By By Associataed Press
N.C. State signs five-star tackle
By JOEDY McCREARY, AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH — Tom O’Brien announced a five-star offensive-line prospect that signed with North Carolina State.
Then he ran down the list of current Wolfpack players who weren’t regarded nearly that highly by the recruiting experts.
The lesson: You can’t judge how successful a recruiting class is until the players actually take the field.
N.C. State on Wednesday announced its 19-player recruiting class as part of Signing Day festivities, with the jewel of the crop being offensive tackle Robert Crisp — seemingly a can’t-miss prospect who comes to campus from a few miles away at Raleigh’s Athens Drive High School.
‘‘We’ve never recruited a player dependent on what someone else thinks about him,’’ O’Brien said. ‘‘It all comes down to what we think about him. Certainly we’re not right all the time, and I don’t think the ’star system’ is right all the time. It’s a very subjective judgment on talent, and one man’s treasure is another man’s piece of junk.’’
Perhaps, but the analysts certainly think the rest of the Wolfpack’s incoming class is solid, if not flashy.
Durham receiver Anthony Creecy was rated as a four-star prospect, according to Scout.com, and the recruiting service graded the class as in the middle of the Atlantic Coast Conference pack and 41st nationally.
Nearly every other player in the balanced class received three stars from the recruiting service.
‘‘You hit the main word, and that’s balance,’’ said Scout.com regional recruiting analyst Miller Safrit. ‘‘It’s not overloaded at any one position. They have a lot of players on the offensive line and on the defensive line. … They really hit the positions they needed the most. Defensive back, I think, they really needed some help and they’ve got some guys that are versatile.’’
Some defensive backs could provide instant help, namely Dontae Johnson, D.J. Green and David Amerson — the ‘‘key cog,’’ said Safrit, for a defense that ranked among the ACC’s worst against the pass during a 5-7 finish last season.
And then there’s Crisp, rated as the nation’s fourth-best prospect at offensive tackle. His addition can’t help but bolster a group of blockers, with O’Brien saying ‘‘we want to build an NFL line here, like we did at Boston College.’’
But O’Brien cautioned against putting too much stock into what the analysts think in February.
Among those who O’Brien said were rated as two-star prospects in recent years were linebacker Nate Irving, one of the defense’s leaders; quarterback Russell Wilson, the 2008 ACC rookie of the year; and big-play receivers Owen Spencer and T.J. Graham.
The number of stars ‘‘is just an indication,’’ O’Brien said. ‘‘Sometimes we’re not right all the time, either.’’
Devils’ crop has strong local flavor
By JOEDY McCREARY, AP Sports Writer
DURHAM — Duke has started winning more often on the field under David Cutcliffe. The Blue Devils think they’ve figured out how to succeed on Signing Day, too.
Nine of the 19 players they signed Wednesday come from North Carolina high schools, the second straight year they’ve made successful inroads in a state that never seems to have a shortage of quality Division I prospects.
Of course, it helps that Duke’s program is no longer the national laughingstock it had been for much of the past decade. The Blue Devils are coming off a 5-7 finish — their best since 1994. A 9-15 record in Cutcliffe’s first two seasons might not be great, but there’s no question the program is in significantly better shape than it was when it went winless four times from 1996-2006.
‘‘I don’t think there’s any question that recruiting and winning get better — it’s kind of hand in hand,’’ Cutcliffe said. ‘‘You’ve got to recruit better to start winning games, and when you win games, it’s easier to recruit better. That’s all a part of the cycle. I think we can certainly tell, in two years, people see where the program’s headed. … You can’t fool them. They feel the energy, they feel the excitement and they look at some of the good young players.’’
The recruiting experts rank this class near the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference and in the middle of the pack in the Bowl Subdivision. According to Scout.com, all the signees are rated as either two- or three-star prospects.
The gem might have come from out of state. Scout.com rates Chicago native Laken Tomlinson, a 6-foot-5, 295-pound lineman, as the nation’s 23rd-best offensive guard. Scout.com regional recruiting analyst Miller Safrit called Tomlinson ‘‘incredible, probably the next big offensive lineman at Duke.’’
Several other players have impressive bloodlines. Receiver Brandon Braxton is the son of David Braxton, a six-year NFL veteran with Minnesota, Arizona and Cincinnati. The father of linebacker Kelby Brown Jr. played at Northwestern, and receiver Braxton Deaver’s father Jay was a four-year letterman at Wake Forest in the late 1980s.
Cutcliffe said 10 of his signees run the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds or better.
‘‘Speed never had a bad day in football,’’ Cutcliffe said.
And once again, Cutcliffe made it a priority to keep some top local players close to home. Cutcliffe’s first two full recruiting classes had a combined 18 players from the state, and he says that’s partly a product of the relationships he began building nearly three decades ago when he was a young assistant at Tennessee.
‘‘Fortunately, I’m not so old that all of those friends have retired,’’ Cutcliffe quipped. ‘‘It’s about relationships, and I think it’s also about commitment on our part. I think the coaches in North Carolina realize that we’re going to listen to what they say.’’