• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Wake Forest Football Recruiting

Just spoke with Kern. Turns out he was offered a couple weeks ago. Figured there was an offer or offers out that weren't coming out for various reasons.

Enjoyable interview and impressive tape. I'm sold.
 
Some notes that I pulled together on the new QB commit:

MICHAEL KERN (Lake Nona HS / Orlando, FL)

Rating: #52 pro-style passer on 247. 2-star on Rivals.

Official Measures (March 2018): 6’1 / 168. 4.71 40. 4.19 shuttle. 35 inch vertical. 4th best SPARQ score by a QB at the loaded Orlando Elite 11 regional.

Offers: 17 total, including FCS. Had offers from several Sun Belt and MAC programs as well as Temple. Most of his offers have come within the last two months (after the start of the spring evaluation period).

Notes: Kern had recently committed to Toledo (5/21). Reportedly also strongly considered Akron. 3,383 yards and 39 TDs last season. 64 percent completion rate. Struggled in the season opener but averaged 336 yards per game after that. Played in Class 7A. Reportedly had a dozen programs attend his spring game. Same high school as freshman slot WR Anthony Manning and former Wake QB (and Subway enthusiast) Kevin Sousa. Camped at Wake in July 2017. Looks very thin. Claims a 4.5 GPA.
 
To me this seems like a desperation offer late in the process as far as QB recruiting goes. I suppose given our situation at QB, the staff felt it was necessary to bring in someone this season. Was kind of hoping we would try and find the late bloomer later this year if we were to go after one. My concerns here are the lack of P5 interest and his interception rate. For every 3 TD’s he has an interception. Otherwise his hudl highlights looked pretty good (but so does everyone’s).
 
Richardwfu said:
To me this seems like a desperation offer late in the process as far as QB recruiting goes. I suppose given our situation at QB, the staff felt it was necessary to bring in someone this season. Was kind of hoping we would try and find the late bloomer later this year if we were to go after one. My concerns here are the lack of P5 interest and his interception rate. For every 3 TD’s he has an interception. Otherwise his hudl highlights looked pretty good (but so does everyone’s).
Click to expand...

Two small points:
1) Wake was involved with Kern early, and he'd visited campus before - it's just an offer didn't come obviously because that spot was filled.
2) I don't think I'd be too overly concerned about the interception number. Isn't that potentially somewhat a style-of-play function? I mean, he threw for nearly 3,400 yards. That's rather prolific.

And you have a point about most hudl highlight films looking pretty good, though some are shorter than others.
 
Leading HS passer in Florida last year per Les’s article. Certainly says all the right things in his interview. Welcome Kern.
 
Skinny but 4.71 isn’t slow and shows athleticism and still growing physically.
Let’s go.
 
That clip was good and showed some fine receivers too. I trust the one we got was a big part of that.
 
Welcome Mike! He's has time to develop. If Hartman plays and Kern redshirts he'll be two years behind. He'll be playing '20-'23, two years in the weight room and 200+ practices and he'll ready to step in if needed. Another year after that and it's all his. Clawson continues to impress with his organizational skills.
 
Richardwfu said:
To me this seems like a desperation offer late in the process as far as QB recruiting goes. I suppose given our situation at QB, the staff felt it was necessary to bring in someone this season. Was kind of hoping we would try and find the late bloomer later this year if we were to go after one. My concerns here are the lack of P5 interest and his interception rate. For every 3 TD’s he has an interception. Otherwise his hudl highlights looked pretty good (but so does everyone’s).
Click to expand...

I just could never associate desperation with Clawson. In fact in would be about the last adjective I can think of to describe him.
 
macktheknife said:
I just could never associate desperation with Clawson. In fact in would be about the last adjective I can think of to describe him.
Click to expand...

Good assessment on Clawson. It grieves me that every time we announce a recruit, at least one person feels entitled to express disappointment with some arbitrary aspect, rather than being happy.
 
WFU1977 said:
Good assessment on Clawson. It grieves me that every time we announce a recruit, at least one person feels entitled to express disappointment with some arbitrary aspect, rather than being happy.
Click to expand...

I was simply stating my concerns and thoughts, much like most people do on a recruiting forum. I also complemented his hudl highlights. I’ll be a big supporter of the kid either way as a die hard wake fan. Lay off.
 
No doubt he has to get MUCH bigger and stronger but Les is right about the interception number. He had a lot of completions and roughly had 1 int per 20 completions, that is pretty good IMO.
 
One thing you can say is that it's very hard to keep 4 "star" (not 4-star, although that too) QBs in your program at the same time. It's very unlikely theoretically that you're going to get these guys to each wait 3 years to play only their senior season one after another. If Newman and Hartman are as good as advertised, a guy like Clark would be disposed to expect to beat them out, or transfer to somewhere he had a better chance to play early. So you end up needing to get some guys who are less heralded to come to the program who would be more of a team first guy, but still capable of leading the team if/when necessary. We don't really know very much at all about our new starting QB with Hinton out now, so I don't know what Clawson's thinking about his QB stable. Clark could sit on the bench at Clemson as easily as he could at Wake. Why not get the guaranteed hardware that he's assured of there for doing the same thing?
 
Clark changed his mind but at least he didn’t wait until signing day. Newman and Hartman appear to be talented young QB’s so getting a 3 Star QB like Karns in 2019 looks like a good move. He has many more offers than Wolford had. If he had waited until the end of his senior year like Wolford, he probably would have picked up more.
 
Our best hope at Skinner 2.0 is Hartman. And we probably don’t have to make that comparison every time one commits.

One nice thing about our system is it doesn’t require a guy with 4/5 Star measurables or arm strength. What it really requires is intelligence and decision making, coupled with decent athleticism so the run is a threat and accuracy on mid-range and short throws. Wolford was the second best QB in the ACC last season, and not highly rated. But he put the work in, and was a great decision maker. Really excited to see who wins the competition this year.
 
Definitely will be an interesting next 2.5 months. Let’s hope PH’s boi comes back and is ready to eat!
 
Our system may not require 5 star arm strength but taking shots down the field last year (and connecting on lots of them) helped to keep things open in the short to mid range. I think it will be at least two seasons before any QB is capable of the phenomenal decision making Wolford demonstrated last year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top