O’Brien Gets Big Time OL Recruit: RJ Mattes

'08 Football Football Recruiting NCS Football Tom O'Brien42

Big time. Four Star NC OL RJ Mattes has committed to NC State.

Can’t over state the importance of this. You’ve got to think that the reputation of developing NFL offensive lineman by Coach O’Brien and his staff was vital here. We couldn’t be more excited about this!

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'08 Football Football Recruiting NCS Football Tom O'Brien

42 Responses to O’Brien Gets Big Time OL Recruit: RJ Mattes

  1. RedTerror29 01/21/2008 at 12:57 PM #

    This year’s class has:

    A top-flight QB
    Multiple top-10 players from NC
    More than one sleeper we jumped on early that consequently garnered serious interest from big-time programs
    Big-time players we beat big-time programs for
    At least one big-time player from out of state
    Commits at (almost) every position
    Quantity
    Very few possible non-qualifiers
    Very few weak commitments
    A few possible positive signing day surprises
    Very few Juco recruits
    A few commits from areas we haven’t recruiting in the past
    Sufficient geographic diversity

    Those are a lot of reasons to feel good about this year’s recruiting class. And we have every reason to think next year’s will be even better.

  2. bradleyb123 01/21/2008 at 1:02 PM #

    It’s only a matter of time before TOB has us rolling. We could possibly turn some heads THIS year. A big part of our losing streak last year was in the beginning when the players had not yet bought into the TOB system. They should all be on board now. That alone would mean a better season in 2008, but the great recruiting should only help us that much more.

    A 7 or 8 win season wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

  3. BJD95 01/21/2008 at 1:56 PM #

    GAWolf – that’s why I said I’m looking forward to “September 2009” – not “September”. I’m also not expecting to set the world on fire – but I do expect to see some good signs, and probably a bowl bid. And I am certain that Daniel Evans won’t be the starting QB.

  4. bTHEredterror 01/21/2008 at 2:51 PM #

    No inflated expectations for ’08 here. My expectations at this point, ’08 6-6 (with just about anything acceptable), ’09 8-4 (with a bowl game acceptable), ’10 serious contender for league crown.

    It just feels good to have our recruiting class make sense for a change, and have our staff act like our home state has some football talent. I’m not expecting 5 starters to come out of this bunch for next year, but then again I won’t be surprised by it either.

    I agree with the wisdom it isn’t vital what we do next year. We should want our team to be tough out, and expect some growing pains. We are going to be breaking in a new QB (probably), new C and LG, and some new LBs. We have some weapons coming back from knee injuries, which is no sure thing. Most knee injuries take 18 months to fully recover. We have a hellacious schedule next year, and a bowl game for us would be a tremendous bonus.

  5. Todd 01/21/2008 at 3:42 PM #

    OMFG!! This really puts the cherry on top of a good recruiting class! (and there may be more!!) I was really hoping we could get him. It all starts on the LOS. If you have no blocking, nothing else matters.

  6. LRM 01/21/2008 at 3:43 PM #

    This is great news. A good O-line makes even a mediocre QB and/or RB seem better. He won’t do it alone (see: Michael Oher) though, so hopefully this is the beginning of a system.

  7. McPete 01/21/2008 at 4:37 PM #

    if not Evans, then who will be the starting qb next year? i don’t disagree and certainly i hope it’s someone else, but who? not glennon. beck, burke, or wilson?

  8. Primewolf 01/21/2008 at 8:03 PM #

    I suspect we will have more or two more pleasnt big time surprises between now and Feb 4th(?).

    The QB next year will be whomever it is going to be. I guess glennon could play if he is all world, but I think he needs a year to put on about 15 lbs of muscle to help him survive college football.

  9. SuperStuff 01/21/2008 at 10:03 PM #

    I’m excited to see which redshirt freshmen from this past year will push for playing time in spring drills. My bets are one George Bryan, Jay Smith, and Audio Cole.

  10. SuperStuff 01/21/2008 at 10:05 PM #

    I meant Audie Cole. Anybody have anything to offer on the 6’7″ Eric Weaver at TE that was on the roster?

  11. DAMangum 01/21/2008 at 11:35 PM #

    We also landed Shea Mckeen a BIG JC DE. Pack Pride has him as a 1 star but another article had him as a 4 star, either way, great job TOB!

  12. Mike 01/21/2008 at 11:47 PM #

    I am disappointed – frankly I thought we needed to recruit 10 tailbacks and 12 DB’s every year. Way to go TOB, keep up the good work.

  13. primacyone 01/22/2008 at 12:06 PM #

    Shea Mckeen was another direct win over UNC. They were going hard after him.

  14. ldr of pk 75 01/22/2008 at 6:20 PM #

    Great win here. Our local Concord paper had a good run on this . His father played for TOB at Virginia and went on to a Pro Career with Seattle I believe. Young Mattes said he has seen how TOB develops OLinemen for pro potential. His goal has always been the Pro level. He said that while the committment isn’t binding, he wouldn’t think of switching. Great catch coach.

  15. primacyone 01/23/2008 at 10:31 AM #

    Some really good words coming out of the mouths of these recruits.

  16. primacyone 01/23/2008 at 2:29 PM #

    From a recruting perpective the OL is looking pretty dang impressive for a single year.

    RJ Mattes
    Ahamad Jaradat*
    Sam Jones
    Andrew Wallace
    Zach Allen

    None of the five ranked higher than 50 (*Ahamad considerd #1 OL in Canada, but not ranked in US) I thing there is one more OL to visit in January.

  17. Dr. BadgerPack 01/25/2008 at 6:46 AM #

    The best thing about the way OL recruiting is going is that we will have a respectable 2-deep with the potential of using redshirts as needed.

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