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The case can be made that the hottest team in college football recruiting for June has been the North Carolina State Wolfpack. Yes, we’re not even halfway through the month yet, but already the Pack has received verbal commitments from six prospects in the 2014 recruiting class, putting their total class at eleven members.
4-star safety Germaine Pratt (High Point, NC) started things off when he gave head coach Dave Doeren his commitment on June 6th. This essentially opened the floodgates, as two days after that, guard Eric Shute (Glen Ellyn, IL) gave his verbal. Two days after that, both guard Tony Adams (Charlotte, NC) and athlete Jefferie Gibson (Hope Mills, NC) announced their pledges.
Then, on Wednesday, Doeren received commitments from safety Kalen McCain (Durham, NC) and athlete B.J. Hill (Oakboro, NC).
With the recent flurry of commitments, the Pack are now ranked by rivals.com to have the 28th best recruiting class in the nation, which is the highest ranking since 2005 for NCSU.
Some analysts were concerned with how well Doeren would be able to recruit in Raleigh. After all, Doeren had spent the bulk of his coaching career recruiting the upper Midwest at schools like Montana, Kansas, Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. It was a reasonable concern considering his dearth of connections to the immensely talented local high schools.
But that hasn’t been an issue at all. Eddie Faulkner, the tight ends coach and special teams coordinator who also spent the bulk of his career in the Midwest, has absolutely dominated the talent-rich Charlotte area. Heck, he alone is responsible for four of the Wolfpack commitments, all of whom are from Charlotte.
In fact, the only one on the Wolfpack coaching staff that’s spent considerable time coaching and recruiting in the area, defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable, isn’t even a primary recruiter for NCSU.
Yet, still, this staff of mostly Midwestern coaches have come to North Carolina and made a heck of an impression on the region. Aside from one prospect from Illinois and another from Maryland, every one of the Wolfpack commitments are from North Carolina. And anyone that knows anything about recruiting knows the value of locking down your local area, especially when that area is as flooded with talent as North Carolina.
It’s going to be very interesting moving forward to see if Doeren and company can continue the success they’ve enjoyed, especially recently.
Rick Stavig is a National Recruiting Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickstavig or add him to your network on google.
