Tony Creecy Commits to Wolfpack (Updated 10:15am)

Football Recruiting96

The momentum Coach Tom O’Brien has built behind this year’s recruiting class continues as Tony Creecy – another of the state’s top prospects – has committed to play football at NC State.

Southern Durham wide receiver Tony Creecy has committed to N.C. State, according to NCPreps.com.

The 6-foot, 196-pound Creecy runs a 4.5 forty yard dash, and is considered a four-star recruit by Rivals.com. He’s the No. 28 wide receiver in the country, according to the recruiting Web site.

Last season, Creecy caught 48 passes for 863 yards and five touchdowns for the Spartans.

[snip]

Creecy had 31 other offers including Clemson, Duke, East Carolina, Florida State, LSU, Maryland, North Carolina, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Stanford and Wake Forest.

Creecy is considered the best wide receiver prospect in the state and easily one of North Carolina’s Top 10 players. His commiment builds on a recruiting haul that may end up being one of the best in NC State football history. The Wolfpack currently has six commitment, including another 4-star/5-star commitment from the state’s best player, Robert Crisp. (We recognize that calling any player “the state’s best” is a statement of debate…especially until UNC-CH gets a commitment from anyone near the Top Five and suddenly that player will rocket to the top spot of most rankings.)

In addition to being a damn fine player, Creecy is a damn fine player at a position where State needed a young stud. The Wolfpack’s current stable of wide receivers is deep and generally young; the current core group will be able to support the program for at least the next three seasons if you choose to include JUCO commitment Tobias Palmer in the group. Heading into this season the Wolfpack boasts:

Donald Bowens R-Jr
Darrell Davis R-Jr
TJ Graham, So.
Steven Howard, R-So
Jay Smith, R-So
Owen Spencer, Jr.
Jarvis Williams R-Jr

That kind of depth provided the coaching staff the luxury of targeting TOP talent for the future as opposed to being in a position to need/have to take some rolls of the dice. After a redshirt year, Creecy projects to be added to a wide receiver corp that will include seniors TJ Graham, Jay Smith, Steven Howard and Tobias Palmer and R-Sophomores Bryan Underwood and Quintin Payton.

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Football Recruiting

96 Responses to Tony Creecy Commits to Wolfpack (Updated 10:15am)

  1. McPete 06/22/2009 at 10:02 AM #

    and the safety prospect David Amerson has visited the school twice in the past week! he’s #10 on scout.com’s preseason top 30 in NC. i know the staff is recruiting him hard; hope he commits next.

  2. StateFans 06/22/2009 at 10:07 AM #

    It is not beyond that real of possibility at NC State ends up with AT LEAST five of the top 10 players in the state of North Carolina…and maybe more.

    Of course, this is the position in which you can put yourself when you don’t over-recruit by double digits each year and put yourself in a position to have way too many young kids…many of which don’t even know if they are going to be allowed to come back to the program the next year.

    Systematically building and molding a balanced program and building legitimate and solid relationships grounded in trust.

  3. Alpha Wolf 06/22/2009 at 10:10 AM #

    And the word on PP was that Duke (yes, Duke) was quietly cleaning up in-state.

    Riiiight.

  4. StateFans 06/22/2009 at 10:11 AM #

    Duke is doing well with the lower ranked players #15-#30. Relative to Duke’s past performance that is a big step forward.

  5. McPete 06/22/2009 at 10:15 AM #

    Duke is probably hurting Wake Forest, Virginia, or app. state recruiting more than State. The only guy i can think of that cutcliffe took from TOB is Desmond Scott last year. I don’t think they will sniff the top ten in NC this year.

  6. Sw0rdf1sh 06/22/2009 at 10:25 AM #

    Duke is doing better than they were….that much can be acknowledged.

    TC is a huge pick up for us, especially at the position. Since his Dad is a Pack fan, I find it especially nice TC pulled the trigger on Father’s Day.

    These are the young men that we want to wrap up and not let slip to a school with a perceived “higher profile”, especially to the SEC or local neighbor.

    Nice to see he didn’t wait for as long as was speculated to run with the Pack.

  7. Girlfriend in a Coma 06/22/2009 at 10:35 AM #

    It’s so nice to have a coach who does not recruit 25 DLmen and/or “Athletes” every year.

  8. McPete 06/22/2009 at 10:50 AM #

    its also nice to have a coaching staff that has the respect of NC high school football coaches.

    already have two of the top 10 in NC (per scout.com) in Crisp and Creecy. and either the favorite or in the lead group for: Hill, Hunter, Moore, and Amerson. and throw in shembo at no. 11, too.

    could be another great year in nc just like two years ago.

  9. StateFans 06/22/2009 at 10:55 AM #

    Amen, Girlfriend in a Coma.

    Anyone care to project the quality and depth of the offensive line in three years? Holy cow. It may be our best ever.

    All because the coach doesn’t decide that 35 ‘athletes’ who can basically only play defensive back because they can’t catch or remember their assignments.

    If this recruiting class can keep adding high quality talent to the general balance and youth (for example, at linebacker and offensive line) then the program is going to officially be moving through third gear into fourth in no time.

  10. packalum44 06/22/2009 at 11:28 AM #

    Welcome to the Wolfpack Family Tony! And what a nice gift to your father on Father’s Day.

    In other news I heard that Butch Davis sent Tom O’Brien a Father’s Day card. Who’s your daddy Butch?

  11. Greywolf 06/22/2009 at 11:33 AM #

    McPete Says:
    June 22nd, 2009 at 10:50 am its also nice to have a coaching staff that has the respect of NC high school football coaches.

    So right on. Relationships with HS coaches doesn’t get near the credit it should IMO. Look at basketball and the significance of AAU coaches in recruiting and the significance of the HS coach becomes more clear. Creating those relationships was the first thing TOB did when he got here. Providing training and development for HS coaches could be as significant as having camps for the players.

    By coincidence I played golf with TJ’s uncle Friday. I think it is OK to say that in his opinion, Glennon would be starting by mid-season. He told my why but I’d rather not say in a public forum. TJ will definitely be playing this fall. He didn’t miss the Spring because of any mysterious grades or discipline problem as I read somewhere. “His mother would kill him if he had grade problems.” sort of told me all I needed to know about that.

    BTW That uncle could crush a golf ball.

  12. Thinkpack17 06/22/2009 at 11:51 AM #

    This kid has nice hands, I saw him catch a ball one handed streaking down the side line last year. He goes across the middle like a man too.

  13. tvp1 06/22/2009 at 12:39 PM #

    There’s the TOB way of recruiting…and then there’s the Miami way, which just recruiting whoever Rivals ranked highly and not actually scouting players. Seriously.

    http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/college/hurricanes/sfl-hurricanes-recruiting-s06220sbjun22,0,4582911.story

    That’s just astonishing to me. I wonder where the Miami staff learned how to recruit that way? Hmm.

  14. Zen Wolf 06/22/2009 at 12:50 PM #

    God bless us everyone!!!!!

  15. CStanley 06/22/2009 at 12:58 PM #

    Getting real hard to not start thinking big again for Pack football. Past history has jaded Pack football fans with stories of great recruiting hauls, but TOB’s work just has a different feel than Amato’s. We’re getting the right players at the right positions and starting to build an excellent reputation among high school coaches in NC (this comes from word of mouth of a few I know). All the signs are pointing to something special being developed over at the Murphy Center, and if we can just manage to stay healthy and have a little luck, we may experience some good things in the coming years.

  16. CaptainCraptacular 06/22/2009 at 1:14 PM #

    Tvp, the same exact thing was going on at FSU when Jeff Bowden was leading the recruiting efforts. Warchant did an expose on the shoddy, lazy, Internet based recruiting that had led to non-qualifiers and numerous busts that contributed to the decline in Talahassee. They went on to detail how Jimbo Fisher had basically put an end to that and had immediately begun to clean up FSUs recruiting. Choppack may disagree with me, but I think you started to see the results of that effort pay off for the Noles last year and I am of the opinion they are going to be a bear again in the very near future. . Of course they do have CTC but at least he can identify talent while Jimbo recruits solidly the right way.

    As for Creecy, welcome to the family! Great addition and hopefully can continue to add momentum for the rest of the recruiting year.

  17. tvp1 06/22/2009 at 1:37 PM #

    “Anyone care to project the quality and depth of the offensive line in three years? Holy cow. It may be our best ever.”

    You can already project a very strong 2 deep O-line in Glennon’s SENIOR year:

    LT – RJ Mattes (R-Sr), Duran Christophe (R-Jr)
    LG – Zach Allen (R-Sr), Sam Jones (R-So)
    C – Camden Wentz (R-Jr), Torian Box (R-So)
    RG – Andrew Wallace (R-Sr), Tyson Chandler (R-So)
    RT – Rob Crisp (R-So), Denzelle Good (R-Jr)

    Every one of these guys was a 3* or better recruit on scout and/or rivals and had multiple BCS school offers. And that’s not even counting anyone else we bring in as part of the 2010 class or anyone coming after that.

  18. tvp1 06/22/2009 at 1:38 PM #

    Captain: CTC is not long for FSU. The moment Jimbo is officially in charge, CTC will be cleaning out his desk.

  19. choppack1 06/22/2009 at 2:03 PM #

    Captain – I really don’t have an opinion yet on Jimbo’s tenure. I really haven’t seen a change in FSU since he took over. For periods of time – they look like a motivated team – but that’s happened before. (People forget, they won the conference in 2005 and played an inspired game vs. Penn State that same year.)

    You sound closer to the situation than I. I am judging things solely from what I’ve seen the last few years and my memory of how they used to dominate this conference.

    Jimbo may be the guy who can turn them around. We’ll definitely see whether or not they are benefitting from the new leadership in 2009.

  20. CaptainCraptacular 06/22/2009 at 2:22 PM #

    I only speak from having a couple of average Joe Nole donor friends. They arent quite as enthusiastically optimistic as we are about the future, but they are very pleased with what’s happening behind the scenes and in recruiting, similar to our feelings about TOB. From what I saw 2008 was clear improvement for the Noles from the bottoming out period of 2006-2007. And proof at least to me that their worst days are behind them. Anyway I wouldn’t discount them from Atlantic division title contention. Just like they shouldn’t discount State because we were 6-7 last year.

  21. graywolf 06/22/2009 at 2:58 PM #

    Good News and it just keeps coming. Coach O’Brien and staff can recruit good people as well as students. Proud to be an alumnus of NC State with a football staff like we currently have.

  22. thebigwood 06/22/2009 at 3:59 PM #

    tvp1, just out of curiosity, why do you think Jimbo will get rid of CTC?

  23. whitefang 06/22/2009 at 5:02 PM #

    Its what happens when you have an actual plan and the ability to execute it.

  24. McCallum 06/22/2009 at 7:31 PM #

    A word of caution:

    Creecy has not proven anything. I would add that the two fullbacks have not proven anything, Mike Glennon has not proven anything nor has RJ Mattes, Duran Christophe, Zach Allen, Sam Jones, Camden Wentz, Torian Box, Andrew Wallace, Tyson Chandler, Rob Crisp, or Denzelle Good.

    There are plenty of question marks across the board. Projecting that State will surpass all these other schools is darn foolish because they are all doing the same thing.

    SFN: Just curious…since there isn’t a single mention of surpassing a single other school in this entire conversation, I am trying to figure out where you could draw the conclusion that anyone is projecting that we are surpassing ‘all of these other schools’.

    But, regardless of what any of these kids have done or have not done on the field yet, we do know that we have a coaching staff that has already proven an ability to build a sustained winner at a school where they recruited far less successfully than they are recruiting here.

    Redshirt the kids, let them hit the books and learn to be a student.

    McCallum

  25. phillypacker 06/22/2009 at 7:55 PM #

    Any word on how the QB camp went on Saturday? Have we offered anyone of these guys?

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