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

Here’s something to keep in mind for the Deveaux announcement today. Some Rivals articles have pointed out that many of the obvious 2016 Power 5 recruits in the Charlotte-area have become really close. Specifically RB Robert Washington, RB Elijah Deveaux, DT Christian Colon, DE Zach Gilbert, WR/RB Moe Neal and OL Taleni Suhren. They coordinated their travel to camps this summer and unofficial visits over the past year and got pretty tight. You can also see it from the interaction on Twitter. With Robert Washington and Zach Gilbert effectively out of our range, and Taleni Suhren trending towards other in-state schools, whichever school gets Deveaux will get some help with targets Neal and Colon. That would really help Wake.

If we are serious about being competitive with recruiting in North Carolina I think that it will be important to do well in Charlotte (Deveaux, Neal and Colon), Winston-Salem/Greensboro (Slade and Carney) and points west (Leota, and hopefully we offer Tre Harbison at some point). I would have to think that being competitive in the eastern part of the state will continue to be even more challenging.
 
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Really depressing seeing duke grabbing these 4 stars from us. They are really capitalizing on last years success. Wish we could have done the same.
 
The Deveaux thing is disappointing. By all accounts a really good kid. He wanted a good academic school that was close to home, and a program that was recruiting high character guys. Then he tells Rivals after the commitment that one of the things that he liked the most about Duke was the small school feel. He seemed like a really good fit for Wake.

I hope that people have some patience and understanding for what Clawson and staff are confronted with on the recruiting front. Right when the recruiting landscape changes so that Clawson feels like he has to recruit closer to home just happens to coincide with Duke's emergence on the scene. Bad timing.
 
It's a good thing on the macro level that Duke is recruiting higher tier recruits because when Clawson cleans up Grobe's mess, we'll be getting those guys too.
 
It's a long time til NSD '16. If we got Jela Duncan two years ago, would we be any better today? If he would have been eligible, he couldn't make a difference with this line.
 
I added three players to the respective Big Boards (at posts #2 and #3 on this thread) and one to the Watch List (players with offers) as a result of offers made during a busy recruiting week. I looked at the highlights for the CB that Wake were the first to offer and thought he looked really legit. Here is what I added:

Big Board Additions

Malik Staples (RB 6’0 / 197) – Peachtree Ridge HS / Suwanee, GA
Rating: 3-star
Power 5 Offers: Wake Forest, Boston College and Georgia Tech
Background: Physical-type runner is successful running between the tackles. Very decisive and knows how to get yards after contact. Not a speed guy. Recently transferred back to a public school Peachtree Ridge from a private school. He is facing better competition this year. 247 says that Peachtree Ridge is traditionally one of the most talented programs in Georgia. Teammates with two other Wake offerees, Chad Clay and Baylen Buchanan. Had a 4.25 shuttle and 30 inch vertical jump at a Nike combine in March 2014. 247 says that he has a “strong academic background.”
Visits: Boston College (November 2013). He camped at Tennessee (no offer) and N.C. State (no offer) this summer. Making some high profile visits to SEC schools (Auburn, LSU) with 4-star teammate Chad Clay.
Recruitment: Boston College offered at the beginning of Staples sophomore year (September 2013). He has said that he speaks with their RB coach monthly and they have continued to tell him that he is a top priority.

Kobe Smith (DT 6’3 / 315) – Archer HS / Lawrenceville, GA
Rating: 3-star
Power 5 Offers: Wake Forest, Indiana, Iowa, NC State and West Virginia
Background: Big, athletic interior defensive lineman is the type of player is always in high-demand.
Visits: N.C. State on September 26 for the FSU game. Georgia Tech (no offer) on September 13.

Martin Mangram (CB 5’11 / 180) – Buford HS / Buford, GA
Rating: Unrated
Power 5 offers: Wake Forest
Background: 247 says he is 5’11, which would provide the height that the staff is looking for at corner. Also plays some RB on his HS team. From watching his highlights I buy that he is 180. He is not a skinny CB. In my opinion, he could be a physical player at the college level. That’s a great profile for a 4-2-5 CB. His most entertaining highlights are kind of buried in the middle of the junior highlights where he chases down slower offensive players that had gotten past the defense.
Recruitment: Wake Forest offered in October and was the first to offer. He gave a nice quote to Rivals saying that he thinks highly of Wake, especially for being the first school to offer him.


Watch List Additions (Players with Offers)

Unrated DE/OLB Keith Simms (Landon School / Bethesda, MD) was offered by Wake in October. Already had eight other Power 5 offers headlined by UNC, Maryland, West Virginia, Iowa and Pitt. He appears to be a top priority for Maryland and Simms has already visited there twice this fall. He plans to visit West Virginia, Boston College, Penn State (no offer) and possibly Iowa this year. We will have to see if the offer from Wake provides incentive for him to visit Winston-Salem. Between the strong mutual interest that there appears to be with Maryland, and the potential for an offer from Penn State down the road, this appears to be a longshot for Wake.
 
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Once more, WF needs to pursue John Lamot hard (QB at Eastern Alamance). His second half performance at arch rival Western Alamance was amazing: including a long TD run with just seconds left on the clock, followed by a 2 pt. conversion run to win the game at 43-42. The kid has a remarkable determination to win coupled with the athleticism to make it happen. EA is 8-0.
 
Even though the Big Boards and Watch Lists are 1) still in-progress and 2) subjectively determined (by me), I think that the info about geograhy is interesting. Here is a breakdown of the recruits on the combined lists (by state):

North Carolina 13
Virginia 5
Maryland 5
Georgia 4
South Carolina 2
Tennessee 1
New York 1
Florida 1

I am not really surprised that the number of North Carolina recruits is so high right now relative to other states in the recruiting territory. The way that I am selecting players for the list is influenced by things like which recruits attended games this season or attended July's underclassman camp. Not surprisingly that has meant that a lot of North Carolina players have been picked up initially. Still, I think this provides some perspective as to where the staff is looking for recruits for this class.

One additional note: 4 of the 5 Maryland players on the list play at The Gilman School in Baltimore. I think that Joe Ehrmann, former NFL defensive lineman and father of former Wake LB Joey Ehrmann, is still the volunteer defensive coordinator there.
 
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With next years class size in the single digits, we will not be casting a wide net. We can be very selective. In Claw We Trust.
 
After watching Duke and BC, we seem to have fallen light years behind. If we just had the size of those 2 teams, you have a shot at .500 and a bowl. Duke will win at least 8 games imo.
 
80deac said:
After watching Duke and BC, we seem to have fallen light years behind. If we just had the size of those 2 teams, you have a shot at .500 and a bowl. Duke will win at least 8 games imo.
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Seems like Duke has four RBs better than any on our roster.
 
80deac said:
After watching Duke and BC, we seem to have fallen light years behind. If we just had the size of those 2 teams, you have a shot at .500 and a bowl. Duke will win at least 8 games imo.
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all the good football today and you watch those games? i hope you have sons playing for them
 
I'm guessing most teams have at least four better.
 
Well, this is something different. Derion Slade tweets a brief review of his day at N.C. State:


Darion Slade @Darion_Slade1
Worst visit I ever been on !
 
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