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2016 Football Recruiting Thread - Notes from NSD Press Conference and Reception

Deac94 said:
Up to #21 in the Rivals ranking. Counting today's additions they have nine commits ranked 5.7 or higher on Rivals. Just incredible what they have done.
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A competent football team paired with the lure of elite basketball and elite academics. Wonder how they got as bad as they were.
 
Dekin said:
Not sure how we can take any more in this class unless we have even more attrition from our current roster.......or lose a commit or 2.
I know we should have a few recruits in the wings just in case we need them at the last minute, but would think most of the recruiting effort now would be on 2017, and holding on to 2016 commits
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I agree that taking any more commits means that there is either additional attrition or more of the current commits will grayshirt. Having said that, I would be very surprised if we don't take at least two more in this class.

I think the majority of the staff's focus since the season ended has been on the 2016 class, but you are correct that 2017 will be very busy next month as the staff prepares for Junior Day (probably just 8 weeks or so away).

I noticed that a number of schools had big official visit weekends this weekend. Wake's coaches appear to have remained on the road (at least some of them). I am expecting Wake to host official visits for commits and a few uncommitted recruits on January 15-16 and January 22-23.
 
State championships all around for the future Deacs that played this weekend.

Zander Zimmer and Bishop Moore won the 5A Florida State Championship 37-34. Zimmer had part of a sack with 27 seconds left to push Wakulla back and they missed the subsequent 50-yard field goal try. Zimmer was in on two sacks and had seven tackles, including one for a safety. He also blocked a punt.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/spor...ore-wakulla-5a-final-1212-20151211-story.html

Greg Dortch and Highland Springs won the 5A Virginia State Championship 27-7. Dortch took a sweep 66 yards for a TD. He had 3 rushes for 84 yards and also had an INT.
http://www.richmond.com/sports/high...cle_8652b626-97b6-5e8a-9929-95f64043a903.html

Tra Redd and Magna Vista repeated as Virginia 3A State Champs. Redd had 4 catches for 31 yards and a TD and also had an INT
http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com...cle_61eb5286-a147-11e5-ab74-671f3a1da30c.html
http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com...cle_922cda18-a148-11e5-858b-5fcd50f5eb42.html
 
Deac94 said:
I agree that taking any more commits means that there is either additional attrition or more of the current commits will grayshirt. Having said that, I would be very surprised if we don't take at least two more in this class.

I think the majority of the staff's focus since the season ended has been on the 2016 class, but you are correct that 2017 will be very busy next month as the staff prepares for Junior Day (probably just 8 weeks or so away).

I noticed that a number of schools had big official visit weekends this weekend. Wake's coaches appear to have remained on the road (at least some of them). I am expecting Wake to host official visits for commits and a few uncommitted recruits on January 15-16 and January 22-23.
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Last OV weekend before EE's would enroll. Unless all of our EE's took an official during the season it would be strange to not have them in for a free wine and dine last weekend.
 
BDL said:
Last OV weekend before EE's would enroll. Unless all of our EE's took an official during the season it would be strange to not have them in for a free wine and dine last weekend.
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Ummmm.......no wine.
 
FWIW Rivals has RB Rico Dowdle of Asheville making an official visit on the 15th and OL Pete Leota of Asheville a SC commit looking to take an official to Wake in January with his being uneasy about the coaching change in Columbia.
 
BDL said:
Last OV weekend before EE's would enroll. Unless all of our EE's took an official during the season it would be strange to not have them in for a free wine and dine last weekend.
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Wake hosted most of the January enrollees for official visits on October 31st. That was the day after the Louisville game.
 
dcon69 said:
FWIW Rivals has RB Rico Dowdle of Asheville making an official visit on the 15th and OL Pete Leota of Asheville a SC commit looking to take an official to Wake in January with his being uneasy about the coaching change in Columbia.
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Yeah the thing with Pete Leota is weird. There is a video interview with Leota where he mentions two schools that he might take OVs to and then a print article that mentions two completely different schools. Either way, I think the chances of him flipping to Wake are very small. He has never seemed to have much interest in Wake. He has had a Wake offer for a long time.

Those with a Rivals subscription (highly recommended!) should check out the video interview and draw your own conclusion though.

I'm really hoping we can land Dowdle. He had an incredible year. The only senior season highlights on HUDL are game-by-game. This game against West Forsyth is a good starting point: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3270893/highlights/280731558/v2. Dowdle is #5 and very likely a RB at the college level (NOT a QB). I've read an N.C. State message board and they are drooling over him. Supposedly has very high end athleticism.
 
A quick recap of the presumed 2016 targets:

WR Larry Collins (Hopkins, SC) – Rivals info seems to confirm that Wake’s recruitment is still active.

WR Donald Stewart (Paramus, NJ) – After doing some more research this weekend I feel slightly more optimistic. He is legitimately on the boards of several big-name programs (Stanford, Michigan, Auburn) but I can’t find evidence that he has a spot at any of those programs. He visited Boston College this past weekend. I’d like to think that Wake could beat out BC.

RB/ATH Rico Dowdle (Asheville, NC) – Wake and N.C. State are the primary contenders.

OL Pete Leota (Asheville, NC) – Currently committed to South Carolina. There’s a 247 article that appears to confirm the Rivals report re: his interest in Wake. I still think he will be tough to flip, but I’ll buy the reports enough to put him on this list.

LB Andrew Armstrong (Youngstown, OH) – Bowling Green decommit. He recently named a top 3 of Syracuse, Wake Forest and Cincinnati. However, I read today that he is ascending on the recruiting scene. A handful of Big Ten and (second-tier) SEC schools are now considering offers. So I’ll assume this recruitment has a ways to go.

Recruits that are probably out of reach: RB Arkeem Byrd (Savannah, GA), TE Chase Allen (Nix, MO)
 
Columbia (SC) newspaper reporter tweeted that Larry Collins will visit Wake, ECU and Louisville. Wake OV scheduled for January 22nd.
 
Dekin said:
Would like to hear his reason for the switch from Wake.
SEC vs ACC? or something else
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Did you watch our O Line this year? I'm not sure a combination of Derrick Henry and Leonard Fournette would have gotten a combined total average of 50yds a game
 
I'll mention that I've heard rumors (twice, and not from anyone currently at Wake) that the Wakefield decommit was more "mutual" than it may have seemed. To be fair, I think there is almost always chatter after a decommit that "oh, we didn't want him anyways". Of course people are going to say that. However in this case I didn't see any signs that Wake continued to recruit Wakefield. That makes the rumors more believable. Ultimately everyone will have to decide for themselves what to believe (or alternatively that they just don't care because he decommitted and even worse decommitted during a game).
 
TIGHT ENDS

Recruiting is often more about long-range planning than it is about helping the team in the near-term. When you look out a couple of years, the tight end position stands out as one where you really see a deficit. Wake didn’t redshirt Devin Pike in the 2014 class and then lost Jake Bargas and Bo Archibald from the 2015 class. So that creates a gap.

The average team budgets 5-6 scholarships for tight ends. Clawson has said that he favors a 2 TE offense, but that his offense will be tailored to the strengths/weaknesses of the team. Wake has invested so heavily in slot WRs that the thought of a base 2-TE offense seems crazy. However, let’s still assume that Wake is partial to TEs and long-term has 6 scholarships budgeted for TEs. That’s the high-end, but still seems reasonable.

Here are Wake’s current scholarship commitments by year:
2016: 5 (Serigne, Pike, O’Neill, Luedeke, Chapman)
2017: 4 (Serigne, Pike, Luedeke, Chapman)
2018: 2 (Luedeke, Chapman)

Obviously Wake is set for 2016/2017, but that assumes that everyone stays healthy. There’s not much depth. The more interesting question is 2018. It is made more interesting by the fact that Brandon Chapman is more of a blocking TE that can catch than he is a receiving threat. That’s not a knock on Chapman. He was recruited for that skill set. Chapman has admitted as much, and notably has only 10 or so career receptions in high school (the injury this year obviously contributed that). While Chapman certainly could develop into a very capable receiver, it is fair to say that Wake does not have a pure receiving threat at TE past 2017.

Wake has options. Until recently I thought they would wait until the 2017 class and then go for two TEs (and hopefully at least one big-time commit). But that scenario would leave Wake relying heavily on redshirt freshmen come 2018. They could also invest another scholarship in 2016, but if that is the plan it is curious why they haven’t done so already.

Should be interesting.

ETA: Added Luedeke to the scholarship count.
 
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