Taking a deep dive look at NC State Football, this past season and next

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ChumbaCasino.com. Going into this year, NC State's two top defensive backs, Aidan White and Shaheem Battle. Now, neither of them will be there next year.

Aidan White entered the transfer portal. Battle declared for the NFL Draft. And I thought, let's do a little forensics on NC State football.

Corey Smith, Pac Pride, my man. How are you doing, sir? I appreciate your time. So let's just broad brush it. I know the portal has been good to NC State, but also there are departures. Where do we stand?

Yeah, first of all, thanks for having me on, as always. You know, the big news here, obviously, Aidan White, I think is really the first, I would say, like, major surprise for NC State, which is a good sign. Right. Losing C.J. Clark, you know, I think we talked about it last time we were on, like, you know, they have Brandon Cleveland behind them that they felt better about.

I think he was probably pushing for a starting spot next year anyways. You know, and then you had Shaheem Harris that ultimately goes to UNC. That was a big one for UNC, but NC State felt really good about the safety depth they have. Obviously losing Devin Boykin for an injury to the bowl game, but they expect to have him back for next season.

So I think the safety depth is still fine. Aidan White losing Aidan White to the transfer portal, losing Shaheem battle to the NFL. It kind of figured that Shaheem was gone, but Aidan White was a little bit of a little bit of a shock. He was a guy that, you know, it sounded like he was leaning towards coming back. And then more recently, you know, you hear about the NIL offerings and things like that outside.

And it's hard for kids to not want to go, you know, at least test them, test the waters, see what happens. And in his case, it does sound like, you know, there was a pretty big, a substantial offer from, you know, an SEC program. And we'll see what ultimately happens with him. But, you know, for NC State, that's a big loss. They feel good about some of the guys they have behind them. You know, Brandon C say that played really well this past year to rinse a hint that they like the upside for him in the future.

He didn't look great when he was on the field this past year. But that's typically what happens with first year guys. So, and of course, they're going to go out in the portal and try to add some more guys. They already have with Corey Coley as they got from Maryland.

Yeah. There's other guy that's coming in this coming up week that's already actually on campus right now that they'd like to add as well. So we'll see what, you know, they do in the portal and where they feel like they are from a growth standpoint with some of the developmental guys they have already on the roster. At Corey R. Smith on Twitter from pack brought is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. The head coach has been the head. I say the head coach, we can just call Dave Dorn. Dave Doran has been I'm not going to say critical of the portal.

I think he has used the portal very well. But, you know, in past, especially with the covid and the guys staying extra years and all that. He's been very worried about the impact on freshman recruiting. How has freshman recruiting gone?

I know there's a quarterback wide receiver combo from the from what, you know, the Under Armour, you know, state state All-American game or all all state game, whatever it is that's coming to state. How has how has this impacted freshman recruiting? Yeah, I mean, you know, I think from the standpoint of power five programs, it's affected it where, you know, they they kind of are a little more choosy about the guys that they want to go out and grab, you know, in the case of MCC. It led to them having a pretty strong recruiting class and ultimately being able to keep it. I think was the critical part when you're able to keep 24 guys that you went out and recruited, you know, the difference here is the fact that, you know, it kind of feeds up. The amount of the amount of time that you can have those guys on the shelf, basically, you have guys to come in or like, man, I'm looking for immediate playing time.

And if they don't get it, then they're immediately looking to go somewhere else. And, you know, we talked about a little bit on our board, kind of like in a joking way, but almost, you know, it's true as well that you'd rather catch guys on the rebound. You'd rather catch them, you know, at their second school because then it's a little more difficult for them to just immediately get out of it.

At least it is for right now, unless the NCAA changes something that's off season, which they tend to do. But, you know, as of right now, you know, they're adding guys that, you know, on their second school and kind of coming back, you know, there's a couple of guys that they're potentially looking to add. And it's changed the way that you kind of pursue high school players too, because not only are you trying to recruit them the first time around, but, you know, in the case of a guy like Keenan Jackson and end up working out where, you know, they continue to pursue him, Elijah grows is another one. They continue to pursue him more so as like a, Hey, just in case you don't like the place that you go, we're, we're still here and ended up leading to them being able to flip them in the case of some other guys. They're just kind of saying, Hey, just remember that we're an option. And, you know, just in case you do enter the transfer portal later on down the road a year or two years down the road, we'd love for you to look at us that ended up working out in a guy like Wesley Grimes to transfer from Wake Forest.

18 plus terms and conditions. Corey Smith from pack pride is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. They've been all over freshman recruiting portal. You know, I don't know if you do you call it portal recruiting.

I guess you do on all of the the NIL game. What does it say about the fact that state was so highly regarded out of the portal? What does it say about the way that the athletic department, the football program and I know you can't work with the collectives, but everybody has to play a role and it has to be seamless. What does it say about the, you know, the culture and the structure of things going at NC State that it's been so successful? Yeah, obviously we're able to be used to have as a promotional tool to let people know what's going on and how they can contribute. But, you know, I think it says a lot and, you know, they've they've had some pretty big events over the last several months, you know, for the football side of things that I can't remember the exact number, but I'm pretty sure it was like north of 600 700 K that they raised in one night. And there's several other people very next morning that said, hey, we want to keep giving, you know, the the annual budget now as it were continues to grow for football recruiting for basketball recruiting. They had another event a couple months back right before the season started for basketball to and and that was meant to raise funds for the basketball and I'll side of things, which is not as as huge of a budget because you only have to add a few players. Right? As opposed to with football.

I mean, they're, you know, they could have add up to 2025 players sometimes in the portal or if you're Colorado, you know, 50 plus players. No, this is it's no, it's obviously it goes to show that it's a pretty good sign for NC State from the NIL standpoint, but also, you know, and we had Tom Avila from from Savage Wolves on our podcast recently and the way he talked about it was like, you know, there's there's only so much we can do if the program is not in a good place. Right. And the last five games of the year for NC State, obviously, they love to have the bowl game. A 10th win would have helped significantly here. But, you know, going out and telling you kids like, hey, we're we're on the upswing as opposed to finishing, you know, seven and five and losing a bowl game and barely finishing about 500 would have been significantly different. So it goes hand in hand here as well. All right.

So let me ask you about it. This is essentially we know about Grayson McCall, the quarterback. But let's talk about, I mean, the running back getting Waters, Jordan Waters from Duke. That's a huge coup because I think he is a dynamite college running back. I don't know about him for the pros, but frankly, it really isn't our concern at this point. Anyway, offensive line and receiving help for Casey Concepcion.

What can you tell us about how that looks for next year? Yeah, I mean, the biggest addition that they had was bringing in a guy like Zeke Correll at the center position. He comes over from Notre Dame. He was the guy that they really needed to crab. Obviously, you lose Dylan McMahon this offseason.

He's already agreed to be a part of the East West triangle, which would, you know, essentially put the NFL. He did play in the ballgame, but a little bit different situation for him and you grab a guy like Zeke Correll. They've also gotten a couple other guys, one that's already come in and a couple others that they would add to the depth. They also have Dawson Jaramillo potentially coming back.

You know, everybody loves the mullet. He wears number 69 comes from Oregon and he was expected to be a little bit of a role player this past season could be the same thing next season. So that that helped if he gets the medical waiver, he was lost before the season. So the hope is that he gets the medical waiver. He's able to play next year. He's still technically on the roster.

So we'll see kind of a dolphin germ or a Chandler Zavala situation. So they're trying to get it for one additional year after an injury, you know, and as far as wide receiver help is concerned, you know, you already have Wesley Grimes. It's in the mix. You already added him.

You know, the portal is one thing. They also, you know, as we mentioned, Tina Jackson, they also added, uh, you know, Jonathan Taylor, one of the most electric players in the country, not just in the state of North Carolina. Uh, you just saw him in the Unruh all-American game, uh, this past week, too. He's the guy that they expect to be, you know, the comparison has always been 19 highs because of the fact that he's going into state. Uh, he's always told me that he wants to be compared to Tyree Hill. That's the next player he wants to be. And he's built like it too. So, uh, there's a chance that he could be a really big impact player next year.

And then Tarell Anderson is actually the highest rated of all the empty state from it. Uh, and he's an outside receiver, six foot three, you know, pushing 200 pounds. He'll probably, you know, by the time fall rolls around, he'll probably be a little bit heavier than that, uh, because they're going to add some muscle to them.

So those are, those are some guys. And then, you know, the other big one here, uh, and he's already in the portal, so we can actually talk about it now. And Noah Rogers from Ohio state, a big name target.

Uh, it does sound like things are trending very well in that direction, uh, potentially, you know, could hear something as soon as today. So we'll see, uh, where things stand there, but that's a, uh, you know, another potentially big addition for empty state. Didn't play a ton at a higher state this past year. Didn't get a, actually didn't get a reception at all, uh, this fashion or how to say, but a guy who was a fringe five star by our 24, seven fourth ranking, uh, by some consider the number one overall player in North Carolina. I think Gavin Hobbs ended up kind of jumping him at the end for 24, seven fourth. But I mean, when it comes to skill players in the state of North Carolina, the past several years, no Rogers right at the top.

And that includes, you know, Casey. Uh, so you have a crystal ball, so, uh, we'll be, uh, we'll be staring into that crystal ball and we'll be looking for the white puff of smoke at pack pride. Corey Smith at Corey R Smith. Uh, I appreciate your time.

One, one, one quick thing. Um, quarterbacks now are coming out of the portal left and right. We just, so we just, we just saw the, you know, Washington's going to the national championship game with a quarterback.

They got from Indiana. A state had Brennan Armstrong last year. They have Corey, um, uh, rather Grayson McCall this year is, is state still is Dave Doran still ideally going to build the quarterback position through recruiting, uh, and just use the portal as needed or is this maybe a switch in philosophy?

Yeah. I mean, I think especially in NC state case, you know, the hope was, uh, you know, if we talked to me six months ago, the hope was that they would be able to develop a guy like, you know, stay in MJ Moore. I remember him, you know, he would be a guy that competed with, you know, Cedric Bailey, uh, next off season. He would be a guy that maybe competed with, you know, if they bring in more of a, you know, a backup type quarterback that wants to compete for the job. Uh, you know, and, and once another opportunity, well, when MJ Morris says he's going to end the transfer portal, you no longer have Brandon Armstrong that changes your philosophy against it.

It's kind of, you know, based on an off season off season type of thing, but the thing that the portal helps you with is you're not caught with your pants down. You know, in the case of UNC, obviously they add, go out and add Max Johnson, uh, after knowing that they're going to lose Drake may that kind of gives you a bridge at the very least to develop somebody. And if Colin Harrell ends up being better than that helps them significantly.

And that happens across the country. If you don't feel good about the guy that, you know, is going to come in and immediately be the guy for you, uh, you go out and you try to add somebody from the transfer portal. And if they end up winning the job and it pisses off the person that you're trying to bring in, you know, then, then so be it, you at least have the better quarterback of the two.

You know, so I don't think it's necessarily a change overall on the philosophy for Dave Doran, uh, because he's, he's, you know, Jacoby percent Ryan Finley. Um, you know, they they've typically been able to have success with transfer quarterback. Uh, but in this situation, it's more of a, a, we, we really don't have anybody that we feel is a surefire starter. We're going to go out and get a surefire starter develop a Cedric Bailey, CJ Bailey, whichever one you want to call him and then bring in will Wilson the next year.

He's already committed for the 2025 class and have those guys compete with Lex Thomas and maybe another transfer portal quarterback next season. It's a, uh, by the way, if, if there's a player, an athlete at NC state going by initials is probably the right way to do it. Uh, cause I believe the entire basketball roster is some variation of a letter and the letter J, uh, Corey Smith, Corey R Smith.

There's an initial right there. Uh, I appreciate your time, man. Pack pride, go check them out and we'll talk to you again very soon. Happy new year. All right. Thanks so much, Adam. You have a happy new year too. You got it. details.