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

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 !
They don't care. They just got Roseboro.
 
Big Board updated for a recruit that I hope we will be a real contender with. He was offered yesterday. Not sure why he wasn't offered earlier. Has visited Wake twice and tweeted a lot of pro-Wake stuff before his last visit. I think our staff is playing catch up with UNC and NC State, but there is time to do that. Plus, UNC may be pulling back some while they pursue some other targets. I think that he wants to stay close to home. Obviously, Clemson and Tennessee will be major factors if they ultimately offer.

Tre Harbison (RB 5’11/210) – Crest HS / Shelby, NC
Rating: 3-star / #19 RB in the country / #12 player in North Carolina
Power 5 offers: Wake Forest, North Carolina, N.C. State and Virginia
Background: With a mix of size and speed, Harbison has been working to develop into a balanced, versatile RB. Could be a physical back with some burst at the college level. As a sophomore, he had 1,554 yards and 22 rushing touchdowns on 202 carries (7.7 per average) despite splitting time in the backfield with another D-1 recruit (App State commit). First hit the recruiting radar in 2013 when he was one of four 2016 prospects to participate in the big “Fedora Freak Show” that summer at Chapel Hill. Rivals reported that he ran 40 times of 4.59 and 4.69 (as a rising sophomore) at that event. Reportedly turned in a 4.49 at the NC State camp the following summer. His uncle was actually the DB coach at Clemson for a while and is now the co-defensive coordinator at Auburn. Runs track for Crest, competing in both the 100m and 200m. His HS lost in the state championship game to Kendall Hinton’s Southern Durham team.
Visits: Camped at both UNC and Tennessee (no offer) in the summer of 2013. Attended games at Clemson (no offer) and Virginia Tech (no offer) in 2013. He says that he has been to Clemson “a lot”, both as a recruit (including their junior day in March) and not as a recruit. Also took unofficial visits to N.C. State (junior day) and North Carolina early in 2014. Camped at N.C. State and Tennessee last summer. Visited Wake during the summer, and then again for the Gardner-Webb game. Called the latter visit a “great experience” and said the coaches showed him “lots of love.” Visited N.C. State for the NCSU-FSU game.
Recruitment: North Carolina was the first to offer (September 2013). N.C. State offered in June 2014 after he attended their camp. Wake Forest offered in October. For a while he was naming North Carolina, N.C. State, Tennessee (no offer) and Clemson (no offer) as his favorites. Sometimes he left N.C. State off that list. He said in May that Tennessee was showing him the most interest. By October 2014 he said that he was talking to coaches from Virginia and N.C. State a lot more than coaches from North Carolina. He caught my attention with some very enthusiastic tweets about Wake before attending Wake’s home opener.
 
I'm not upset about Deavueax. He was a solid athlete, a good kid, and has a brain, but he played in a tennis-shoe football league. Providence Day and Ravenscroft aren't going to prepare you for Clemson and Florida State in football.

I'd much rather have Carney.
 
Maybe he got shot at the tailgate.

You might be right.

NC State announced Monday that seven players have been suspended for its game against Louisville this weekend following a BB gun incident at an off-campus residence.

Leading tackler Jerod Fernandez and starting safety Josh Jones, along with receiver Johnathan Alston, defensive tackle Justin Jones, defensive end Pharoah McKever, receiver Jumichael Ramos and cornerback Mike Stevens have been suspended.

Redshirt freshmen Tyler Jones, Kalen McCain, Deyshawn Middlebrooks, Terrone Prescod and Maurice Trowell also were involved and have been placed on team probation.

All were involved in a BB gun game last week.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11694407/nc-state-wolfpack-suspend-seven-players-game-louisville-cardinals
 
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.

94 can you elaborate on that?
 
94 can you elaborate on that?

CumberlandDeac is right. I was broadly referring to the factors that caused Clawson to refocus the staff’s efforts on recruits within a 5-6 hour drive. I have posted before about earlier commitments leading to an increase in the importance of unofficial visits (paid for by the recruit, and therefore closer to home) instead of official visits (paid for by the school, allowing kids to see some schools further away). On his radio show last week, Clawson made this point as well but also claimed that there is a national trend of kids committing to schools that they have visited at least 3-5 times. I have no idea if that is true or not, but he seems to know what he is talking about.

Ironically, in the early spring I heard Clawson say that recruiting at Wake Forest would be different from Bowling Green because at Bowling Green they mostly had to focus on kids within a 5-6 hour drive from campus. Now after one recruiting cycle it looks like the Bowling Green approach is becoming the Wake Forest approach. Don’t interpret that as a criticism though.

There are some committees looking at college football recruiting reform. Jim Grobe is on one of them. The first decision will be whether to implement an early signing period. There seems to be broad agreement on the need for one but there are significant disagreements about timing. The ACC wants August 1, while the SEC wants something closer to December 1. Once that decision is made, it appears that the NCAA will move up the date where official visits can start.

This is a little off-topic but here is my personal wish list for football recruiting reform:
1. Have an early signing period that starts August 1st
2. Permit colleges to pay for visits starting January 1 of a recruit’s junior year. Personally, I would not limit the number of colleges that a kid could visit, but I understand that approach would have some drawbacks.
3. Allow colleges to give written offers any time they want. Right now written offers are prohibited before a certain date. Like that makes sense. The offers would be binding on the school, but would also allow schools to revoke them anytime before they are accepted (for example, if another recruit took a spot).
4. Ban verbal scholarship offers
5. Ban non-commitable offers. I have never understood the practice of giving non-commitable, verbal scholarship offers. If you are a recruit holding a non-commitable verbal scholarship offer, what do you really have??
6. Create a mechanism to regulate over-recruiting (the practice of taking more commits than you have scholarships available, which forces some teams to effectively cut some players before the next season)
 
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Ban non-commitable offers. I have never understood the practice of giving non-commitable, verbal scholarship offers. If you are a recruit holding a non-commitable verbal scholarship offer, what do you really have??

This made me laugh.
Many years ago I had the opportunity to play golf with the GM of the LA Rams. He told a story about a college player that 'signed a verbal contract' with a pro team. Obviously, it wasn't worth much.
 
You have a reason to not commit to a lower tier program and wait.
 
Ban non-commitable offers. I have never understood the practice of giving non-commitable, verbal scholarship offers. If you are a recruit holding a non-commitable verbal scholarship offer, what do you really have??

This made me laugh.
Many years ago I had the opportunity to play golf with the GM of the LA Rams. He told a story about a college player that 'signed a verbal contract' with a pro team. Obviously, it wasn't worth much.

What I wouldn't give to see a recruits standard Twitter announcement become something closer to "I am proud to announce that I have received the 352nd non-committable verbal scholarship offer given out this year by the Louisville Cardinals #GoCards"
 
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What is the reasoning behind not allowing a recruit and a school to sign a mutual binding commitment letter earlier in the process? Are they trying to keep kids from being committed too early?
You can say noncommitable offers don't mean anything, but never do verbal commitments from players.
 
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