Homegrown football stars highlight NC State’s 2018 recruiting class

Important to any football program, in-state talent fills an especially key role in N.C. State’s 2018 recruiting class.

Of the 21 players the Wolfpack signed on Wednesday, 10 are from North Carolina high schools.

“When I got here five years ago I talked about building a fence around the state,” N.C. State coach Dave Doeren said. “I do feel like we’ve made a lot of progress.”

Doeren and his staff focused not only on quantity, but quality.

Three of the four players in the class rated as four-star players by the various recruiting services chose to play close to him with the Wolfpack. Orange High School linebacker Payton Wilson is the most celebrated of that group since he famously reneged on his long-standing North Carolina commitment to play for the rival Wolfpack instead.

But the group also includes Heritage High School running back Ricky Person, Jr., and Sanderson defensive lineman Alim McNeill.

“This year it was very strong locally for us,” Doeren said. “It’s great to get those guys to stay home. I think the value of that for them in life is very hard to explain but is felt by their families and them over time.”

Those four-star local players give N.C. State the nation’s No. 23 overall class and the fourth-best class in the ACC, according to rankings by 247sports.com. Those are not the final rankings for the class since schools are still pursuing players who can sign in the traditional February signing period.

For example, three-star defensive end Derrick Eason from Norfolk, Va., committed to N.C. State on July 28. He has yet to sign his national letter of intent, however.

The early signing period for high school seniors, a new creation this year under revamped NCAA recruiting rules, lasts through Friday. Players who don’t sign by then must wait until Feb. 7.

In addition to the in-state, four-star players, the Wolfpack also added quarterback Devin Leary from Sicklerville, N.J. At 6-2 and 189 pounds, he’s rated the No. 13 pro-style quarterback in the class of 2018.

Leary committed to the Wolfpack on April 6 and never wavered.

“The lure of our playing at our university and you have ‘QB U’ and it’s real, with what Ryan (Finley) with what he’s doing now, whether it’s this year or next year, creating a fifth guy who is NFL-bound, I think it’s very luring to these young men,” Doeren said.

While quarterbacks routinely get the most attention, it’s another in-state player who is on the eyes of Wolfpack fans.

Kicker Chris Dunn from North Davidson High School in Lexington arrives at N.C. State holding the N.C. high school record with a 57-yard field goal.

“Probably in the 22 years of my coaching career I’ve not seen somebody so celebrated in a class,” Doeren said. “I’m excited about Chris. He’s a very talented young man. He’s dedicated to his craft. He has a great leg. Super accurate.”

His arrival will certainly be welcomed at N.C. State, where Carson Wise and Kyle Bambard combined to make 9 of 19 field goals this season. In 2016, Bambard and Connor Haskins were 9 of 17.

So Dunn gets a chance to improve an area of weakness beginning next season.

“Obviously there are going to be a lot of expectations for him,” Doeren said. “I know that he is up to the challenge and excited about the opportunity and we so are we for him.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Homegrown football stars highlight NC State’s 2018 recruiting class."