NC State Football Recruiting Update – February 7, 2019

(This was written before the blueshirt commitment of Delbert Mimms)

Three scholarship players added in the National Signing Day February Edition

WR Tabari Hines

3* RB Jordan Houston

3* S Cecil Powell

Three preferred walk-on players added in the National Signing Day February Edition

TE Quinn York – Has a family legacy at NC State, very good blocker in the mold of Dylan Autenreith

K Nolan Parris – Rated one of the top 15 kickers in the country via KornBlue Kicking, probably will do kickoffs exclusively for us.

RB Demarcus Jones – Ran for 1,300 yards and 17 Touchdowns at Wake Forest HS in NC

Transfer Information

For the first time ever, 24/7 sports (Scout) has ranked their top 50 transfers.

LB Levi Jones and WR Tabari Hines made their top 50 list.

Levi Jones was their #15 transfer, and Tabari Hines was their #44 transfer.

Here’s the full list

Losing Players

DE Devontae McCrae entered the transfer portal over a week ago, now JUCO transfer Joe Babros (who played very sparingly) has also entered the transfer portal.

Griffin’s Final Destination

Jamious Griffin decided to stay at home and commit to Georgia Tech.

With the addition of Jordan Houston, I fully believe that we upgraded our overall athleticism more.

In my opinion, Houston is a much more versatile prospect than Griffin. Griffin might be higher rated overall on some sites, but Houston gives us much more options because he has better top end speed, can catch the ball extremely well out of the backfield and has true home run speed. Rivals.com’ compared Houston to Hines’ ability to move in the open field and burst through the line of scrimmage (I still don’t think he has quite the speed of Hines yet, but he accelerates very fast once he finds space).

New Recruiting Responsibilities Announced

The Football Staff has shifted their overall areas of responsibility, particularly as they apply to recruiting.

Here’s the new breakdown via gopack.com:

Des Kitchings, Asst. Head Coach for Offense/Co-Offensive Coordinator/RB coach –  N.C. – Raleigh area, Wake and surrounding counties; Other: Northwest Atlanta area, midlands and south Coast of South Carolina

Dave Huxtable, Defensive Coordinator/LB coach – N.C.: Orange Co., Alamance Co., surrounding counties to the north; Other: Orlando area to Space Coast of Florida

Aaron Henry, Nickels coach–  N.C.: Greensboro, Winston-Salem and surrounding counties; Other: South Atlanta area, Ft. Myers, Fla., area

Kevin Patrick, Defensive Line coach – N.C.: Western region of state; Other: Palm Beach Co. to Treasure Coast, Florida

George McDonald, Co-Offensive Coordinator/Recruiting Coordinator/WR Coach – N.C.: Charlotte area; Other: Broward Co, Florida, south New Jersey

Todd Goebbel, Special Teams Coordinator/TEs & FBs Coach – N.C.: Fayetteville and surrounding counties; Other: west Georgia, Tampa, Florida

Kurt Roper, Quarterbacks coach – N.C.: Jacksonville, Wilmington and surrounding counties of southeast N.C.; Other: north coast of South Carolina, west Atlanta, Ga.

George Barlow, Assistant Head Coach for Defense/DB coach:  N.C.: NE region of N.C.; Other: Tidewater Virginia area

John Garrison Offensive Line Coach – South Georgia/Savannah area, northern New Jersey, National OL

Tony Gibson, Co-Defensive Coordinator/Safeties coach – South Georgia and Jacksonville, Fla.

As I said in my prior column, I really thought McDonald or Barlow would become the new recruiting coordinator, specifically with Henry only being at State for a short while.  McDonald becomes the new recruiting coordinator, which is well suited to him, specifically with all of the talent he helped to bring into Stanford, Miami, and Syracuse when he was a hot shot recruiter for them (recruited players like Duke Johnson, Phillip Dorsett – who just won a SuperBowl with the Patriots, and Eric Decker).

Jamel Starks

ATH Jamel Starks decided to commit to Louisville. I think our coaches liked his athleticism, but Powell was a more promising and bigger prospect who could fill multiple places of need for us. Starks is 5’11”, 180. Powell is 6’1″, 193.