ChltObs: 2009 Top 25 NC HS Football players

Football Recruiting General Rankings & Lists52

Charlotte Observer ran a list of the Top 25 high school football recruits in the state of North Carolina today. (Link)

It’s nice to see our big man sitting on top of the heap.

1. Robert Crisp

Chapel Hill, 6-8, 300, OL: Committed to N.C. State and a top-30 national recruit. Had more than 30 scholarship offers, including from every ACC team.

Link to our conversation of Crisp’s announcement

A few more from the Top ten worth monitoring:

3. Gabe King
Northern Guilford, 6-5, 231: 75 tackles last season; wants to be an engineer (Alabama, California, Clemson, Georgia, North Carolina, N.C. State, West Virginia).

5. Alfy Hill
West Brunswick, 6-4, 245, DE: 102 tackles, 12 sacks as a junior (Ala., Kentucky, LSU, UNC, NCSU, Tenn., Va. Tech).

6. Fre’Shad Hunter
Cary, 6-5, 246, DE: 38 tackles, six sacks last season (NCSU, ECU, Fla St, LSU, Purdue, S. Carolina, Tenn).

7. Christian McCain
Northern Guilford, 6-6, 203 LB: 97 tackles, 20 for losses in 2008 (ECU, UNC, NCSU, S. Carolina, Syracuse, Va. Tech).

8. Anthony Creecy
Southern Durham, 6-0, 196, WR: 48 receptions for 863, 5 TDs last season.

9. Prince Shembo
Ardrey Kell, 6-2, 225, DE: Phenomenal athlete can play LB or DE; 61 tackles and 6 sacks last season (Clemson, Duke, UNC, NCSU, Notre Dame, Stanford, Va. Tech).

10. Kendall Moore
SE Raleigh, 6-21/2, 229, MLB: 32-inch vertical leap and played LB, DE and WR. (Clemson, Fla. St., UNC, NCSU, Notre Dame, South Carolina, West Virginia).

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Football Recruiting General Rankings & Lists

52 Responses to ChltObs: 2009 Top 25 NC HS Football players

  1. Girlfriend in a Coma 04/20/2009 at 9:24 AM #

    Any list of great State Wrs can’t be complete without Goines and J-Co.

  2. choppack1 04/20/2009 at 9:33 AM #

    Noah – I think you may be jumping the gun a bit. If Spencer improves his hands/concentration this year, he could easily be that guy.

    Besides, I’d be more worried if our guys weren’t getting open deep. In most games last year, I see our guys get open deep.

    We’ve got a somewhat young receiving core. It’s also worth nothing that Bowens could have easily been that guy, but injuries derailed that…

  3. Noah 04/20/2009 at 9:36 AM #

    In 1986, we had Haywood, Peebles and Worthen.

    To me, Graham and Spencer are the “Peebles” and “Worthen” of this group. You can’t let either get behind you and you need to be very careful when they catch it underneath. But neither are going to draw double-teams on third down.

    But that’s just me.

  4. Classof89 04/20/2009 at 9:36 AM #

    Jeffires never had much of a pro career, did he? What happened to him? He was the receiving star of those good early Dick Sheridan teams.

    I remember when Tim Peeler (of Gopack) was sports editor at Technician that magical 8-2-1 season in 1986 (after sucking for years)he’d have to get on the copy editors at Technician, because they wanted to spell the guy’s name the way its pronounced, so they kept changing it to “Haywood Jeffries”

  5. zahadum 04/20/2009 at 9:51 AM #

    Actually, Jeffires was a 3 time Pro Bowler over his 10 year career, 9 of which were with the then Houston Oilers and his last year with the Saints.

  6. Noah 04/20/2009 at 10:01 AM #

    Haywood was one of the first receivers to ever post 100 catches in a season, IIRC.

    His stats:

    http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/J/JeffHa00.htm

  7. Classof89 04/20/2009 at 10:28 AM #

    Wow…I stand happily corrected. I guess I don’t remember it because the Oilers were such an ignored franchise.

    So Quick, Jeffires, and Holt were all Pro Bowl. Has Cotchery made Pro Bowl yet? Any others?

  8. Classof89 04/20/2009 at 10:33 AM #

    Remember this game?

    Check out Coach Visor being interviewed as a bowl rep, in that one year he was out of coaching between the USFL gig and landing the job at Duke in 1987…

  9. zahadum 04/20/2009 at 10:36 AM #

    No, Cotchery hasn’t yet. Koren did, but as a kick returner, not as a receiver.

    Haywood was with the Oilers back when Warren Moon was their QB.

  10. Thinkpack17 04/20/2009 at 10:44 AM #

    “Our neighbors to the west are spending $50 million to increase the seating capacity of a stadium that already exceeds that of Carter-Finley and to make further upgrades to their football facilities. They pay their coaches 25% more than NCSU pays its football coaches. Those kind of actions by the SCHOOL would be a better indicator that it was a “football school” than 20,000 supporters and their kids turning out to watch a scrimmage and get a few autographs.”

    Money and facilities are all well and good, but you can’t put too much stock in it. The Iranians dominated wrestling with a few water buckets, one mat, and a cement weight set.

  11. 66pack 04/20/2009 at 11:12 AM #

    late to discussion of who is a football school but if unc begins winning they will have plenty fan support.remember,they expect to win on a national level and they show their displeasure with not winning by not showing up.and to summarize neither are football schools but they have a great atheletics program

  12. redfred2 04/20/2009 at 11:29 AM #

    When unc makes a commitment, they do not take it lighty. FB hasn’t ever been that important in the ACC, more like a intersectional battle for bragging rights between the big 4 within the state, and the rest of the league playing for their own glory. But back to unc, look at their athletics as a whole, say something like women’s field hockey, they participate for the RIGHT REASONS. They are always trying to position themselves TO WIN NATIONALLY.

    NC State OTOH, no.

  13. Noah 04/20/2009 at 11:41 AM #

    I guess I don’t remember it because the Oilers were such an ignored franchise.

    They were decent when they had him. Remember the playoff game against the Bills where they had the 28-3 lead at the half and lost? If they had kept throwing, they would have been in the AFC title game.

  14. Greywolf 04/20/2009 at 11:52 AM #

    choppack1
    April 20th, 2009 at 9:33 am
    “Noah – I think you may be jumping the gun a bit. If Spencer improves his hands/concentration this year, he could easily be that guy.”
    `
    Chop,
    The good news is that Spencer didn’t need to improve his hands, it was his mind that needed fixin’ which may be what you nean by concentration. Word is that he worked with a sports psychologist this spring and is catching everything thrown his way. Someone pointed out that he only dropped balls when he was open last year — and caught everything else that he didn’t have time to think about. Spencer still has the knack of getting open and the speed to take it to the house. Now he can take the ball with him when he goes to the house, ala the 65 yd TD Saturday.
    `
    If the receiver is concentrating on the wrong thing, “concentration” may be the source of more drops than not. Concentrating on “catching the ball” can be a real problem. Concentrating on seeing the ball into your hands contributes to successful catches. That kind of concentration is what I would call focus. Ted Williams reportedly could see the seams of the ball on the way to the plate. The concentration or focus needed to do that eliminates all thoughts that might interfere with the brain doing its “hand/eye coordination” thing. To get some idea what the mind can do if it is not interfered with by thoughts, think about the time you tossed a balled-up piece of paper at trash can and it “swished.” Now think about the time you concentrated on doing it again. At some level the second time there was thought about what you were doing. I assert those thoughts are what has us miss. If I were coaching receivers today, and I’m obviously not, I would have them focus on the rotation of the ball as it approaches. This requires a level of focus beyond watching the ball into the hands and there are no thoughts to interfere with the workings of the brain.

    Thank goodness this is long enough nobody will read it all the way through. 😉

  15. Rick 04/20/2009 at 11:53 AM #

    I played pickup bball at State one time with Haywood. It was him and a bunch of short white guys. We beat a team with three players off the men’s team because HJ was all but unstoppable. Talk about an athlete.

  16. Noah 04/20/2009 at 12:09 PM #

    Haywood was the captain of the Greensboro Page team that won the state title in basketball. And Danny Manning was on that team (as a youngster).

  17. Greywolf 04/20/2009 at 1:39 PM #

    Alpha,
    If you want to feel insulted, be my guest.
    `
    In response to McLovin’s question, “Anybody else feel like NC State is going to be considered a football school for many years to come?” I said, “We may enjoy a few more wins but to call NCSU a football school is stretching the imagination. If there is a “football school” in this area it’s UNX.”
    `
    You used over 200 words responding — not to the question posed by McLovin — but to my last statement, which was a throw away remark indicating there was NOT a “football school” in this area, but based on long standing financial commitment, if there was one it would be UNX. Much hubris about spring game attendance, etc. but nothing about anything in my post. “If you don’t have anything to pick at that someone says, pick at something else and make it out to be what they said.” And yes, I considered it to be a passive-aggressive attack just like your claiming to be insulted by my calling you on it.
    `
    At least you didn’t delete my post so the words would not be there for examination. Thank you for that consideration.

  18. SouthernWolf 04/20/2009 at 4:55 PM #

    I agree w/ Noah, I do not see Owen Spencer or TJ becoming dominant receivers either. Clearly they are big play threats, but neither are receivers you look to on third an eight unless their streaking wide open 30 yards down the field. Right now they do not have enough moves/accurate route running to be consistent enough to be the no 1 guy. I know Owen can get wide open on a fly route. But last year, he routinely struggled to get open on out routes, in routes, and slants. Now on fly routes, skinny posts, and posts Owen is extremely difficult to defend and can and did occasionally beat double teams on these routes. If I had to pick a no. 1 reciever right now for our team based on last year and the spring game, I would go with Jarvis Williams. He has great ups and seems to have good chemistry with both QBs and knows how to use his body to screen off the CB and create separation. Remember he caught that key 4th and goal touchdown catch against ECU last year. I am not too worried about having a go too receiver on third and eight because I think our TE’s and Asa Watson might help fill that void. They are all extremely athletic, and we know George Bryan runs great routes and has super glue hands. From the kay yow game, I would say that Mario Carter also has great hands and runs great routes. These guys can create mismatches and with Owen keeping the safety honest with his deep threat ability that may be enough for us but we shall see.

  19. Classof89 04/20/2009 at 6:11 PM #

    TOB isn’t really a game breaking receiver kind of coach is he? I don’t remember a Pro Bowl quality receiver either from his BC days or his days coaching the offense for Smilin’ George at UVa. Did TOB coach the Majikowski offense? Who were the primary receiving threats on that team? I guess I’m saying it might not be such a big priority for TOB given the offensive philosophy…not that he’d turn down some superstar that wanted to come here, but that he isn’t going to particularly lose sleep at night over not having one…

  20. Noah 04/20/2009 at 7:28 PM #

    Herman Moore? Germaine Crowell?

  21. GAWolf 04/20/2009 at 7:46 PM #

    I just snagged this off of another site. I looked at it for a while and read through the information several times before it hit me. The thing that says the most about our staff’s recruiting is somewhat subtle, but it screams that they know what they’re doing. We obviously know the story about Bible and TOB not offering a QB until after he camps. So not having offered a QB makes sense. However, look at the stars (something I know we have been burnt by before… especially under the last regime). Almost every guy we’ve offered is either a 5 or 4 star or a 1 star. 1 star means there isn’t enough information to rate the player. This tells me that of the guys we’re recruiting that have the publicity, they’re all studs. The other guys… likely the same. We’re not seeing tons of 2 and 3 stars here… it’s big time or unknowns. (No offense to Palmer, who I can’t wait to see wearing Wolfpack Red.) Check it out:

    2010 Football Scholarship Offers:
    Bold = Commit

    Map Link:
    http://tinyurl.com/ch2nua

    QB
    No Offers

    RB
    **** Spencer Ware (Princeton HS) Cincinnati, OH 5-10/212/4.58
    *** Tobais Palmer (Georgia Military) Milledgeville, GA 5-10/165
    * Brandon Burrows (Walton HS) Marietta, GA 6-3/235
    * Mustafa Greene (Irmo HS) Columbia, SC 6-0/200
    * James White (St. Thomas Aquinas HS) Fort Lauderdale, FL 5-11/190/4.50
    * Joshua Snead (Smithfield-Selma HS) Smithfield, NC 5-8/169/4.44

    FB
    No offers

    WR
    **** Tony Creecy (Southern HS) Durham, NC 6-0/190
    **** Justin Hunter (Ocean Lakes HS) Virginia Beach, VA 6-4/185/4.49
    **** Da’ Rick Rogers (Calhoun HS) Calhoun, GA 6-2/197/4.34
    * Alex Kenney (State College Area HS) State College, PA 6-0/190/4.37
    * C.J. Jones (Alexis I. Dupont HS) Wilmington, DE 5-11/175/4.47

    TE
    **** Andrew Carswell (Sto-Rox HS) Mc Kees Rocks, PA 6-4/199/4.67
    **** Brian Vogler (Brookstone School) Columbus, GA 6-7.5/246/4.65
    * Alex Welch (Elder HS) Cincinnati, OH 6-5/225

    OT
    **** Robert Crisp (Chapel Hill HS) Chapel Hill, NC 6-8/290
    **** Eric Mack (Calhoun County HS) Saint Matthews, SC 6-5/318
    **** Matt James (St. Xavier HS) Cincinnati, OH 6-7/260
    * T.J. Leifheit (John T Hoggard HS) Wilmington, NC 6-7/320
    * Matt Rotheram (North Olmsted HS) North Olmsted, OH 6-6/305
    * Max Garcia (Norcross HS) Norcross, GA 6-4.5/265
    * Jack Deboef (State College Area HS) State College, PA 6-7/265
    * Mark Shuman (Fork Union Military Academy) Fork Union, VA 6-6/270
    * Khamrone Kolb (Lake Braddock HS) Burke, VA 6-6/300

    OG
    * Christian Pace (Avon Lake HS) Avon Lake, OH 6-4/270
    * Kalon Davis (Chester Senior HS) Chester, SC 6-5/320
    * Kolton Houston (Buford HS) Buford, GA 6-5/270

    C
    **** A.J. Cann (Bamberg Ehrhardt HS) Bamberg, SC 6-3/265/5.06

    DT
    **** Evan Hailes (Oscar F. Smith HS) Chesapeake, VA 6-2/320/5.00
    **** Fre’Shad Hunter (Cary HS) Cary, NC 6-3/250
    **** Louis Nix (William M. Raines HS) Jacksonville, FL 6-3/310/5.15
    * Marty Everett (Butler County (KS)) El Dorado, KS 6-4/295
    * Michael Thornton (Stephenson HS) Stone Mountain, GA 6-1/275

    DE
    **** Gabe King (Page HS) Greensboro, NC 6-5/230/4.91
    **** Zack McCray (Brookville HS) Lynchburg, VA 6-4/235/4.75
    **** Alfy Hill (West Brunswick HS) Shallotte, NC 6-4/245
    **** DaQuan Jones (Johnson City SHS) Johnson City, NY 6-4.5/285/5.05
    **** J.R. Ferguson (St. John’s at Prospect Hall) Frederick, MD 6-4/255
    * Prince Shembo (Ardrey Kell HS) Charlotte, NC 6-2/225/4.72
    * James Kittredge (Don Bosco Prep School) Ramsey, NJ 6-4/250
    * Jibreel Black (Wyoming HS) Wyoming, OH 6-2/260/5.00
    * Kenny Wilkins (Trinity SHS) Washington, PA 6-3/222/4.74

    MLB
    **** Kendall Moore (Southeast Raleigh HS) Raleigh, NC 6-2.5/229/4.78
    * Troy Gloster (Our Lady Good Counsel HS) Olney, MD 6-0/215/4.60
    * Michael Taylor (Westlake HS) Atlanta, GA 6-1/200

    OLB
    **** Christian McCain (Page HS) Greensboro, NC 6-5.5/196/4.75
    **** Justin Parker (Beaufort HS) Beaufort, SC 6-2/210
    **** Christian Jones (Lake Howell HS) Winter Park, FL 6-4/215/4.70
    * Travis Williams (Lake Taylor HS) Norfolk, VA 6-2.5/200/4.60
    * Marcus Rush (Moeller HS) Cincinnati, OH 6-3/210
    * P.J. Clyburn (West Iredell HS) Statesville, NC 6-1/205
    * Jeremy Grable (Milton HS) Alpharetta, GA 6-0/215
    * Clarence Jackson (North Clayton HS) College Park, GA 6-2/220

    S
    **** Keenan Allen (Northern Guilford) Greensboro, NC 6-3/195
    *** Roy Mangram (Georgia Military) Milledgeville, GA 6-2/200
    * Pete Singer (Chapel Hill HS) Chapel Hill, NC 5-11/175/4.50
    * Dontae Johnson (The Pennington School) Pennington, NJ 6-3/185/4.50
    * David Amerson (Dudley HS) Greensboro, NC 6-2/180
    * Bashaud Breeland (Allendale-Fairfax HS) Fairfax, SC 6-2/190/4.50
    * Frank Tamakloe (Our Lady Good Counsel HS) Olney, MD 6-3/189/4.50
    * Daunte Carr (Gainesville HS) Gainesville, GA 6-2/195/4.55
    * Isaiah Johnson (Sandy Creek HS) Tyrone, GA 6-2/180/4.60
    * Jakar Hamilton (Georgia Military) Milledgeville, GA 6-1/200/4.5

    CB
    ***** Lamarcus Joyner (St. Thomas Aquinas HS) Fort Lauderdale, FL 5-8.5/162/4.34
    **** Johnavon Fulton (Manning HS) Manning, SC 6-0/180/4.50
    * Reggie Wilkins (Crest Senior HS) Shelby, NC 5-11/180
    * A.J. Marshall (Southern HS) Durham, NC 5-10/170
    * Lo Wood (Apopka Senior HS) Apopka, FL 5-11/163/4.56
    * Braylon Heard (Cardinal Mooney HS) Youngstown, OH 5-10/165
    * Rijo Walker (Bethel HS) Hampton, VA 5-10/171/4.5
    * Louis Young (Our Lady Good Counsel HS) Olney, MD 5-11.5/177/4.56

    K,P
    No Offers

  22. McLovin 04/20/2009 at 8:09 PM #

    Alpha, Greywolf:

    DON’T TAKE THINGS SO SERIOUSLY!! Have some fun with this kind of stuff

    Chop understood what I was getting at. I’ll elaborate. I think over the next few years, football will have more success than basketball (not bashing Sid) and so we as FANS will begin to shift our mindset from “We should be better in basketball” to “Just wait till football season”

    BTW if you feel insulted or attacked when you visit a website, count to ten and think about how silly that really is 😛

  23. Greywolf 04/20/2009 at 9:34 PM #

    GAWolf
    April 20th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
    I just snagged this off of another site.

    Great snag. 😉 The “bold” was lost when it got pasted but I clicked on a link and was taken to a map with Tuffies and pins. Clicked on a pin or Tuffy and a pic with info pops up. Pretty damn cool find, GAWolf.

  24. Noah 04/20/2009 at 10:05 PM #

    Roy Mangrum is going to play LB here.

  25. Greywolf 04/20/2009 at 10:06 PM #

    Packman02
    April 20th, 2009 at 8:26 am
    “We may enjoy a few more wins but to call NCSU a football school is stretching the imagination. If there is a “football school” in this area it’s UNX.”

    ^^

    “Florida State begs to differ.”
    `
    When did Florida State relocate to this area?

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