National Signing Day for college football has come and gone, as several high school athletes are fulfilling their dreams and looking forward to their collegiate careers. The NC State football team doled out scholarships to 19 players and added seven preferred walk-ons for the 2017 recruiting class.
With the vast majority of the senior class returning, the Wolfpack had slightly fewer spots for members of this year’s recruiting class. However, head coach Dave Doeren believes the rise of the more experienced players will be a huge boost to both the team and its younger players.
“We have 11 senior starters returning, last year we had two,” Doeren said at a press conference hosted by NC State Athletics. “That makes a big difference when it comes to experience coming back to the roster. We’ve developed some really good kids. Defensively there’s eight starters back, and they’re all seniors. It’s one thing to talk about developing players, it’s another thing to prove it.”
Just like last year, the Wolfpack only has one player rated as a four-star recruit on ESPN. Last year it was tight end Thaddeus Moss, this year it’s quarterback Matt McKay. McKay is a young, athletic player listed at 6-foot-4, 186 lbs. Additionally, he doesn’t turn 18 until October, giving him plenty of time to grow and develop.
“Matt can really run,” Doeren said. “He got recruited as a quarterback because of his throwing ability, which he has done very well. [He had] almost 6,000 yards and 58 touchdowns and rushed for 39 touchdowns and almost 2,400 yards. I’m very excited about his skill set.”
The remainder of the recruits are listed as three-star recruits, led by linebacker Louis Acceus, running back Nakia Robinson Jr., guard/tackle Joshua Fedd-Jackson, center Grant Fisher and wide receivers Emeka Emezie, Max Fisher and Antoine Thompson. However, Doeren isn’t worried about the lack of four- and five-star recruits.
“I think ratings are for signing day,” Doeren said. “I’m not saying that they’re not good to know, but they have nothing to do with the end result. No matter what their stars are when they get here, they’re going to have to do it all over again. There’s a number of players on our team who were two- or three-star recruits: [Bradley] Chubb, Matt Dayes, Jaylen Samuels, Joe Thuney; they’re all really good football players.”
Doeren went on to add that ratings are important, but are by no means a deciding factor.
“We don’t say ‘he’s a five-star so we’ll recruit him but this guy’s a two-star so we’re not going to look at him,’” Doeren said. “We say ‘is he a guy that we can develop into a great player at NC State and does he fit what we need right now?’ It’s just a matter of whether you can develop him based on the coaching staff you have.”
To further break down the demographics, 12 of the 19 scholarship players were 6-foot-3 or taller, as the team has emphasized on recruiting tall players to compete in the ACC. The Pack recruited 15 players from North Carolina, seven of which were preferred walk-ons, eight players from Florida, two from New York and one apiece from New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.
With the Pack currently set to start six seniors at every defensive lineman and linebacker spot, the team made it a point to rebuild those positions. Eight of the 19 scholarship players belonged to these position groups, with four defensive ends, one defensive tackle, three scholarship linebackers and three linebackers that were preferred walk-ons.
“We have a lot of seniors on defense,” Doeren said. “We want to build up these guys, we don’t want to all of a sudden be playing true freshmen on the line. We like to rotate our front and play fresh guys; we want to have eight guys that can play. We want to have a good stable of not only depth, but competitive depth.”
Doeren also emphasized the need to recruit standout players from winning programs as well as team captains who served as leaders for their respective teams.
“I always talk about recruiting kids who are from championship teams, who were captains on their teams or who were all-conference players,” Doeren said. “I feel like we did that with this class. We have six state champions, 16 team captains and 18 all-conference players represented in this class.”
Despite primarily acquiring three-star recruits, Doeren and the rest of the coaching staff have done a good job of developing these players and getting the most out of their talent and production. With six early enrollees, Wolfpack fans will have the opportunity to see six of the 19 new recruits at the Kay Yow Spring Game in April, while the rest will come eager and ready to start their collegiate careers in the fall.
