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

DEACS76 said:
The Sr are Intermann, Kinal, Chubb, Ty Harris and I believe Hunter Williams is on scholarship by now. There is some deadwood that might leave and I always worry about players that live far away. The travel or the affordability of flying home, might become a problem.
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Clawson said tonight we would have 6 Seniors next season.
 
We have 5 scholarship seniors and at least one walk-on that is a senior.

We have already used one of those 2016 scholarships on punter Dom Maggio.
 
You guys worry too much. Tennessee was over the limit and magically this morning 3 highly regarded players from last years class decide to leave the program! Must be busy they are not returning phone calls! The Rocky Reid experience with Butch Jones on steroids. Recruits beware!
 
Deac94 said:
We have 5 scholarship seniors and at least one walk-on that is a senior.

We have already used one of those 2016 scholarships on punter Dom Maggio.
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This is nitpicky, but isn't Maggio a kicker? Or are we bringing him to punt?
 
RedSoxFaithful said:
This is nitpicky, but isn't Maggio a kicker? Or are we bringing him to punt?
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He is D-1 level at both, but notice which one we will have a need for in 2016. I admit that I am making an assumption though.
 
Five additions to my Big Board this week as a result of players offered. Also continues a theme from the last few weeks of offering players a little further away from Winston-Salem. I consider 4 of these 5 recruits to be “out of territory” for Wake Forest.

(As a reminder, the full Big Board can be found in posts 2 and 3 in this thread.)

DT Reshad Wheeler (Central Catholic HS / Pittsburgh, PA)
APB Jeremy Larkin (LaSalle HS / Cincinnati, OH)
DE Quayshon Alexander (DePaul Catholic HS / Wayne, NJ)
OT Alex Gellerstedt (Coffman HS / Dublin, OH)
WR Eric Kumah (Forest Park HS / Woodbridge, VA)

I am also adding two players that I removed earlier because I thought they were already out of reach for Wake Forest, but have read some info recently that led me to add them back to the Big Board:

DT Sulaiman Kamara (Hermitage HS / Richmond, VA)
OL Thomas Jarrett Hopple (Nansemond River HS / Suffolk, VA)

Sulaiman Kamara confirmed in a recent article that he will be at Wake Forest’s Junior Day. As the #21 DT in the country, he becomes the early headliner for the event. He also said that Wake Forest was recruiting him the hardest.
 
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As a Richmond resident that's nice to hear. Thanks as always 94 for all the info.
 
An updated break down by state (I’ll count Jacksonville as a state for this exercise). There seems to be a little trend of offering players from Ohio and New Jersey. I am interested to see if that continues.

“In Territory”
North Carolina 12
Virginia 6
Georgia 5
Jacksonville 5
Maryland 3
South Carolina 2

“Out of Territory”
New Jersey 3
Ohio 3
Pennsylvania 1
 
Players on my Big Board that are expected to be at Virginia Tech's Junior Day today:

WR Donald Stewart (NJ)
RB Reggie Floyd (VA)
OT Thomas Jarrett Hopple (VA)
WR Jalen Elliott (VA)
WR Eric Kumah (VA)
DL Reshad Wheeler (PA)
WR Diondre Overton (NC)
WR Samuel Denmark (SC)

VT is all over their in-state kids without a doubt.
 
It was kind of lost in the NSD craziness, but WR Cornell Powell (Rose HS / Greenville, NC) committed to Clemson on Wednesday. He made a brief appearance on the Big Board after visiting Wake Forest and afterwards making some nice comments about the program and the business school. I had since removed him once it became clear that he was out of reach.

Powell is the 7th player out of the top 15 players in North Carolina to commit. All 7 have committed to out of state schools.
 
94 - Dave Cohen told me Wednesday that we are not recruiting Southern Florida as much as we have in the past. FYI.
 
Deac94 said:
An updated break down by state (I’ll count Jacksonville as a state for this exercise). There seems to be a little trend of offering players from Ohio and New Jersey. I am interested to see if that continues.

“In Territory”
Virginia 6
Maryland 3
South Carolina 2

“Out of Territory”
New Jersey 3
Ohio 3
Pennsylvania 1
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I would imagine Clawson will continue to tap into those existing relationships with HS coaches he established while at Richmond and Bowling Green. I'm actually a little surprised we don't see more activity from Ohio given the ties Clawson and Grobe had with the state and that there isn't a local university that shares our "low-enrollment, high-academic private school" proposition.
 
Dublin, OH and Pittsburgh aren't too different from Woodbridge in distance to Wake - a little over 6 hours vs something over 4 1/2 hours. However, Woodbridge doesn't include the mess known as DC traffic getting out of town on Friday night. 6 hours is pretty do-able for a long weekend, missing only about half a day of work. Those places may be "out of territory, but not unmanageably so.
 
I added three write-ups this morning for O-linemen that I had previously added to the Big Board.

Alex Gellerstedt is interesting. He’s 6’7 and I liked his Hudl highlights. Wake missed being his first Power Five offer by only a few days. He recently went from zero college offers to 4 Power Five conference offers in the span of a week.

I was really torn on including Thomas Hopple. There are a number of signs that this will be a challenging recruitment for Wake. He seems really serious about industrial engineering. He has wanted to play for Clemson since he was a child (they haven’t offered yet though). Both in-state schools have offered, and offered much earlier than Wake Forest. However, he did recently say that Wake Forest was one of 3 schools recruiting him the hardest and he sounds like he will visit Wake soon (presumably for Junior Day).


Jaylen Miller (OT 6’4/280) – Providence School / Jacksonville, FL
Rating: Unrated
Power 5 offers: Wake Forest, Duke, Mississippi State, Mizzou and South Carolina
Recognitions: 2nd team all-state in Florida at the 3A level (as a junior)
Junior Days: South Carolina (January 31)
Recruitment: In December he acknowledged that Duke was standing out to him the most. At the time he had Power 5 offers from Duke and Mizzou. He said that Duke’s academic prestige was a big factor for him. He said he was in contact with Duke approximately twice a week.

Alex Gellerstedt (OT 6’7/255) – Coffman HS / Dublin, OH
Rating: Unrated
Power 5 offers: Wake Forest, Kentucky, Illinois and Pitt
Recruitment: Kentucky was the first to offer on January 29th. Wake Forest was his second power 5 offer just days later (February 3). Those were followed immediately by Illinois (February 3) and Pitt (February 5).

Thomas Jarrett Hopple (OT 6’6/270) – Nansemond River HS / Suffolk, VA
Rating: Unrated
Power 5 offers: Wake Forest, Pitt, Virginia, Virginia Tech and West Virginia
Junior Days: Virginia Tech (February 6). Plans to visit Wake Forest and Virginia, presumably for Junior Day events.
Background: What will make this recruitment challenging for Wake Forest is that Hopple seems to be very serious about studying industrial engineering in college. He has been wanting to go to Clemson since he started playing football. A self-proclaimed “country boy”.
Recruitment: He told an interviewer recently that Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and Virginia were the 3 schools recruiting him the hardest. Virginia was his first Power 5 offer and he visited there this fall.
 
FWIW, I am not sure there is a huge difference between industrial engineering and general business or management degree. Industrial engineering used to be about how to set up and run a factory, not sure if it has changed much. Big difference between that and say mechanical or electrical engineering where we would not stand a chance. Industrial engineering used to be viewed as much less rigorous.

Thanks for you updates. Always fun to read.


Deac94 said:
I added three write-ups this morning for O-linemen that I had previously added to the Big Board.

Alex Gellerstedt is interesting. He’s 6’7 and I liked his Hudl highlights. Wake missed being his first Power Five offer by only a few days. He recently went from zero college offers to 4 Power Five conference offers in the span of a week.

I was really torn on including Thomas Hopple. There are a number of signs that this will be a challenging recruitment for Wake. He seems really serious about industrial engineering. He has wanted to play for Clemson since he was a child (they haven’t offered yet though). Both in-state schools have offered, and offered much earlier than Wake Forest. However, he did recently say that Wake Forest was one of 3 schools recruiting him the hardest and he sounds like he will visit Wake soon (presumably for Junior Day).


Jaylen Miller (OT 6’4/280) – Providence School / Jacksonville, FL
Rating: Unrated
Power 5 offers: Wake Forest, Duke, Mississippi State, Mizzou and South Carolina
Recognitions: 2nd team all-state in Florida at the 3A level (as a junior)
Junior Days: South Carolina (January 31)
Recruitment: In December he acknowledged that Duke was standing out to him the most. At the time he had Power 5 offers from Duke and Mizzou. He said that Duke’s academic prestige was a big factor for him. He said he was in contact with Duke approximately twice a week.

Alex Gellerstedt (OT 6’7/255) – Coffman HS / Dublin, OH
Rating: Unrated
Power 5 offers: Wake Forest, Kentucky, Illinois and Pitt
Recruitment: Kentucky was the first to offer on January 29th. Wake Forest was his second power 5 offer just days later (February 3). Those were followed immediately by Illinois (February 3) and Pitt (February 5).

Thomas Jarrett Hopple (OT 6’6/270) – Nansemond River HS / Suffolk, VA
Rating: Unrated
Power 5 offers: Wake Forest, Pitt, Virginia, Virginia Tech and West Virginia
Junior Days: Virginia Tech (February 6). Plans to visit Wake Forest and Virginia, presumably for Junior Day events.
Background: What will make this recruitment challenging for Wake Forest is that Hopple seems to be very serious about studying industrial engineering in college. He has been wanting to go to Clemson since he started playing football. A self-proclaimed “country boy”.
Recruitment: He told an interviewer recently that Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and Virginia were the 3 schools recruiting him the hardest. Virginia was his first Power 5 offer and he visited there this fall.
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Great stuff. I look forward to seeing this thread pick up. Hopefully more people will follow it. It was amusing to see people ask old questions about the incoming class.
 
Since the next class will be so small, I'm assuming it will be very high quality since the coaches can be very selective.
Will likely be our highest average * ranking per player
 
PhDeac said:
Great stuff. I look forward to seeing this thread pick up. Hopefully more people will follow it. It was amusing to see people ask old questions about the incoming class.
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This should be an exciting period that we are starting with the 2016 class. It is pretty clear to me that if you want a 3-star that really prioritizes academics you really need to get them in July. Maybe as late as early August. If you want them to commit in July, you need them to have visited at least once by early April. If you want them to visit by early April, you pretty much need to have offered them by the end of February.

I get why some people don't want to follow recruiting until the 2-3 weeks before signing day though. It is a loooooong process. We spend a lot of time discussing recruits that don't end up at Wake. Not to mention the time spent discussing guys that do commit to Wake and then flip. But I love it.
 
I like the insight into how hard the coaches work. I really like getting the voice of the kids themselves. This show be a student center enterprise and we lose that by just focusing on which pieces of the puzzle sign on NSD. We are never going to see a Willie Williams blog again so following closely is the next best thing.
 
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