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

DeacDaddy said:
It shouldn't be a challenge YOU'RE FALLING BEHIND :D
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OK, I am going to update my projection for how this class will finish out. I’ll go out on a limb with two new projections.

First, I am going to project Brandon Moore into the class. That’s based on the fact that he is visiting this weekend with an offer in hand paired with Scheier’s tweet that some of the “final bricks” were on campus and the connection that the staff has to his family via having recruited his brother to Bowling Green. I’m not saying that he is a lock. He probably has to do well in his workout, but I think there is a high likelihood that he ends up a Deacon.

Second, I am going to project that there will be a pure LB in this class regardless of what happens with Mbem-Bosse. No position has received more attention at the most recent camps or recent Twitter activity. This has come as somewhat of a surprise to me since LB didn’t get a lot of recruiting attention early in the process. I am keeping my eye on 4-5 guys that have camped recently but don’t have offers yet. None have offers from other P5 schools.

The scholarship count becomes a bigger and bigger story. My new projected class of 19-20 would be 4-5 more than would appear to be available the combination of current openings plus early graduations.

MY PROJECTION OF HOW THE CLASS WILL FINISH:

1 Safety: Traveon Redd and Jarrett Cole are 1 and 1A on my list.

1 Corner: Brandon Moore

1 Defensive Tackle: Sulaiman Kamara with Jordan Jackson (no offer yet) possibly the backup plan

1 Linebacker: Elysee Mbem-Bosse or one of several camp attendees that haven’t been offered yet

0-1 Best Player Available: Possibilities include OL Tremayne Anchrum or APB Jordon Brown. Moe Neal is a wildcard that would depend on whether he is still a “take” for the Wake staff.


WHERE THE SCHOLARSHIPS MIGHT COME FROM:

9 current openings
6 projected early graduations
4-5 more would have to come from roster attrition, decommits, or additional early graduations.
 
Is the assumption that the increased interest in LB is due to increased need for an LB due to expected attrition?
 
2016 FB Recruiting. Underclassman Camp tonight.

PhDeac said:
Is the assumption that the increased interest in LB is due to increased need for an LB due to expected attrition?
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I don't know.
 
There is a group from Sir Patrick Scott's high school making the trip from MD for the underclassman camp. It will be interesting to see if Sir Patrick comes with them.

I am not thrilled with his "I will commit somewhere and then take my official visits" approach.
 
UNDERCLASSMAN CAMP

The Underclassman Camp yesterday was far from the start of 2017 recruiting – that class has had the majority of new offers since mid-April and also had a few notable camp attendees – however I thought I would post some info since it remains an important camp for that class and had a nice draw.

The two takeaways for me were: 1) similar to Junior Days, the staff is generally successful at getting recruits to travel several hours for the camp and 2) some of these rising juniors are really big kids.

The one recruit that camped with an offer already in hand was Kernersville, NC target CB Madison Cone. In addition to Wake, Cone has P5 offers from Boston College, Duke and Virginia Tech. He is a teammate of 2017-commit Christian Beal.

There were 3 offers extended following the camp, they went to:

DE Mike Allen (Buford, GA) – Wake Forest is his 2nd P5 offer. Vanderbilt was his first. Rivals rates him a 5.6 and the #13 weakside DE in the class. Official measurements from last March were 6’5 / 219. His 40 time was a little slow at 5.19. Unofficially has a 6’7 wingspan. Attends the same HS that one-time 2016 target Derriyon Shaw was attending when Wake first started to recruit him.

OLB/S Solon Page III (Marietta, GA) - Wake Forest is his 2nd P5 offer. He has held a Tennessee offer since camping there over a year ago.

DL Ethan Wiederkehr (Long Island, NY) – Wake is his 3rd P5 offer, following Rutgers and Maryland. The combination of a growth spurt and heavy dedication to the weightroom this offseason has Wiederkehr now showing off a 6’5 / 260 frame at the camps he has attended.

I will probably post the first Big Board for the 2017 class sometime before Labor Day. If it goes the same as last year, 2017 recruiting will be relatively quiet between now and next November/December with the exception of a small stream of unofficial visitors before now and then.
 
2016 FB Recruiting. Underclassman Camp tonight.

WR Larry Collins visited Wake this weekend. Very interesting. He is on the Board on the OP in this thread.

Go Clawson!!!!
 
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If we get JB and/or Moe, do we lose Wakefield / Carney? Larry Collins commits and Grate walks away or becomes our 12th WR? Since we're going after these player, we must be losing players at these positions. It explains why we keep going after DE/OLB types. We're not thin there now, but soon will be.
 
More interesting news today: 4-star OLB Keith Simms (Bethesda, MD) tweeted that he will visit Wake Forest on Wednesday. He would likely be a DE at Wake. He is the #67 OVERALL recruit in the country according to RankByOffers.com

Reasons for optimism: Academics are a big deal for his family. **Plans to major in business**. I think this will be his second visit to Wake (I will double-check that).

Reasons for pessimism: He is taking a LOT of unofficial visits. Next week he will also visit Virginia Tech, Duke and UNC. Stanford and Maryland are thought to be strong favorites in his recruitment. He has yet to narrow down his list of 26 P5 offers to a list of 6-8 finalists.
 
2016 FB Recruiting. Underclassman Camp tonight.

Anybody know if Wake promotes a specific 5 year business degree plan for football players? Like an outline of courses by semester that accounts for their schedule?
 
Here is a summary of the visits that just completed or are scheduled in the near future:

This weekend: Sulaiman Kamara (3-star, 5.7 on Rivals), Larry Collins (3-star, 5.7 on Rivals), Brandon Moore (unrated)

Monday: Jordon Brown (4-star, Rivals 250)

Wednesday: Keith Simms (4-star)

In addition, the latest from Moe Neal is that he might schedule a visit to Wake before his announcement on August 1. He is a 5.6 on Rivals.

So that list above has two 4-stars, two 5.7s and a 5.6. A big week.
 
PhDeac said:
Anybody know if Wake promotes a specific 5 year business degree plan for football players? Like an outline of courses by semester that accounts for their schedule?
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BS and MS in Accounting takes 5 years. If he wants an academic challenge and a good business program, there is no better than Wake's accounting program.
 
WFU1977 said:
BS and MS in Accounting takes 5 years. If he wants an academic challenge and a good business program, there is no better than Wake's accounting program.
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Right. Have the athletic department and Calloway come up with a workable schedule they can use to pitch the program?

This is a basketball example but work with me. Google Kwe Parker Twitter. Check the first then read the bio of the second Kwe Parker, a mortgage banker in Baltimore.

Wake needs to sell that we expect our athletes to be both.
 
PhDeac said:
Anybody know if Wake promotes a specific 5 year business degree plan for football players? Like an outline of courses by semester that accounts for their schedule?
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A couple of dilemmas here.

One is something that I know is a challenge right now. That's the mandatory internship required by the business school. The problem is that the football players are required to attend both sessions of summer school. The right thing for the student would be to do an internship during summer 1 (just for one year). The right thing for the athlete is to keep them enrolled in summer 1 to workout with the team and attend the strength and conditioning sessions.

The other is the fact that you want all of your players on track to graduate in 4 years. That gives the staff flexibility with that roster spot in the fifth year. To stay on track to graduate in 4 years from the business school - or any other demanding major - requires a heavy course load during football season.

Just a couple of the things that Wake will have to work through as they bring in more and more football recruits that are academically ambitious.
 
Wake received a Crystal Ball prediction for an ATH from Maryland named Jake Funk. In addition to a pretty terrific name he also claims a P5 offer from Wisconsin. He reportedly camped at Northwestern and Stanford. At this point he has not reported an offer from Wake.
 
DEACS76 said:
If we get JB and/or Moe, do we lose Wakefield / Carney? Larry Collins commits and Grate walks away or becomes our 12th WR? Since we're going after these player, we must be losing players at these positions. It explains why we keep going after DE/OLB types. We're not thin there now, but soon will be.
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To answer your question I updated my projected 2016 roster and compared the position groups to some averages that I came up with a while back based on other teams. I assumed that we finish the 2016 class with a RB, DT, LB, CB and S. I also assumed that early graduations from James Ward, Joel Suggs, Jonathan Williams, Steve Donatell, Teddy Matthews and Ty Hayworth. I put Jacquez Williams at Rover, and counted all the Rovers as LB. I excluded Johnny Armstrong altogether because I don’t know what the long-term plan is for him position-wise.

That would put the scholarship count at 90. So using those assumptions where would the roster be heavy?

Quarterback
2016 projection is 4 scholarships. Average is 5.

Running Back
2016 projection is 8 scholarships. Average is 6.

Wide Receiver
2016 projection is 10 scholarships. Average is 10.

Tight End
2016 projection is 4 scholarships. Average is 5.

Offensive Line
2016 projection is 15 scholarships. Average is 16.

Defensive Line
2016 projection is 19 scholarships. Average is 14.

Linebacker
2016 projection is 9 scholarships. Average is 11.

Defensive Backs
2016 projection is 16 scholarships. Average is 15.

The DL position is the position group that looks the heaviest. Five more than the average team. If there is one position group to expect attrition, it would probably be this one.
 
The Offense

Researching the info above raised some interesting questions about the offensive system. Clawson has said that he prefers a base 2-TE system, but also plans to adapt his system to personnel. Recently the staff has taken a number of smaller offensive players, and a number of players that have the capability to play inside receiver (not all of them are smaller types either). I am very interested to see how they will be utilized. Given the number of players capable of playing inside, does that mean that we will see an inside receiver in most sets? Does that mean fewer 2-TE formations?

Last spring a recruit visited and was reportedly told that there were ZERO returning scholarship inside receivers on the roster. Let’s look at what happened since then:

Tyree Harris (6’3) starting practicing at the position. It’s not clear if he will make the move from outside WR.

Tabari Hines (listed 5’10, but officially measured 5’8 last year) was signed specifically to be an inside receiver.

Chuck Wade (6’0) was signed. He could play one of the outside positions, but is probably best suited to play inside. That’s where he will start his Wake career.

Matt Colburn (5’8) was signed. It hasn’t been clear to me whether he could see snaps as an inside receiver. I know most people who were posting on these boards felt he would be a true RB.

Malik Grate (6’0) committed. He was recruited specifically to play inside receiver.

Cade Carney (5’11 / 213) committed. There hasn’t been any info indicating that he could see snaps at inside receiver, but it’s clear that he has the skill set. That is also how UNC was planning on using him.

Jordon Brown (5’10.5 / 186) is currently being recruited. There hasn’t been any info on how Wake would plan to use him, but he has said he open to the idea of playing a majority of his snaps as an inside receiver.

Moe Neal (5’10 / 170) is currently being recruited. He has said that his role at Wake would be mostly an inside receiver.

Add that all together, and that is a lot of players 6’0 and under that might be competing for snaps at inside receiver. Especially if we have a lot of packages that don’t use an inside receiver. Realistically some of those players could be straight up RBs, but I think the point is still valid.

The situation doesn’t seem as crowded at outside receiver, where there are only 5 definites (Jared Crump, Steven Claude, Scotty Washington, Jeremiah Brown, Cortez Lewis) and two players that could play inside or outside (Tyree Harris and Chuck Wade). So adding a recruit like Larry Collins doesn’t seem unreasonable.
 
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