Sara Robertson
New coach Tom O’Brien locked up the rights to 21 players Wednesday, as he signed his first recruiting class at N.C. State. O’Brien said he and his staff had roughly three weeks to secure the commitments from Chuck Amato’s regime and to recruit new commitments to the Wolfpack.
The former Boston College coach said his top priority in that short amount of time was to secure more offensive and defensive linemen.
“What we did was tried to look at the kids who had committed previously, and with the three skilled kids who came in January, we looked at the class and realized we needed to bring more linemen into the program,” O’Brien said. “So our goal was to maintain the linemen [the former coaching staff] had recruited and go find more guys who can play on the offensive and defensive line.”
Ten of the 21 signees hail from the state of North Carolina, and according to O’Brien, he’d like to see the Pack focus on recruiting its own state before heading north or south for talent.
“We’d like to keep the top players in the state of North Carolina, and that will be a point of emphasis with this staff,” he said. “We’ve divided the state into nine different pieces of the pie, and we’re going to make sure this spring we’re in every high school in this state and do that every year.”
O’Brien added he doesn’t pay attention to the rankings some recruits and recruiting classes receive from recruiting services like Rivals.com and Scout.com.
“That stuff is really good for the alumni and the chat rooms because it causes conversation, which is good,” O’Brien said. “I would say if history is any indication, if I look back, we’ve been ranked four of the last six years in the top 25 — one year we were 26th. I wouldn’t say we ever had a ranked recruiting class.”
While State didn’t bring in a single commitment from Florida, which became a mainstay during Amato’s tenure, the Pack found a defensive lineman in Weinheim, Germany. Markus Kuhn, a 6-foot-5, 275-pound defensive end is set to join the team next season.
“He was a player who, once we decided the need was for linemen, we started searching our past records and what they had here at N.C. State,” O’Brien said. “As we investigated him and as the coaches looked at his tape — it was a pretty good evaluation for us. Looking at his size and speed on tape, we felt he could be a player.”
O’Brien also spoke briefly about George Bryan, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound tight end from Castle Hayne, N.C. Bryan was the first in this class to commit to the Pack.
“George Bryan — we really liked his athleticism and his size — he looks like the type of player who can help us down the road,” O’Brien said. “He has a real strong institutional motivation to come to N.C. State, which is good.”
The coach said he doesn’t expect many freshmen to make an immediate impact, but that each will have a chance to prove his worth before next season starts.
“My approach has always been that there will be one, two or maybe three freshmen that play,” he said. “You know, we’ve got 19 seniors back next year, so hopefully they will be leaders of the team and there won’t be too many opportunities. But we’ll have three scrimmage opportunities in the fall, and if they’re good enough to play, then they’ll know it and we’ll know it.”