Recruiting in NC

77GTFan

77GTFan

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Nov 21, 2004
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The early recruiting in NC is a bit surprising - only two verbals for UNC from players in Virginia - no in state yet. I am afraid Davis's illness and treatment may have hindered some. O'Brien seems way ahead in terms of building good relationships with area high school coaches.

Ten of Rivals top 30 in state have made verbal commits - five to NCSU, two to the Dawgs, one each to Duke, Va Tech, and Tennessee.

State picked up a commit from NC's #1 prospect, Brandon Barnes, a player from a 2A school who can play RB or DB. He had offers from all over and narrrowed to Clemson and State. They already had a commit from a WR who is the state's fastest player, T. J. Graham.

I'm not happy when the canines from NCSU and UGA are doing well in NC recruiting.

Roof has nine verbals, two from Georgia. Wake has only four, all from the Jacksonville/St. Augustine area.
 
For whatever reason, North Carolina has never been a talent rich state. Having 4 in-state majors just compound the problem. For any school to compete nationally from North Carolina they have to recruit out of state.
 
NCS and Wake are both in the other division. I hope they get all the top recruits and UNC gets none.
 
Last year UNC finished above us in Scout's recruiting rankings. While we finished early, MOST OF THEIR COMMITS GAVE VERBALS IN THE LAST 5 WEEKS BEFORE SIGNING DAY.

Do not be decieved. Butch Davis is in it with some good recruits, and many will choose Carolina. Would not be surprised at all to see another top 20 finish from them.
 
UNC finished above us in the rankings of who signed but they did not finish above us in the rankings of who showed up on campus qualified and ready to go. They lost a several of their big time recruits due to academics as the past regime tried to save their skins.

NC is not a great state like GA in part due to the fact that they don't have the offseason programs that GA and FL does. They are good but not great. And they split the recruits over 5 in state schools (not 4) as ECU does pretty well with recruits - especially in the eastern part of the state.

Mac Brown did lock down the state when NCSU and the others were pretty down in recruiting and had the good fortune to get several NFL first round types in the haul. But he made the right call to move on to TX.

Over time I expect Davis to follow Amato's strategy of trying to get his fair share in NC and fill in with a haul from FL. I am for sure not ready to write him off yet.
 
The best teams that UNC has had historically locked down the top talent in the state and hit VA hard, especially the Tidewater area. Davis may take some time to get things together, but one of the few he kept from old staff was Kenny Browning. KB has been at UNC for years, dating back to Mack Brown and prior to that was a HC at Northern Durham where he had powerhouse teams. Kenny knows everyone involved in NC high school football so the ties are still strong. I think UNC will do fine as they normally do.
 
North Carolina, like Kentucky, Kansas, and New York, is a basketball state. The best athletes concentrate on basketball. Most of the Southeast is football country. South Carolina has almost as many D-1 football players as North Carolina with less than half the population (8.8 to 4.3 million). That's not to say there aren't exceptions to the rule, but the focus does make a difference.

The fact that there are 5 D-1 schools (you can talk me out of Duke) and a smorgasboard of the old D-1AA, also dilutes the talent pool. Now that we're back to the scholarship limit, we should be able to stay ahead of the NC schools in recruiting.
 
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