perspective he looks like a man among boys in some of his highlights. Intense competitor. Committed to play on the defensive side of the ball at Wake, I assume that is still the plan. His size – reportedly already 6’2/200 – will be a welcome addition. My hope is that he will slot into the critical Rover position that is so key to Coach Elko’s 4-2-5 defense, but he would be a welcome addition at safety as well. At Rover he would join Demetrius Kemp and Justin Strnad. That group should solidify a position that has surprisingly lacked big plays thus far in Clawson’s tenure. As a RB this year he totaled 122 carries for 1266 yards and 11 TDs. That performance earned him a number of postseason honors (3AAAA Offensive POY, Greater Savannah Area 1st team, Century 21 Outstanding Offensive Performance, All State HM).

Recruitment: While the staff tended to offer camp attendees a little later in the process this year, they offered Williams immediately after he camped in June. That flipped Williams from his UNCC commitment. Williams senior season drew some additional non-P5 interest and offers, but he remained solid and did not take any official visits other than Wake.
 
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OFFER SHEET DEEP DIVE

Vandy and NCSU each offered 5 of our commits.
Duke, UNC, Indiana and UVA each offered 4 of our commits.
Iowa State, Boston College, Illinois, West Virginia and Maryland each offered 3 of our commits.

Twelve (57%) of the commits had 2 or more other P5 offers. Just over one-third of the commits had 4 or more other P5 offers. Zander Zimmer had the most other P5 offers (14).

Some of the more impressive offers: Oregon (Zimmer), Georgia (Walker), Penn State (Walker and Kamara) and Tennessee (Suhren).

One-third of the class had offers from one or more of the service academies. Two had offers from the Ivy League.

Four commits added P5 offers AFTER they committed to Wake: Watson (Maryland, Illinois, Indiana and Syracuse), Nash (Cal), Maggio (Boston College) and Dortch (Maryland and Iowa State).



METRIC COMPARISONS


Year-Over-Year Comparison: # of recruits rated 5.6 or above by Rivals (note: 2016 class has the fewest since 2008)
2016: 4
2015: 9
2014: 7
2013: 7
2012: 6
2011: 9
2010: 10
2009: 6
2008: 4


Year-Over-Year Comparison: # of Rivals two-stars in the class (note: 2016 has the fewest since 2012, and was down significantly from 2014 and 2015)
2016: 6
2015: 10
2014: 14
2013: 7
2012: 3
2011: 5
2010: 6
2009: 9
2008: 9

Year-Over-Year Comparison: # of recruits included in the Top 600 players in the country per RankByOffers.com
2016: 3 (Zimmer, Watson and Suhren)
2015: 5 (Archibald, Claude, Austin, Reid and Strnad)
2014: 4 (Shaw, Williams, Terry and Uter)
2013: 3 (Harris, Helms and Armstrong)


Peer Comparison: # of recruits rated 5.6 or above by Rivals (2016)
NCSU: 11
Syracuse: 6
UVA: 5
Wake Forest: 4
BC: 2



Peer Comparison: Fewest # of two-stars in the class (2016)
NCSU: 6
Wake Forest: 6
Syracuse: 6
BC: 8
UVA: 11


Peer Comparison: # of recruits included in the Top 600 players in the country per Rank by Offers (as of January 18th)
NCSU: 6
Wake Forest: 3
Syracuse: 3
BC: 0
UVA: 0

Peer Comparison: Rivals Average Star Ranking (2016)
NCSU: 2.83
Wake Forest: 2.71
Syracuse: 2.71
BC: 2.53
UVA: 2.52
Note: Wake Forest also had a higher average star ranking than Iowa State (2.54), Vanderbilt (2.58), Illinois (2.32), Kansas State (2.59), Indiana (2.67), Purdue (2.26), Colorado (2.69) and Kansas (2.27).


Bottom Five P5 Teams in Rivals 2016 Team Rankings, EXCLUDING those with < 20 commits
(Note: The Rivals formula severely punishes teams with fewer than 20 commits – making comparison impossible)
Syracuse: 1230 points
Iowa State: 1215 points
Virginia: 1155 points
Wake Forest: 1140 points
Illinois: 1050 points
(Note: We likely would have finished ahead of Kansas State, Indiana, Purdue, Colorado, Boston College and Kansas even if they had taken 20 commits)
 
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Masterson, Liverpool, Cole, Grate, Nash, Watson, Kamara, Williams, Zimmer and Dortch are all in.
 
Dumb question from someone who doesn't follow this stuff all that closely...

Why don't you include Duke as a peer?

I'm sure there is a reason (# of recruits, recruiting focus, etc)... I just don't know what it is. Thanks!
 
Dumb question from someone who doesn't follow this stuff all that closely...

Why don't you include Duke as a peer?

I'm sure there is a reason (# of recruits, recruiting focus, etc)... I just don't know what it is. Thanks!

because they are kicking the shit out of us this year
 
Why is Liverpool listed as a TE? I thought he was a top tier LB?
 
Dumb question from someone who doesn't follow this stuff all that closely...

Why don't you include Duke as a peer?

I'm sure there is a reason (# of recruits, recruiting focus, etc)... I just don't know what it is. Thanks!

We don't really go head to head with Duke anymore. The thought that Duke is our primary competition is a bit of a myth. Very recently they've moved up about two tiers in who they recruit. The only Duke commit that we were heavily involved with was Xander Gagnon. For them to become a peer again we would need to take a step up and they would probably need to take a step back. They are signing 13 of the top 600 players on RankByOffers, including 6 of the Top 300. 14 of their commits were rated 5.6 or higher on Rivals, including four 4-stars.
 
Why is Liverpool listed as a TE? I thought he was a top tier LB?

Great catch. I actually thought be would be a DE, because we don't have an OLB position. Clawson said in his tweet that Liverpool could play 3 different positions.
 
We don't really go head to head with Duke anymore. The thought that Duke is our primary competition is a bit of a myth. Very recently they've moved up about two tiers in who they recruit. The only Duke commit that we were heavily involved with was Xander Gagnon. For them to become a peer again we would need to take a step up and they would probably need to take a step back. They are signing 13 of the top 600 players on RankByOffers, including 6 of the Top 300. 14 of their commits were rated 5.6 or higher on Rivals, including four 4-stars.

Thanks. I was worried that was the answer.
 
Shows the difference between a staff motivated to win and a staff motivated to be content. Clawson had to start from square one instead of building on the ACC Championship.
 
Shows the difference between a staff motivated to win and a staff motivated to be content. Clawson had to start from square one instead of building on the ACC Championship.

Yeah, the Duke staff didn't show up and change things overnight. They laid out a 10 year plan and completed it a few years early. I think some people want Clawson to get it done in 3 years.
 
Posted this on the other thread: When do we find out who the "injured" grayshirter is? I really hope it is not Surhen, that would be so "Wake Forest".


Overall, I am really excited about this class. Adds to the wealth of young talent we have; just need to continue to develop it and we are golden!
 
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