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

A couple of items on 2016 recruiting:

A 247 article on unrated OT Thomas Jarrett Hopple (6’6/270 – Nansemond River HS / Suffolk, VA) says that he has an offer from Wake Forest. I am going to take a pass on adding him to my Board for now though. In-state schools Virginia and Virginia Tech have both offered and seem to be well-positioned for him, as well as West Virginia. He also seems very passionate about industrial engineering.

6’5 WR Diondre Overton (Page HS / Greenboro, NC), who was just added to my Big Board a few days ago, was offered by UNC. I won’t post everytime a recruit gets a new offer, but I think that the Overton story is very interesting given that he has pulled ACC offers from different schools for football (Clemson, Wake Forest, UNC and NCSU) and basketball (VT). It is also a very rapid ascent in the football recruiting world. I suspect that he may get out of Wake’s reach soon, if he hasn’t already.
 
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Deac65 said:
94, again thanks for your excellent information. I must admit I'm a little discouraged we're not listed as a higher interest with more of the guys on the big board. In Clawson I trust and hope you are correct that we will make up ground if coach gets them on campus. I''m happy that we are at least mentioned by some good recruits. My take is that we will make more in-roads as people see improvement in our program. Next year is critical for recruiting and I hope that with better strength and conditioning people will see the program is heading in the right direction. It's like the chicken and egg theory, better results equals better recruits and better recruits equals better results. Meaningful improvement with next year's team could really start a positive trend.
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All very good points. While last season will undoubtedly create a headwind for 2016 recruiting here are some other factors that should provide reassurance:

For the 2015 class, the Clawson staff had to recruit a class of 25+ using a recruiting territory that turned out to be flawed and only 6-7 months to identify talent and build meaningful relationships before recruits starting committing to schools. In contrast, for the 2016 class the staff may only need to find 10-12 recruits using a reconfigured territory with 18+ months to build relationships with players. So the task itself should be easier.

I also know from listening to Clawson that he fully understands the importance of recruiting, is highly focused on it, and is passionate and motivated to be successful at it. He has said repeatedly that he is not the least bit intimidated about whether he can sell Wake Forest football to recruits. He thinks that the school itself is an incredible asset for recruiting. Also, I have heard some feedback that Clawson is coming across as one of the more honest and trustworthy coaches in the region at a time when not all of the head coaches (and staffs) are coming across that way.

So I think that there will be momentum as some recruits turn their attention from “style” to “substance” this winter and spring. While the 2016 class will receive a low Rivals team ranking because of its size, I am going to predict that it will have the highest average star ranking ever achieved at Wake Forest.
 
Deac94 said:
So I think that there will be momentum as some recruits turn their attention from “style” to “substance” this winter and spring. While the 2016 class will receive a low Rivals team ranking because of its size, I am going to predict that it will have the highest average star ranking ever achieved at Wake Forest.
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All the more difficult to achieve with a kicker in that small class.
 
Jeff Driskell, Florida QB, former five star recruit has graduated and is leaving Florida. Immediately eligible. Might be a reach but worth looking into for another QB.
 
Deac94 said:
All very good points. While last season will undoubtedly create a headwind for 2016 recruiting here are some other factors that should provide reassurance:

For the 2015 class, the Clawson staff had to recruit a class of 25+ using a recruiting territory that turned out to be flawed and only 6-7 months to identify talent and build meaningful relationships before recruits starting committing to schools. In contrast, for the 2016 class the staff may only need to find 10-12 recruits using a reconfigured territory with 18+ months to build relationships with players. So the task itself should be easier.

I also know from listening to Clawson that he fully understands the importance of recruiting, is highly focused on it, and is passionate and motivated to be successful at it. He has said repeatedly that he is not the least bit intimidated about whether he can sell Wake Forest football to recruits. He thinks that the school itself is an incredible asset for recruiting. Also, I have heard some feedback that Clawson is coming across as one of the more honest and trustworthy coaches in the region at a time when not all of the head coaches (and staffs) are coming across that way.

So I think that there will be momentum as some recruits turn their attention from “style” to “substance” this winter and spring. While the 2016 class will receive a low Rivals team ranking because of its size, I am going to predict that it will have the highest average star ranking ever achieved at Wake Forest.
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I would assume the 2017 class should be a even better class. I would think with such few recruits in 2016 much more time to start focusing on 2017.
 
I doubt it. He bought into the Grobe hype like many others did.
 
It wasn't like Cutcliffe was pulling in high ranked recruits early. You gotta win some to start generating buzz.
 
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I'm not following paragraph two, 94, or just disagree with it. He had enough time to build relationships for this year's recruits. I mean he came out on fire last year. Like Chris said now we have to win to raise our profile. Has Clawson himself said he miscalculated the recruiting territory or is that your opinion?
 
CheesePritchard said:
I'm not following paragraph two, 94, or just disagree with it. He had enough time to build relationships for this year's recruits. I mean he came out on fire last year. Like Chris said now we have to win to raise our profile. Has Clawson himself said he miscalculated the recruiting territory or is that your opinion?
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I wasn’t trying to say that Clawson didn’t have enough time for the 2015 class. I was only trying to compare recruiting the 2016 class to recruiting the 2015 class, and pointing out that they will have had longer to recruit the 2016 class. So even though they have to recruit the 2016 class coming off their first losing season at Wake, there may be some factors that mitigate that.

From following 2016 recruiting this fall I have been surprised at how much exposure some of these recruits have already had to different coaches and programs. Many already have Top 3/4/5 lists. Yet Clawson came in only this time last year, so his exposure to the ’15 class started at about this point in the process. Enough time to bring in good recruits? Yes, sure. But harder to do so? It must be.

On your question about the recruiting territory, no Clawson has not said that he miscalculated it and I don’t expect him to do so. But it doesn’t take much to read between the lines. He has talked about what he wants the recruiting territory to be for the 2016 class, and it isn’t the one that was used for the first 6 months that he was on the job. We can also see that the territory has changed. Count the number of players listed on posts #2 and #3 on this thread that are from Florida and Texas. For 6 months many of the staff’s top targets were Texas players like Divine Ozigbo, Josh Jones, PJ Locke and Kenneth Mann. None of them ever set foot on campus. In fact, to my knowledge only one Texas player made an unofficial visit in the critical May/June/July timeframe. So the staff did exactly what you would hope they would do, they learned from it and made adjustments for the coming year.

I also agree with you that winning will be the only sustainable path to getting significantly higher rated recruits.
 
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Deac94 said:
I wasn’t trying to say that Clawson didn’t have enough time for the 2015 class. I was only trying to compare recruiting the 2016 class to recruiting the 2015 class, and pointing out that they will have had longer to recruit the 2016 class. So even though they have to recruit the 2016 class coming off their first losing season at Wake, there may be some factors that mitigate that.

From following 2016 recruiting this fall I have been surprised at how much exposure some of these recruits have already had to different coaches and programs. Many already have Top 3/4/5 lists. Yet Clawson came in only this time last year, so his exposure to the ’15 class started at about this point in the process. Enough time to bring in good recruits? Yes, sure. But harder to do so? It must be.

On your question about the recruiting territory, no Clawson has not said that he miscalculated it and I don’t expect him to do so. But it doesn’t take much to read between the lines. He has talked about what he wants the recruiting territory to be for the 2016 class, and it isn’t the one that was used for the first 6 months that he was on the job. We can also see that the territory has changed. Count the number of players listed on posts #2 and #3 on this thread that are from Florida and Texas. For 6 months many of the staff’s top targets were Texas players like Divine Ozigbo, Josh Jones, PJ Locke and Kenneth Mann. None of them ever set foot on campus. In fact, to my knowledge only one Texas player made an unofficial visit in the critical May/June/July timeframe. So the staff did exactly what you would hope they would do, they learned from it and made adjustments for the coming year.

I also agree with you that winning will be the only sustainable path to getting significantly higher rated recruits.
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Good point on the early top 4-5 that kids are putting out. Think it has a lot to do with coaches and schools pushing for early enrollments from kids much more so than in years past. Either way, still a lot of movement to be had, as you mentioned, most kids don't get down to a true top list until the end of the summer.
 
He's got offers up and down the East Coast.
 
Washington tweeted something similar to the one above for about 20 different schools last night.
 
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