Nick Saban was in town Monday. Went to the MPHS basketball game and watched Drake Maye, sat with the football coach behind the bench. Drake is a little shorter than Luke, but probably more athletic. Has a couple of 30 point games this year as a junior.
Coach Saban, Dabo, and Brian Kelly all visited Weddington and Shipley on Tuesday.
The RB coach at ND is Lance Taylor who played at Alabama and was most recently WR coach with the Panthers for two years, working with DJ Moore and sticking with CMC.
Weddington won state 3AA championship two straight years and is stacked again for next year. Junior QB is a stud and also throws a baseball 90 mph.
Wake is getting WR Will Cobb from Weddington as a preferred walkon.
With regards to Maye, hearing he may be transferring from Myers Park for his Senior year. Heard originally he was going to Weddington, but another high school seems to be in the running as well. He started his high school career at Hough and if he does transfer, it will be his third high school in four years. Also, do not bet on UNC being out of the running for him. They are still recruiting him hard and some people believe he will eventually end up at UNC.
Regarding Shipley, most believe it is a three team race of Notre Dame, NC State, and Clemson. He reportedly likes the academic angle of Notre Dame and the chance to play football at one of the highest profile schools in the US. Additionally, he has developed a relationship with some of the recruits in his class. Distance will likely not be a factor. His brother plays lacrosse at Penn, so the impact of going further away for college is likely not a negative. Most believe if he were deciding today, it would be Notre Dame.
As far as Clemson is concerned, they are pitching the ability to play for national championships and doing it while playing close to home. Clemson already has another top tailback in his same recruiting class, but they are pitching him on being used as a multi-purpose back and not just a running back - similar to how Stanford used CMC. Clemson has the most crowded RB roster of the three (considering the high level of the roster), so they do have to pitch different angles.
With respect to NC State, the recruiting was disrupted when State parted ways with his main recruiter, Des Kitchings. Reportedly, Doeren is now taking the lead on recruiting him, along with the new OC (Beck) who State just hired from Texas. Beck has been by his school to visit and they had a lengthy discussion and film review session when Shipley attended NC State's junior day. Both of his parents attended NC State (his mom played soccer there) and supposedly over 20 relatives are also NC State graduates. He grew up a fan of NC State, but he has stated that this will not be a factor as to where he eventually decides to go. Other schools high on his list are Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, Ohio State, and Alabama. NC State did sign a Weddington teammate and very close friend of Shipley's this recruiting cycle (Kicker Ian Williams).