Football Recruiting Update – July 25, 2018
Recruiting Calendar Rules:
Dead Period has run through the duration of July. Dead Period is officially lifted on July 24, 2018.
Dead Period is changed to a Quiet Period between July 24th and August 1st, then another Dead Period is from August 1st through August 31st.
Exception: Forty-eight (48) hours before a home contest (on the institution’s campus or in a facility normally used for its home games) that occurs in August or on September 1 or 2 through 48 hours after the conclusion of the contest. This is the Quiet Period.
Quiet Period Rules: During a quiet period, a college coach may only have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents on the college’s campus. A coach may not watch student-athletes compete (unless a competition occurs on the college’s campus) or visit their high schools. Coaches may write or telephone college-bound student-athletes or their parents during this time.
September 1st through November 24, 2018 is the Evaluation Period.
Evaluation Period Rules: During an evaluation period a college coach may watch college-bound student-athletes compete, visit their high schools, and write or telephone student-athletes or their parents. However, a college coach may not have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents off the college’s campus during an evaluation period.
Update on Numbers:
Barring any unforeseen attrition, State will take 5-6 more players in this recruiting cycle.
Alpha Wolf Showcase:
July 27th in Raleigh. Invite only showcase for current targets and commits. 4* ATH JR Walker will be attending the event, not sure yet if Target 4* CB Shyheim Battle will attend or not.
Visitors Upcoming:
QB Cord Sandberg will be visiting Raleigh on 7/27. According to the staff at the Wolfpacker, this will probably not be an official visit because State might be blue shirting Sandberg if he commits so he can join the fold before the season starts. I mentioned Sandberg last week in the Recruiting Forum. An interesting prospect who will probably run through a bunch of stuff with Drinkwitz before State decides to offer him a spot on the team. Keep in mind, Sandberg has not played football in about 5 years because he was playing semi-pro baseball. Sandberg has only been officially offered a scholarship by Auburn.
2020 4* OT Mitchell Mayes from Sanderson HS (Raleigh, NC) will be visiting for the Alpha Wolf Showcase. He is a big time talent who we have great chance to land. He played HS ball with current Pack player Alim McNeill. He is rated the #3 Offensive Tackle in the country (4*) and #92 overall player in the country by 24/7 sports and Scout, and the #20 Offensive Tackle in the country (4*) and #188 overall player in the country by Rivals. He is also visiting Tennessee on 7/28.
Recent Recruiting Press:
Great article in the Greensboro (NC) News and Record about State’s recruiting success in this cycle:
Recent Commit:
Punter Mackenzie Morgan has committed to the Pack and will be joining the team this fall. He is another blueshirt commitment, who will count on 2019’s cycle numbers. From film I have seen, Morgan would definitely be a top 10 punter in the nation in Chris Sailer’s system rankings if he was from the United States (he is from Australia).
Recruit to Fight For?:
Latest rumor has Commit 3* RB Jamious Griffin officially visiting Virginia Tech this fall. Not super surprising since his brother plays there. I fully expect our coaches to have a high quality backup plan in place if Griffin bolts.
Update on Recruiting Rankings:
Commit LS Joe Shimko is the #2 Long-Snapper in the Nation according to Chris Rubio’s Final 2019 class rankings. Not only did he outperform Drew Little (former commit) at a recent competition, but he also completely skipped over Little in the final rankings. Shimko is now the #2 Long-Snapper in the Nation, Drew Little is #4.
5-6 More Players?
The 5-6 players were are centering on with our remaining spots:
1-2 CB (Isaiah Kemp, Warren Burrell, Shyheim Battle, Tyus Fields). At this point, our best chance is with Battle. Fields and Burrell both have Tennessee as their top school right now. We have pulled ahead for Clemson slightly for Battle over the last month. We are still working to flip Kemp from Duke because he is high school teammates with Commit TE/WR Chris Toudle.
1 QB (Cord Sandberg, Sam Howell, or Justin Fomby?). At this point, I have no idea who else might be on the potential board other than these two or a graduate transfer after the season is over. If Sandberg looks promising, I think we will try to get him on board, but if not, Fomby might come up for a visit and throw for our coaches. It is worth mentioning that if Sandberg committed, he could be added before fall camp starts and would be considered to be a blueshirt because he would be added to the team as an invited walk-on. Knowing that he was a top draft pick, he might have had a clause in his contract where the organization would pay for him to attend college after his baseball career was over. If this is the case, we wouldn’t necessarily have to offer him a scholarship. Only our coaches know about the financial arrangements behind Sandberg and whether or not he would require a scholarship to play football for us. Howell is still a possibility out there in the event that FSU takes another QB in this class or decides to throw more resources at another higher rated QB.
1-2 Safety (JR Walker, Myles Farmer and/or Treron Collins). Walker is supposed to be deciding on his dad’s birthday, which is October 12th. We are in Farmer and Collins’ Top 5 schools. Farmer and Collins are both from the Atlanta area, which Ted Roof has a lot of connections in from his time at GT.
1 Defensive End (Terrell Dawkins). We were leading for JUCO DE Jacoby Jones for a while after his visit, but it looks like we could be fading some for him.
1 Wide Receiver (Isaiah Washington, Mohamad Toure, Brieon Fuller, or Kalani Norris). In my opinion, if we decide to take another receiver, it would be because someone is leaving the program early (Harmon).
1 Best Available (LB Kevon Glenn, DT Ben Smiley, ATH Jaquan Sheppard)
Update on Target 4* CB Shyheim Battle:
We have recently improved our standing quite a bit for Shyheim Battle. Some analysts think that we have surpassed Clemson for his leader over the course of the last month. I think that if he attends the Alpha Wolf Showcase, we have a great, great chance to land him.
Target 4* ATH/CB Cam’ron Kelly from Virginia has recently decommitted from Virginia Tech and maybe looking at Clemson. This could drastically impact the Battle decision because Clemson could be full at CB by the time Battle decides in December.
Battle recently played in the U.S. Football National Team in Puerto Rico, where they handily won.
Update on 3* LB/DE Traveon Freshwater:
As I have mentioned numerous times, Freshwater has quite a bit of academic issues to overcome before he would be a serious target for us.
These academic issues were brought to the forefront over the last few months, by what I assume was the NCAA Clearinghouse Process.
As a result, Freshwater’s recruitment has taken a turn towards schools which accept partial qualifiers. Most recent intel has him committing to East Carolina any time now.
Shrine Bowl Practice:
Quite a few of State’s current 2019 commits participated in a Shrine Bowl Practice at Dudley High School in Greensboro, NC on 7/23/18.
LB Drake Thomas, DE Savion Jackson, DT CJ Clark, LB Jaylon Scott, RB Zonovan Knight, OT Triston Miller, and S Khalid Martin were all in attendance.
Update on Target 5* Quanvaris Crouch:
The stars would have to majorly align for us to land Crouch. At this point, I think we would probably have to win our division to have a chance to land him.
If I had to guess, he is more than likely going to play college ball in the SEC.
