UNC, NC State, Duke football teams working to keep top Triangle recruits close to home

Mack Brown’s return to North Carolina three years ago following 16 at Texas and five as an ESPN analyst was a new world order in college football recruiting. He discovered a paradigm shift from his first Tar Heels head coach stint, from 1988-97.

“Recruiting used to be the parents, the high school coach and the young person,” Brown said. “Now, there are a lot of people involved in recruiting. Social media is a huge part of it.”

Historically, Triangle colleges, considered basketball schools, lost top local football recruits to a blue blood. But until recently, football coaches didn’t have to worry about a top California recruit committed to Tennessee recruiting against them to lure a Raleigh kid to Knoxville.

Nathan Leacock, a 3-star wide receiver from Millbrook High, ultimately chose Tennessee over NC State, North Carolina and Duke among his 23 offers. The added element was Nico Iamaleava, a 6-foot-6, 205-pound quarterback from the backyard of USC and UCLA, Downey’s Warren High.

Iamaleava, ranked by 247Sports.com as the No. 1 player in California and No. 3 quarterback nationally, committed in March. He reached out to Leacock and others through phone calls, texts and the omnipresent social media.

“Come join me,” was the plea.

“He wanted me to play receiver with him,” said Leacock, who committed in July. “I have an established relationship with the quarterback in my class and that’s big for me. At the end of the day, a receiver can’t do much without the quarterback throwing the ball to him.”

Leacock’s first offer was from NC State, the alma mater of his father, Hillary Leacock, a former Wolfpack track athlete. Nathan made it clear N.C. State recruited him hard, but he’s not the first kid envisioning new horizons. The Triangle’s other high-profile recruit to leave home is Rolesville’s Noah Rogers, a 4-star wide receiver. He picked Ohio State among 29 offers.

But area high school coaches see progress from Triangle schools committed to elevating their football programs. So far, Brown has two “hometown” recruits, and four more from North Carolina in his 2023 class. N.C. State’s Dave Doeren also has two 2023 recruits from the Triangle, and six more from North Carolina. Mike Elko, Duke’s first-year coach who said he is also committed to local talent, has five North Carolina athletes in his Class of 2023, though none — yet — from the Triangle.

COVID factor, and early commits

Opinions are mixed on the Triangle’s local recruiting uptick. One is the pandemic, spanning the 2020 offseason into 2021, limiting trips. But Panther Creek coach Sean Crocker added the increasing pressure to commit early also has worked in the favor of local schools. With fewer windows of opportunity, recruits take fewer trips.

Panther Creek’s Tyler Thompson took three (UNC, Michigan, Virginia Tech) and Southern Durham’s Jaybron Harvey four (UNC, Louisville, Oklahoma, South Carolina).

“Coach Brown stressed there was no need to go far away when we have everything here,” Thompson said. “There is a lot of diversity here. We have a strong economy with big tech companies here. It’s one of the safest places to live. I like being here with my family and the people I’ve grown up with.”

NC State had a unique built-in advantage recruiting Thomas. Two brothers are starters on the 2022 roster — Thayer, a graduate student wide receiver, and Drake, a junior linebacker. Lex was a sixth-grader when he first met Doeren while he pursued Thayer out of Heritage. Lex drew interest from Wake Forest, Duke, Marshall and Mercer before Doeren offered him. Once Lex committed, that essentially ended the offer process.

“I wanted to be recruited as a quarterback,” said Lex, a 5-foot-11, 175-pounder. “I feel I can have success at NC State.”

Elko arrived in Durham on December 10 facing a different twist. He needed to re-recruit former Duke coach David Cutcliffe’s 2022 class, and he had a head start with Jordan’s Vincent Anthony and Cardinal Gibbons’ Jake Taylor. They made a short drive to campus as the first recruits he met.

“We always want to have an inside out approach to recruiting,” Elko sad. “I think you want to identify as many players close to home to help your program as you possibly can, because they’re the easiest ones to recruit. They have the most access to get on campus. You can get around their families the most, you can visit with them the most and you can know a lot more about them than you can about kids from further away.”

A stronger push

Mostly, though, Crocker, Southern Durham coach Darius Robinson and Heritage coach Wallace Clark credit stronger and earlier recruiting pushes among Triangle schools. They said the same of Wake Forest, Appalachian State and other state schools. In the 2022 class, Wake Forest landed 4-star wide receiver Wesley Grimes of Millbrook.

“In years past, Georgia and other big schools came in here first and raided North Carolina,” Crocker said. “The local colleges are doing a better job. It still means a lot to local kids and local families who is the first school to offer them.”

Crocker’s Georgia reference, of course, was to 2012. Georgia landed a pair of 4-star running backs, Millbrook’s Keith Mitchell and Tarboro High’s Todd Gurley. And they weren’t outliers.

In 2015, Wake Forest High 4-star running back Bryce Love left for Stanford. A year later, Wake Forest 5-star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence picked Clemson.

Recruiting, though, can be cyclical. In 2015, NC State landed two area 4-star running backs, Garner’s Nyheim Hines and flipped Princeton’s Johnny Frasier from Florida State.

Elko added there is a flip side to technology escalating national recruiting.

“I can sit at my desk and watch a game film of any high school in the country right now and that’s new in the last 10 years,” Elko said. “I think you have a lot of knowledge now about the entire country and the recruiting landscape.”

Look no further than Alabama junior Bryce Young and Ohio State junior C.J. Stroud, two Southern California high school quarterbacks who committed eastward three years prior to Nico Iamaleava. Young, the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner, is from Santa Ana Mater Dei. Stroud, fourth in the 2021 Heisman voting, is from Rancho Cucamonga.

Meanwhile, USC’s quarterback, Caleb Williams, is from Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and UCLA quarterback Dorian Thomas-Robinson is from Las Vegas Bishop Gorman. Williams, an Oklahoma transfer, is among USC’s 26 transfers, nine of them starters, who have led the Trojans to a 2-0 start and No. 7 ranking.

That’s enough to make the late John McKay roll over in his grave. The USC College Football Hall of Fame coach, winner of national titles in 1962, 1967 and 1972, once said he could recruit national title rosters without leaving his backyard.

But that was then, and as Mack Brown can explain, this is the 21st century.

Triangle top recruits

Here is a list of the Triangle’s 2022 and 2023 top recruits who committed to stay home, and the brand-name schools they turned down.

NORTH CAROLINA

▪ 2023: Jaybron Harvey, Southern Durham, 4-star defensive end. Turned down: Michigan, Oklahoma, Penn State among 24 offers. Tyler Thompson, Panther Creek, 3-star defensive end. Turned down: Michigan among 18 offers.

▪ 2022: Omarion Hampton, Cleveland, 4-star running back. Turned down: Miami, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee among 25 offers. Beau Atkinson, Leesville Road, 4-star defensive end. Turned down: Miami, Michigan, Penn State among 18 offers.

NC STATE

▪ 2023: Tamarcus Cooley, Rolesville, 3-star athlete. Turned down: Florida, Oklahoma, Penn State among 23 offers. Lex Thomas, Heritage, 3-star quarterback. NC State was his only offer, but that was in part from committing July 21, 2021, prior to his junior year, which limited offers in the 2022 off-season.

▪ 2022: None.

DUKE

▪ 2023: None.

▪ 2022: Vincent Anthony Jr., Jordan, 4-star defensive end. Turned down: NC State, Georgia Tech among 10 offers. Jake Taylor, Cardinal Gibbons, 3-star tight end. Turned down: Old Dominion.