A&T Recruiting 2010: Look In Your Own Backyard

By Craig R. Turner
bluedeathvalley.com
January 3 , 2010

Football junkies spend most all the off-season between Thanksgiving and the time everyone gets their W-2s trying to figure out what might be going through the minds of several hundred coveted high school seniors and where they’re going to decide to pursue their college education and football careers.

As part of our effort here we will attempt to decipher some of the madness for our readership, detailing what A&T’s recruiting needs are this year, and the process itself.

Unlike college coaches, who are prevented by NCAA rules from discussing specific names until those national letters of intent have been signed and faxed in, we can name names … but we’ll try to keep it to a minimum here out of respect.

Coaches really get upset over the influence of the internet, public forums and message boards when it comes to trying to close the deal with those prized student athletes.

Most of what Coach Lee and his staff will need this year has pretty much been pinpointed in the shadows of the A&T campus or least only a driving few hours away from Greensboro.

The Aggies have already gotten two early commitments from speedy High Point Andrews cornerback Jamie Smith and Ragsdale’s star defensive end Daniel McNeil.

If that is an early indication, then A&T fans can look for Lee to go really heavy on the defensive side of the ball after going almost totally on the offensive a year ago.

The biggest needs come in three areas for the Aggies in 2010. First A&T has to add a lot more size along the line especially at offensive guard and at defensive tackle.

The Aggies biggest weakness on offense was the inability to move people out in the middle in short yardage situations on offense and the inability of its tackles to create consistent penetration against bigger offensive lines in pass situations.

Secondly, A&T will need to find a solid pass catching tight end and a fullback that is a true running threat to help complete the offense so that rising sophomore quarterback star Lewis Kindle can really showcase his ability to manipulate the spread attack.

The final area is finding good safety prospects to replace the four seniors that graduated and a dominant Mike linebacker to control the middle of the field, ala a Ray Lewis type, if you will.

Now several local high schools have a ton of players to fill many of those roles and a few near Raleigh and Charlotte could complete the puzzle. Although Lee has said publicly that he is looking to sign only about 15 players, I would suspect A&T will bring in 20 recruits, which is much more realistic when it is all said and done.

The Aggies have been mentioned in the final mix and official visit list for a number of the state’s top prep athletes during this recruiting season, something that hasn’t happened around here since the early days of Bill Hayes in the late 1980’s.

It has even carried over into South Carolina and Georgia in some measurable numbers. That is something SCSU’s Buddy Pough probably would prefer to do without, considering he has very little recruiting competition within the Palmetto state outside of Clemson and the University if South Carolina.

A&T has visits already scheduled for big time targets like linemen C.J. Wilson of Richlands, Matthew Johnson of Keenan, linebacker Javonta Middleton of Bamberb, and running back Tiquention Coleman from Mauldin.

Everyone knows that Dudley is at the top of the list locally along with Grimsley, Page, and Smith with at least eight legitimate FCS prospects alone just in Guilford County. Venture just to the east and a similar number resides in Raleigh-Durham and perhaps double that number from the Mecklenburg County area.

Also, Lee has not shown any fear into going after prep school candidates in the past and that opens a whole other world and recruiting base when hitting the private prep school arena of which there are five here in North Carolina alone.

What we do know is that A&T is now being taken seriously among the more elite in-state players now since most of the BCS schools are going the national recruiting route this year.

Over 100 high school recruits visited for homecoming this year and more than half of that number are coming back for a second look around over the next three weeks.

January and even into the first two weeks of February will tell the tale but do not be surprised if you see a number of big named prospects decide to cast their lot with Coach Lee and the Aggie program well before signing day on February 3rd.

For the recruiting trackers (and if you have no life), you can use the internet, the recruiting services, and the on-line newspapers to try to keep count on who is going where and who is talking to who … but the stories on recruiting change nearly every day, even every hour as kids add and remove possible schools like sweat socks after a work out.

Or you can do it the easy way and request to become an elite member of the BDF Headquarters Private Forum by emailing me at cturner@bluedeathvalley.com to see a complete listing. Yeah, that was a shameless plug if there ever was one but you do what you have to do. Tell your friends if they aren't already privy to the Private Forum.

In any event as soon as recruiting news breaks you will see it here first on BDV.com with a confirmation note attached. No bull just the straight scoop from the best free fan network on the internet.