There have been a few signs this week that the class may have a few spots left. One was Scheier’s “if you have an offer you need to get on campus, if you don’t have one you need to come to camp” tweet. The other signs came from the DT position:
We finally got a new article on Sulaiman Kamara (Richmond, VA) this week, and there was some good news. Kamara said that Wake Forest, Penn State and UNC were recruiting him the hardest. The article also acknowledges that it was written before Penn State went on their big run of DT commitments. I had long suspected that Duke was the odds-on favorite for Kamara, but it appears the Blue Devils may be looking at other options for their last few spots. So this may be a Wake-UNC head-to-head battle. Kamara attended the Fedora Freak Show camp at UNC and said he is planning a visit to Wake later this summer. (Note that his recruitment may be placed on hold for a while following the sudden passing of his father shortly before the July 4th holiday. Prayers certainly go out to Sulaiman and his family.)
I noticed that DT Jordan Jackson (The Bolles School / Jacksonville, FL) has been tweeting pictures of all of the mailings that I thought were reserved for Wake’s top targets. That’s interesting because Jackson doesn’t appear to have an offer from Wake. He tweets out all his offers, and his biggest ones to date are Georgia Southern, Navy and App State. He camped at Wake on June 17.
Putting those two pieces of info together leads me to speculate that the plan might be to add a DT to this class with Jackson potentially being the backup plan for Kamara.
Other Updates:
CB Korey Banks was surprisingly candid about his desire to “reserve a spot” at one school this summer while he continues to look at his options this fall. Reading between the lines, I think he likes the Midwest schools but might not be able to get up there until official visits start. Banks visited Wake last month and included the Deacs in his Top 6. If he does make the “reserve” move this month look for him to commit to UNC – possibly as early as this weekend. Banks is a “mid” 3-star (5.6) on Rivals.
WR Phil Patterson says there are 3 schools in his top 6 that he wants to visit this summer: Penn State, UNC and Virginia Tech. That’s bad news for Wake, but I will continue to keep an eye on Patterson because I don’t see an obvious landing spot for him. My understanding is that he is legitimately in the mix at a number of schools, but more as a Plan B than a top target. He continues to at least mention Wake in his interviews. Patterson is Rivals #86 WR in the country.
Some key dates coming up:
July 12 – Last day of dead period
July 17 – Friday Night Lights Camp (last camp for 2016 class)
July 18 – Rising Underclassman Camp (main camp for 2017 class)
July 31 – Traveon Redd commitment date
