Some notes…
SCHOLARSHIP COUNT
I am at a range of 83-85 after taking off Troy Simon and adding Courtney McKinney and Atorian Perry. I give a range because I have a couple of question marks like the status of Dionte Austin.
REMAINING SPOTS
The easiest one to read is DT because of the recent offer to
DION BERGAN (Osceola HS / Kissimmee, FL). That appears to signal some pessimism about Wake’s chances with Ole Miss-commit
KD HILL,
MORO OJOMO and
TYLER STEEN. Bergan has a long list of Sun Belt-ish level offers. He also continues a trend of Wake looking at shorter DTs (6’0-6’1) as the process gets later. He tweeted that he will take an official visit to Wake on December 8.
Pessimism is understandable with Texas native Ojomo, who just picked up an offer from Texas.
Tyler Steen will take an OV to Duke this weekend and Kentucky the following weekend. He is scheduled to visit Wake in January (assuming he doesn’t sign anywhere in December).
I assume there is also a DE spot, and it is being held for Houston-commit
TAHJ BROWN (who visited last weekend). But whether and if there is a backup plan at DE remains unclear.
It’s just as unclear whether there are other spots available, and if so, at what positions. I’m assuming that the staff is done at WR.
THE NEW CALENDAR
I think the college football world is trying to figure out how to approach the new calendar, and I expect that Wake is no different.
If the new early signing date had not been added, I’m sure that Wake would have followed the same pattern from the last couple of years by scheduling big OV weekends for the first two weekends after the dead period (this year it would have been January 12-14 and January 19-21). The staff would have taken a very short break after the bowl game and then spent 1-2 weeks plotting their strategy for the January recruiting end game. OV lists were always fluid during their dead period as they set their priorities.
However, now the staff has to decide whether to try and fill all of their spots at the early signing date. The big unknown is how many, and what quality, recruits will be left on the board after the early signing date. I was surprised that they decided to bring in an official visitor this weekend. To me, that means they might be trying to wrap things up in December. Or maybe they just want the DT spot resolved.
I’m certain that Clawson is HATING all of the recruiting activity that is going on right now. He has made clear in the past that he wants his staff and players focused on the bowl game and only the bowl game. Not recruiting. I think the early signing day is just nine days before the Belk Bowl. I’m sure he’s fuming. Somebody needs to ask him about this at the next coach’s radio show. I’m sure the response will be entertaining.
McKINNEY
I watched McKinney at one of Wake’s camps last summer. I thought he was very ordinary. So I was surprised that Wake offered. However, when I watched him the other RBs at the camp were much smaller and (not surprisingly I guess) more elusive and explosive in comparison. You would be surprised how few quality RBs there are that have size. After taking Christian Beal last cycle perhaps Wake was specifically targeting a bigger RB this cycle.
McKinney shows up in this Nike camp video. This is the RB vs LB drill designed to test your elusiveness. McKinney must not have been given many reps, but does show up once at the 3:09 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4FcWFCcyCA
I did find the comments from 247’s Steve Wiltfong very encouraging and completely trust the staff. He’ll be an interesting guy to follow over the next few years. I’m excited to see how he develops.