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Wake Forest Football Recruiting

Pilchard said:
Perhaps, I'm giving Clawson too much benefit of the doubt, but don't agree that recruiting has stalled:

- Most recruiting rankings are based upon the array of Power V offers for a particular recruit.
- We are at an early stage of recruiting for 2020 recruits.
- Clawson's strategy has always been to get a large segment of recruiting done through WF junior days when the staff has the opportunity to evaluate a recruit in person.
- WF likes to be the first to offer to get recruits in before they start getting seduced by other big time programs.
- For those recruits that flirt with other programs after accepting a WF offer, their ranking will rise after they develop a set of big time offers.
- For those recruits that shutdown recruiting after accepting the early WF offer, they aren't going to get the recruiting bump based on offer.
- Many of Clawson's most highly rated recent recruits have been the handful of recruits that WF gets to commit late after the offeres have rolled in (Donavan Greene and Nolan Groulx). We aren't at that stage yet, but this Fall, would expect WF to get commits out of that group.

Bottom line is that I trust Clawson and staff's ability to spot talent at the junior days. If they find a recruit before others do, which is a particular talent, those players will never be highly rated unless the recruit allows other schools to get involved.
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Well said. I don't think Clawson and his staff would be offering and accepting pledges from this many low ranked/unranked guys unless they felt they were good pickups. Time will tell if these guys end up as good as the higher ranked guys but so far I don't see any reason to question our staff's eye for talent. Many of our better players haven't been ranked highly.
 
Richardwfu, I think Claw likes to get in early on these HS programs and we scout/offer as juniors. He has set his recruiting class before their senior season starts. It has worked so far. I love how this class is going. Long range potential on each of them. Now just one more interior OL and spend the rest on defense.
 
Richardwfu said:
While I agree with most of the points posted above, I echo what I said about taking the next step requires generally getting higher ranked players. It’s frustrating watching Duke, UNC, and NC State getting players that are clearly our top choices. You can spin it however you want, but we are consistently getting beat for those players, especially this year so far. Exhibit A is unc getting both our top targets at TE (karr and copenhaver). Both were at our big junior days where it was proclaimed they were our top targets. I can give multiple examples if needed, but the point stands. We had some nice recruiting battles that came out on our side last year. So far this year, not much can be said. We can use the excuse that we get guys with no offers early and hold onto them after they get offers, but from someone who follows FB recruiting very closely, we are missing on our top targets to state and duke. I have faith in clawson and think he is amazing for wake, but I wouldn’t say getting these early recruits with no P5 offers is part of their master plan.
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I know what you're saying. I, too, hate losing some of our key targets to our in-state competition. The 2 TEs you mentioned is a good example. However, I think Wake is still an 'ascending' program, and we may not have the clout quite yet to win some of these battles. The good news is that we're winning on the field (we beat State and crushed Duke last year and have the chance to beat them again, along with UNC this season) so over time, it will become apparent that Wake is the top program in the state.
Perceptions are slow to change. I truly believe that if Clawson & Co continue to do their thing, Wake will be viewed quite differently in the coming years.
 
Good god you people sound like a bunch of FCS good sportsmanship pussies. It's recruiting.
 
This time last year we were saying the same things, and then these unknown kids starting raking in P5 offers but they stayed committed to Wake. Claw can identify talent early on extremely well and I trust his judgement. State, Duke and UNC get the better ranked recruits but we get the best recruits for our system, and it shows when we play those teams
 
I don't think it's worth worrying about UNC's honeymoon recruiting.
 
Richardwfu said:
While I agree with most of the points posted above, I echo what I said about taking the next step requires generally getting higher ranked players. It’s frustrating watching Duke, UNC, and NC State getting players that are clearly our top choices. You can spin it however you want, but we are consistently getting beat for those players, especially this year so far. Exhibit A is unc getting both our top targets at TE (karr and copenhaver). Both were at our big junior days where it was proclaimed they were our top targets. I can give multiple examples if needed, but the point stands. We had some nice recruiting battles that came out on our side last year. So far this year, not much can be said. We can use the excuse that we get guys with no offers early and hold onto them after they get offers, but from someone who follows FB recruiting very closely, we are missing on our top targets to state and duke. I have faith in clawson and think he is amazing for wake, but I wouldn’t say getting these early recruits with no P5 offers is part of their master plan.
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A bit egocentric to "echo what I said" since you said it. Clawson has created something special and has proven his chops on recruiting with a significant upward bias. Sit back and enjoy it. You can show how smart you are in 2-3 yrs when these kids hit the field.
 
sportsmed86 said:
A bit egocentric to "echo what I said" since you said it. Clawson has created something special and has proven his chops on recruiting with a significant upward bias. Sit back and enjoy it. You can show how smart you are in 2-3 yrs when these kids hit the field.
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Cooley reminds me of Dortch on film. Small, quick and fast. Our QB recruit is a stud. It’s April. Relax.
 
In Claw We Trust. When the end of the Grobe era came, we all hoped for a man like Clawson to come in a rebuild the program. He has accomplished what we have hoped for. These kids in the '20 class shouldn't be expected to contribute until 2022. We have time to develop talent instead of throwing them to the wolves like 5 years ago.
 
Really want one of those Georgia DEs to commit next to bookend with Puryear. Champions are built on the offensive and defensive line. Like the CB from Ohio, Valentine too. He could pair nicely with the '19 commit from Houston TX area.
 
Clawson has proven,on the field, that he and his staff can identify and recruit kids that can win on the field. He no longer has to throw these kids into the fire to soon. We are developing depth which buys us time. Football at Wake is now the complete opposite of basketball. DM offers everyone and hopes some come and stay around for more than a year or two. I love what Clawson has done and hope Currie can find a basketball coach just like him---- soon
 
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but the point is, assuming Richard is correct, that Clawson identified those two TEs as his top targets and got beat

that's different than pursuing lesser-starred players
 
Talent begets talent. Hard to see 4 and 5 star kids getting amped to sign with Wake for an ACC title run when their class peers are undiscovered, hidden gems.....
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
but the point is, assuming Richard is correct, that Clawson identified those two TEs as his top targets and got beat

that's different than pursuing lesser-starred players
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Claw also wants players who want to play for him at Wake, not play one ACC school off another. We will see in time whose stars matter most. Didn't help Fedora.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
but the point is, assuming Richard is correct, that Clawson identified those two TEs as his top targets and got beat

that's different than pursuing lesser-starred players
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Just compare Clawson recruiting versus Grobe "Golly-jee" recruiting. Reflect on that for a minute. We are worlds better. We have a coach with assistants who can identify talent, we have a coach who sells our strengths, we have many fewer wasted schollies than Grobe, and we have had many, many fewer knotheads.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
Spin it how you want, but he missed the guys he wanted
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So??? You can not win all the recruiting battles. You are dealing with 18 year old kids. Heaven knows what leads them to make a decision. Applies to football players and generally to all 18 year olds. The question is what do you do now? Go out and find a kid who is good and wants to come to Wake. I agree with DC, if a kid does not want to come here, fine-- I want kids who love Wake. They will be happy and do better. His plan has worked pretty well
 
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