NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media yesterday to break down the 24 players that signed with the Wolfpack yesterday. Below is a transcript of what he had to say about his best class to date.
Pack 24…24 players oddly enough. Great day. Really exciting day for our program. Excited about the group. When you go through it, by position and by stage, you know we’ve really spread our arms in this one. There’s eight in-state, five from Georgia, two from South Carolina, and two from Florida. Player of the Year from West Virginia, one from Virginia, one from Tennessee, one from Alabama, one from, Delaware, one from Ontario, Canada, and one from Ohio.
Found a lot of places to go in this class. I feel like it’s a balanced class, where we really identified needs, and met needs, and got
very very explosive in some spots, where we needed some help, particularly at receiver.
One of the things that jumps out to me about this group, is there’s a lot of guys that are winners. 16 All-State players, eight Players of the Year, eight captains, six state champions, three regional champions, four All-Americans, one conference Champion, and another one that was a player of the year in basketball in Elijah Groves. Six of them were in the Shrine Bowl, two in the Under Armour game, two in the All-American Game, and one in the US Army game. Decorated group.
22 High School signees and two Junior College signees, and 18 of them are enrolling early, to hit the ground running here in January with us, which will be great to have them as a part of what we’re doing along with the transfers that are coming in. We’ll have quite a few new guys to work with when we start the second semester.
I was telling Payton Wilson the other day, ‘You’ve really been in my life for eight years.’ I started recruiting him when he was a Sophomore in high school. That’ll be the same with some of these guys. We’ve been recruiting Jonathan Paylor, for example, for a long time. These relationships go deep you, you get to know everybody in their family, and you talk about a lot of things away from football. It takes a lot of time, and it becomes very personal.
Super excited about the Wide Receivers in the class. It felt like with the change in offense, obviously you saw what we did
this year with Kevin Concepcion, but you know Robert Anae wants to be able to have targets all over the field, and I’m used to having some taller guys on the outside. Terrell Anderson’s a really skilled guy. He’s also a great returner. Outside receiver, tough guy, blocks…he’s as impressive of a blocker as he is a playmaker.
Jimmar Boston camped with us and he was phenomenal on both sides of the football, by the way, he was really good on defense too. A championship player…made clutch plays in the playoffs for them, walkoff plays to win games. We like the versatility he brings inside and outside.
Christian Zachary is a big body, long guy. He’s a coaches son, a hardworking kid that has just a lot of upside. We’ll definitely have to develop him, but he’s got that big frame, similar to Dacari Collins.
Mr Football, Jonathan Paylor can do a lot. He can play running back, he can play receiver, he can return kicks and punts, and so he brings kind of that KC/Nyheim element back into the offense, where it’s not all on one guy there in the slot.
With Keenan Jackson, I told our staff in the summer, when he left our campus, we had him here for a 7-on-7 tournament, I said that is a player we have to find a way to get. He’s one of the best players and kids that I’ve been around, his demeanor, his competitive spirit, how he took each rep out there…I’m like we got to find a way and thankfully we just stayed in touch with him throughout the season. He played in our stadium, I think that had an impact on him, winning the championship here, he saw how we finished the season, and you know really happy to have him. I was sitting in the locker room after practice yesterday, and Keenan Jackson FaceTimed me and gave me the great news. I was excited man. I was really excited. I saw what he did throughout the season. 100 plus catches, an incredible year, a state champion.
I think that group is impressive, when you see what they do and the differences in them. They’re going to have a chance to help us early.
Cedrick Bailey sent us his stuff early this morning, so we were just waiting. Some of these guys have big school things that
they do, and that’s fine. We just need to have the fax in or the screenshot or whatever. It is now early enough where we’re not wondering what’s going on, and so they woke up, sent it to us, and then told us it’d be around 1pm before it went public. Another state champion. I was at his championship game. Really talented Quarterback. He’s tall, can throw, escape, moves his feet really well. He’s a leader. He’s got a charismatic attitude, guys gravitate to him. Competitive, very competitive, so excited about
CJ!
Brody Barnhardt is a tough kid. Another champion, three-time champion there at Providence Day. Gritty, fast, physical. Plays the game, you know, a little off-center, kind of Tanner Ingle-ish, and I like that about him. He’ll be a really good special teams player for us as well. He’s a good kick returner, a kickoff cover guy, punt block guy. He’s an aggressive player, so he fits the demeanor of our guys and that dog mentality we talk about on defense. He definitely fits in there.
Ronnie Royal is one of the best football players in the country. When you look at what that guy did, I don’t if you guys saw his stat line at the end of the year, holy cow, as a Running Back, as a returner, as a DB, his tackles, his wins. He’s really well coached, he’s got a college staff coaching him at the high school level. Versatile player.
Assad Brown is a versatile player. He could play Corner, could play Safety, can play Nickel. Really savvy when you talk to him. He understands football. I think that’s part of what we do. We cross train guys a lot. You’ll see guys playing in multiple spots on defense here.
When you talk about Elijah Groves, a very versatile athlete. He will be a guy who has to develop. He’s a basketball player. He scored 31 points the other night. He’s going to be thinner. When he gets out of basketball, then he’s going to have to get back in the weight room, but he’ll develop, and you know he’s got a nice long frame. He can jump and run, and he reminds me of Levi Jones. Similar body, long and slinky and can make guys miss, great pass rusher, block kicks, long arms, jump. I know Coach Gibson’s excited. Last year we brought in Kelvon McBride, who had a similar body. We were just trying to get longer and be able to play in space with some longer body types, so that was mission accomplished. We were thankful that another guy that was committed somewhere else, opened it back up at the end.
Dante Daniels is coming in from Butler Community College, and he’s from Canada originally.
Wyatt Wright is a really physical, athletic Linebacker, and we were looking for an older guy. So those two guys were really good fits from the Junior College ranks and there’s still a few more that we’re recruiting that haven’t made decisions yet. So we’ll see where that goes.
When I offered Zane Williams, Seth was in the office, and his whole family, and it was a neat moment, because they didn’t get that from us in high school. Seth had to earn it while he was here. Isiah Jones has 2 relatives here with Demarcus Jones and then you Marcus in the weight room. You see the same thing with the Thomas family.
Jayden “Duke” Scott, he goes by Duke, what a great player. Heck of a season. He played 15 games I think. Durable, tough, physical. He’s got an edge to him. Incredibly intelligent. He’s going to be a guy that plays early, and he would have played this year if he would have been here…he would have. He’s talented.
We had Chase Bond in this summer. It was amazing that he didn’t have a lot more going on. I think he’s got tremendous upside and comes from a great program, Massillon, championship team.
Went down to Rome last week, and spent some time at the high school down there with Justin Terell, “JT” we call him, but he’s a stud and that kid’s going to play. Man, does he have violent hands and quick feet. Gets off blocks. Can see things. I like the way he goes about his work. He’s really talented and Coach Reed, the head coach at Rome, does a really good job with his program, kind of preaches the same stuff, a lot of Hard Tough Together DNA in that young man. It’s great getting those guys and having an opportunity to coach two guys that have won so many games.
I think the defensive line here, every year, you want to try to get three or four guys, those big guys that can run and and do things, so it’s a good group and I’m excited to get them on campus and let Coach Thunder get to work with them and and see where they can go physically, because obviously, what they are now is not even going to be close to what they are after a few years. With Josh Alexander Felton, when you look at him, you know in the weight room, what he’s going to grow into.
Robby Martin was one of the best players in West Virginia and Coach Tujague did a great job building that relationship. Excited to get him in here. He sat on my couch in my office, and put his arms out, and his fingers wrapped around on both edges of the couch. That’s how long the wingspan was.
Trent Mitchell is a big, long kid. Tough kid. He’s got a body that Coach Thunder’s going to love working with him. Developing him, it’s going to be something fun to watch.
Tyler West is another one from Andrews, North Carolina. Tough kid. Andrews High School winning program. Very intelligent guy as well.
I’m glad we’re getting more notoriety. We’ve finished in the Top 20 four years in a row and it still feels like you’re under the radar every year. When they start preseason rankings, we’re never in them. I don’t know what you have to do to for people to recognize that you have a program that wins every year, puts players in the NFL every year, graduates their players every year, and win against other ranked teams every year. We keep doing that
I’m glad to see that people are actually paying attention. These kids earned that recognition. This program has earned that recognition. There’s only four teams in the Power Five that have won eight plus games four years in a row. We’re one of those four. Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame and us. That’s pretty good company, so I’m glad we’re getting it. Now just got to keep doing it and hopefully we can get this 10th win.
