How did NC State, Duke and UNC do after early football signing day?

National Signing Day has become a holiday for college football coaches and fans alike. This year Christmas came early with 2017 being the first time high school seniors could sign their National Letters of Intent in December and not have to wait until the first week in February.

That means Larry Fedora (UNC), Dave Doeren (NC State) and David Cutcliffe (Duke) spent Wednesday camped out around the fax machines, waiting for the first wave of the class of 2018 to make it official.

The early signing day was foreign to all parties involved, but it’s expected to be the new normal.

Here’s a look at some highlights of the early signing day:

N.C. State

HEAD OF THE CLASS

Hands down it’s Payton Wilson. The Hillsborough linebacker is Dave Doeren’s highest rated recruit since he’s been at N.C. State. Wilson is ranked No. 67 overall in the nation, according to 247Sports. The guy who might make an impact right away, however, is defensive tackle Alim McNeill from Sanderson High. Doeren started smiling from ear-to-ear when McNeill’s name was mentioned and said he is a guy who could play end or tackle.

TRENDS

Doeren’s early signing day list includes six defensive backs, which should help with so many teams throwing the ball all over the field.

“Being a defensive coordinator in today’s college football is a challenge,” Doeren said. “Some games are wide open, some games are played in a phone booth and some games are both. You have to be versatile on defense. We lost three defensive backs a year ago to the NFL, and we had two season-ending injuries on the back end this year. That hurt us. You need to have, not just depth, but guys who can cover back there, and run and tackle and make checks. And in a 4-2-5 (defense) you need those kind of numbers.”

UNC

HEAD OF THE CLASS

That would be Green Hope wide receiver Jordyn Adams. Adams is ranked No. 75 in the nation by 247Sports, but the two-sport athlete might have a choice to make in the spring if Major League Baseball comes calling.

“Jordyn is a guy I started recruiting back when he was in about fourth grade and his dad was working for me at Southern Mississippi,” Fedora said. “Jordyn can really do it all.”

The threat of the MLB pulling Adams away is something Fedora has thought about.

“It’s a possibility,” Fedora said. “He’s a really good baseball player. I don’t really have anything that I can do about that.”

TRENDS

Coaches always want to build pipelines to high schools, especially successful in-state programs. Fedora seems to have developed one that runs from Chapel Hill to Wake Forest. Xach Gill was a redshirt defensive lineman in 2017, and two of his former high school teammates – Devon Lawrence and Javon Terry – signed on Wednesday.

“It’s always good, especially if it’s a really good high school,” Fedora said. “You want to do that everywhere that you can. It’s always helpful because those guys come to your school and they have success and they are treated right and they go back and say good things about you to their teammates. It automatically puts you in a position where you have a chance.”

Duke

HEAD OF THE CLASS

Tahj Rice stepped into this spot after Georgia cornerback Taiyon Palmer decommitted from the Blue Devils. Rice is a big body (6-2, 325), the lone 4-star in Duke’s 2018 class.

“Where it all starts is up front,” Cutcliffe said. “We certainly put an emphasis in that area, and it’s paid off.”

TRENDS

Size matters for the Blue Devils. Cutcliffe talked about how tall this class is – every player is 6 feet or taller. The three wide receivers he signed are all at least 6-3 and that was by design.

“One of the things that we think is trending in college football is the hand-to-hand combat between receivers and defensive backs,” Cutcliffe said. “It’s what I call a 50-50 ball, and we’re trying to make it 80-20. Those guys can become a premium. This wasn’t an accident. It’s something we talked a lot about as a staff.”

Midyear enrollments

High school athletes graduating early and enrolling in college classes in January has become the norm. Doeren expects eight of his 21 signees to enroll early. Cutcliffe will welcome four of his 14, while Fedora will have six of his 15 on campus next month.

Who won the state?

Dave Doeren has done a good job of locking in on North Carolina talent. He has 10 North Carolina kids committed and his top three rated players – Wilson, running back Rick Person (Heritage), defensive tackle Alim McNeill (Sanderson) – all played high school ball in Wake County.

Doeren got commitments from four more three-star players – running back Trent Pennix (Sanderson), defensive end Joseph Boletepeli (Heritage), wide receiver Devin Carter (Clayton), defensive back Tyler Williams (Southeast Raleigh) – to round out his local recruiting.

Even though Fedora signed four of the top 20 players in the state, Doeren’s 10 North Carolina signees took first place.

“This was a good year, not just for Wake County, but for the hour radius from our campus,” Doeren said about the in-state talent. “This year was very strong locally for us, and it’s great to get a lot of those guys to stay home. When I got here five years ago I talked about building a fence around this state, and I do think we made a lot of progress, not only that, the quality of player we are getting in-state is going up as well.”

What’s next?

Though the early signing day took some of the luster off the first week of February signing period, that will still be the time where these coaches complete the class of 2018.

“We know what we have left,” Fedora said. “We know the guys who we are recruiting. We will pinpoint those guys and work harder on those guys, and at the same time evaluate more guys for the ’19 class.”

Cutcliffe alluded to the fact that he might add some pieces in February. To have 15 in December is plenty for the Blue Devils.

“We have a little bit of room,” Cutcliffe said. “We’re never going to sign 25 or 30 like a lot of people do.”

What the coaches are saying about early signing day …

Dave Doeren

“How this impacts college football, I guess we will have to wait and see. This is the first time for all of us. For me as a head coach you have until February to see your guys who have committed. I had to see 22 guys in one week almost.”

Larry Fedora

“I think there’s going to be criticism no matter what. Some guys are going to like it, some guys aren’t going to like it.”

David Cutcliffe

“I don’t like what I’m looking at moving forward because the next phase is coming and that’s a calendar change with official visits in the spring. The more we move this forward and up, the greater risk of things not going as they should.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2017 at 4:26 PM with the headline "How did NC State, Duke and UNC do after early football signing day?."