Four Star RB Commits To NC State

General NCS Football43

Tom O’Brien landed another start player in NC on Tuesday. Meet Bunn’sBrandon Barnes.

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General NCS Football

43 Responses to Four Star RB Commits To NC State

  1. buttPACKer 06/27/2007 at 6:46 AM #

    rivals has him listed as a five star top 20 player!

  2. marathonman 06/27/2007 at 6:55 AM #

    and unless I’m missing something, not a mention of it in the N&O….

  3. Sw0rdf1sh 06/27/2007 at 7:51 AM #

    You heard it here first people!

    Didn’t I hear that USC was courting this guy hard? TOB is Butter! On a roll!

  4. Pack92 06/27/2007 at 8:17 AM #

    I don’t know why but I had a feel this kid was coming. If I were as highly rated as him I would also want to play for a coach who consistently puts OL’ men in the NFL. It’s just getting started folks. I bet the cryolina crowd just LOVES this.

  5. tapinpar 06/27/2007 at 8:48 AM #

    As a ’93 Bunn High School grad and a ’97 and ’00 State grad … this union simply warms my heart.

  6. BJD95 06/27/2007 at 8:49 AM #

    Remember what SFN said upon TOB’s hiring – his FLOOR is Dick Sheridan. What would a Sheridan type do with better facilities (and a bit more personality) for recruiting?

  7. tvp 06/27/2007 at 9:08 AM #

    I hope TOB is willing to stick around for a decade or so before retiring.

  8. ncsu96 06/27/2007 at 9:23 AM #

    5 of top 30 in NC are now committed to the Pack!!
    and it’s only June! Wow!

  9. gopack968 06/27/2007 at 9:27 AM #

    Nice to see State re-committed to winning the best recruits in-state.

    Sure NC might not be a recruiting hotbed, and sure there are five D1 schools competing for local kids, but if you get most of them…

    Heard from DG on 850 yesterday that several of UNC’s recruits did not qualify. Helloooo Butch Davis! Miami on the Piedmont!

  10. gopack968 06/27/2007 at 9:30 AM #

    Here is Tim Stevens on Barnes last week in the N&O:

    The 6-foot, 185-pound senior with 4.35 speed over 40 yards is the top-ranked high school football player in the state by rivals.com. He also is ranked among the top 25 prospects in the country.

    He has more than 25 major college scholarship offers, including offers from most of the ACC schools, Southern California, Michigan, Penn State, Auburn, Florida and Oklahoma.

    His college destination is expected to be N.C. State, Clemson, Auburn, Virginia Tech, Michigan or Florida.

    http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/615043.html

  11. Mr O 06/27/2007 at 10:05 AM #

    Our in-state recruiting during the Amato era was a whole lot better than the previous coaching staff. It was a myth perpetuated by the media and our rivals that we didn’t recruit NC. I guess Amato’s ego and the fact for the first time ever NC State heavily recruited a state other than NC also helped perpetuate they myth.

  12. noah 06/27/2007 at 10:19 AM #

    “Heard from DG on 850 yesterday that several of UNC’s recruits did not qualify. Helloooo Butch Davis! Miami on the Piedmont!”

    Not really a big surprise, was it? How many did they ultimately lose? I had only heard about Dwight Jones.

    The N&O (and most of the other dailies) will end up with the story in a couple of days. It’s not a conspiracy.

  13. PapaJohn 06/27/2007 at 10:20 AM #

    Okay, this is too good to be true. TOB & Sid both kicking butt in recruiting IN THE SAME WEEK!

    Could it be that we’ve finally got our mojo back??? After 15+ (?) years, it’s finally our turn again? After years of recruiting near misses (Stackhouse, Randolph, …) and endless seasons with injured starters (Atsur, Evtimov, …) I’m not as up on football, so I can’t give similar examples there, but they certainly exist.

    LORDY, I HOPE SO!!!!

  14. noah 06/27/2007 at 10:21 AM #

    Mr O: That myth was largely the work of coaches like Ed Emory who couldn’t stand Amato. Part of it was his attitude…part of it was that he wouldn’t recruit their marginal prospects the way MOC did.

    My personal opinion is that the top 15 in NC can probably play for just about any school in the country. Maybe they won’t be a star…but they can contribute and plenty of them WOULD be stars.

    It’s the 16-30 group that gets a little shaky. Yes, there are players there that will flourish and there will be players that you NEVER hear from again. But I think when you start getting into the 20-and-below group, you can find those guys anywhere in the country (as a general rule).

  15. McPete 06/27/2007 at 10:47 AM #

    This commitment is just part of a trend that amato started a few years ago: nc state getting top commits at the running back position in NC. baker was 5 star, brown was 4 or 5 star. it’s certainly great, but not unprecidented. now if tob gets 7 or 8 of NC’s top 10 (which is very possible), it’ll be a major coup. just look at those guys offer sheets. nc state doesn’t often beat FSU, UF, USC (the real one), etc. for the same recruits.

  16. RickJ 06/27/2007 at 11:14 AM #

    “It’s the 16-30 group that gets a little shaky.”

    This is so true and unfortunately for us, we have plenty of these players in our program. The better news is that UNC has even more. In the old days, the ones that aren’t working out would be jettisoned from the program by a new coach. This is a little trickery with the new APR system.

    There is a great quote from a former coach that went something like – “It’s not the great player you don’t sign that kills you, it’s the player you do sign that can’t play.”

  17. Mr O 06/27/2007 at 11:18 AM #

    Agree with that statement Noah.

    The article in the F’ville paper today about Brandon Barnes says that there were NC State fans who were upset that our previous staff didn’t recruit NC. I don’t know any NC State fans upset with Amato for his recruiting as he signed more top players from NC than any other division 1 head coach in the state and he supplemented that with similar talented players from Fl and elsewhere.

    I think most of it was that a lot of people didn’t like Amato, so his recruiting in Fla was just another opportunity to take shots at him. He probably deserved it for his abrasive personality, but he definitely didn’t deserve it for his recruiting in the state of NC.

  18. RAWFS 06/27/2007 at 12:23 PM #

    Now I have TWO very good reasons to go to Bunn’s games this year.

    First of all, my neice is a Wildcat cheerleader and is doing great over there.

    Second, to watch Brandon’s senior year in HS proudly wearing the red and white.

    As to HS coaches not liking Amato, I personally know two who disliked Amato intently because he was viewed as arrogant and dismissive. If one had said some of the things that they did, I might attribute it to just bad chemistry between the two men. But when two guys pretty much related identical stories, I had to start listening and taking them seriously.

  19. jwrenn29 06/27/2007 at 1:08 PM #

    Sweet. A commitment from my old high school!

  20. BoKnowsNCS71 06/27/2007 at 1:09 PM #

    Agree with you RAWFS — It’s more one on one diplomacy. Those local coaches only want a little respect and appreciation and that’s what TOB and staff give them. Humility takes you more places than swagger and earns you more respect.

  21. brickman 06/27/2007 at 1:32 PM #

    to me the players ctc would bring in . looked to beat florida state more than carolina . for them it seems to be a bigger game than the tarholes game.

  22. swedish 06/27/2007 at 5:34 PM #

    “I hope TOB is willing to stick around for a decade or so before retiring.”

    personally i dont think he will retire until he gets a national championship

  23. Primewolf 06/27/2007 at 7:57 PM #

    Mr O, all signs pointing to Amato indicate he poorly recruited the state the past few years. Arrogance only works for the first few years. His classes the last 2 years were mid 40s nationally, on par with Duke and behind Wake.

    Amato the great recruiter myth was busted by his 4th recruiting class. He had a poor unorganized approach, and never was able to land a name LB.

    I am not bashing the man, he did wonders for our program. But, arrogance, poor media behavior, and continual staff turnover sank his recruiting and coaching over the years.

  24. Mr O 06/27/2007 at 10:31 PM #

    Not winning enough was the beginning of the end for Amato.

  25. bTHEredterror 06/27/2007 at 10:32 PM #

    Get the best RB in the state every, single year and I won’t utter a disparaging word (at least about that).

    RB’s are usually the best athlete on their team in HS, meaning they likely played both ways, and can be converted if necessary. We saw it last year with Blackmon and Davis, and in recent years with Golden. I believe you can’t have too many good backs to push each other for carries and provide different styles to the arsenal, as much as for depth. And TOB’s Eagle teams could run the ball most of the years I saw ’em, and with different guys. Mike Cloud was a beast, William Green, etc.

    Despite our quality in the backfield in recent years, we have struggled due to our OL issues. We may be completely contrary in philosophy on both sides of the ball this year, and while that will certainly cause us some issues, I expect we’ll see improvement in short order. With a zone blitzing D, we might have a lot of fun in C-f this fall, making hella noise on third and long!

    Two months to wait…..and the Pirates are done in June, as usual.

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