Wake Forest Athletics
Deacons Ink 20 On National Signing Day
2/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Feb. 7, 2007
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Twenty student-athletes have signed National Letters of Intent to attend Wake Forest University and play football next season for head coach Jim Grobe and his staff. The balanced recruiting class includes 11 players on defense and nine players on offense.
The class is dominated by talent from North Carolina and Florida. Fourteen of the 20 signees come from the two states, including seven from both North Carolina and Florida. The staff also plucked one player each from Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
On offense, the Deacons received commitments from three offensive linemen, three wide receivers, one tight end, one quarterback and one running back. Defensively, Wake Forest picked up four linebackers, two defensive ends, two cornerbacks, two safeties and one defensive tackle.
Twelve of the 20 players are ranked by at least one recruiting service as one of the best players in the nation at their position.
The list of North Carolina natives includes a trio of players from Wake Forest's backyard. Defensive standouts Kyle Jarrett and John Stamper were two highly-recruited players from West Forsyth High School in Clemmons. The first two players to verbally commit to the Deacons, Jarrett and Stamper both had scholarship offers from some of the best football programs in the southeast. The additions of the West Forsyth duo and Josh Bush, a cornerback from Lexington, N.C., mark the fourth time in the last five years that the Deacons have signed a player from the Piedmont Triad area.
Wake Forest inked three players from the eastern half of the state. Danny Dembry, who played quarterback at Hertford County High School in Ahoskie, will shift to wide receiver for the Deacons. Doug Weaver, a native of Roxboro, was an early verbal commitment who ranked as one of the top 50 offensive tackles nationally, according to Rivals. Will Wright was a two-way threat at Hoggard High School in Wilmington where the Vikings went 14-1 last season. Wright will play defensive end for Wake Forest.
Tristan Dorty, a linebacker from Woodleaf's West Rowan High School, rounds out the seven-man group of North Carolina natives. Wake Forest expects to have 28 in-state products on the roster in 2007.
One of the seven Floridians coming to Winston-Salem this spring is defensive tackle Uriah Grant. Grant selected the Deacons over perennial powers in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC. He played at Everglades High School in Miramar, less than 10 miles away from Dolphin Stadium, site of the FedEx Orange Bowl.
The 2006 season had an orange theme as the Deacons opened the season against the Syracuse Orange and finished the year in the 2007 FedEx Orange Bowl. The theme carried over to the 2007 signing class. Naples High School linebacker Gelo Orange and his teammate Junior Petit-Jean, a safety, will join the Deacons. Both players are originally from Haiti. In fact, Orange came to the United States in 2004 and only began playing football two years ago.
The Palm Beach County pipeline continues to flow north to Winston-Salem. Royal Palm Beach High School star running back Brandon Pendergrass will follow in the footsteps of Pahokee natives Demir Boldin, Alphonso Smith and Antonio Wilson. Pendergrass rushed for 1,500 yards as a senior and was ranked as the 17th-best all-purpose back nationally by Rivals. Despite stiff competition from dozens of Division I products, Pendergrass was selected as the Lou Groza High School Award winner as the best prep player in Palm Beach County.
The Jacksonville and Orlando areas continue to be fertile recruiting ground for the Deacons. Wake Forest added wide receiver Jordan Williams from Raines High School in Jacksonville and defensive end Kyle Wilber out of Apopka High School in suburban Orlando. The Deacons also signed Mike Williams, a cornerback from Palm Bay High School in Melbourne.
Wake Forest also grabbed players from other areas in the southeast, such as Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Cyhl (pronounced Kyle) Quarles played both safety and linebacker at Meadowcreek High School in Tucker, Ga. The 6-foot-3, 215 pounder ran a 4.47 40-yard dash and competed on the school's track team. The Deacons added a tight end from Anderson, S.C., named Cameron Ford. A big target at 6-foot-4, Ford represented South Carolina in the Shrine Bowl.
The same school in Knoxville, Tenn., that sent All-ACC and current NFL offensive lineman Tyson Clabo to Wake Forest has produced another Demon Deacon. Michael Hoag, a 6-foot-6, 290 pound offensive lineman from Farragut High School was a first team all-state selection last fall.
The lone Virginia native in the class is Devon "Yloo" Brown out of Stone Bridge High School. The Ashburn, Va., native Brown is expected to play wide receiver for the Deacons, but rushed for 1,744 yards and 29 touchdowns as a senior. He was a first team all-state pick and was named the Offensive Player of the Year by the Washington Post.
The addition of Ryan Britt, an offensive lineman from Grapevine, Texas, means the Deacons will continue to have at least one Lone Star State native on the roster. Britt was a first team 5A all-district selection and a second team pick on the Fort Worth Star Telegram Super Team.
The class is rounded out by Middletown, Ohio, native Skylar Jones. A playmaking quarterback with clocked 4.3 speed, Jones was ranked as the 30th-best signal caller in America and the best in Ohio by Scout. Jones, who verbally committed to the Deacons early in the fall, threw for 1,979 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior. He chose Wake Forest over teams from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten and Big 12.
These 20 signees will join 47 returning lettermen, including 15 starters, from last year's ACC Championship team that won 11 games. The 2007 season begins for Wake Forest on Saturday, September 1 at Boston College. Wake Forest's spring practices begin Tuesday, March 20 and the spring game is set for April 14. All practices will be at the team's on-campus practice facility.
| NLI Arrived | Name | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | Hometown | High School |
| 7:00 am | Doug Weaver | OL | 6-8 | 290 | Roxboro, NC | Person |
| 8:13 am | Will Wright | DE | 6-3 | 220 | Wilmington, NC | Hoggard |
| 8:17 am | Kyle Jarrett | LB | 6-2 | 215 | Winston-Salem, NC | West Forsyth |
| 8:20 am | John Stamper | S | 6-0 | 185 | Winston-Salem, NC | West Forsyth |
| 8:33 am | Jordan Williams | WR | 6-3 | 180 | Jacksonville, FL | Raines |
| 8:40 am | Uriah Grant | DT | 6-2 | 262 | Miramar, FL | Everglades |
| 8:41 am | Devon "Yloo" Brown | WR | 5-9 | 183 | Ashburn, VA | Stone Bridge |
| 8:42 am | Danny Dembry | WR | 6-2 | 173 | Ahoskie, NC | Hertford County |
| 8:45 am | Junior Petit-Jean | S | 6-0 | 190 | Naples, FL | Naples |
| 8:46 am | Gelo Orange | LB | 6-1 | 215 | Naples, FL | Naples |
| 8:56 am | Brandon Pendergrass | RB | 5-9 | 196 | Royal Palm Beach, FL | Royal Palm Beach |
| 9:20 am | Skylar Jones | QB | 6-1 | 186 | Middletown, OH | Middletown |
| 9:25 am | Cameron Ford | TE | 6-4 | 212 | Anderson, SC | Hanna |
| 9:36 am | Ryan Britt | OL | 6-4 | 290 | Grapevine, TX | Heritage |
| 9:50 am | Mike Williams | CB | 6-1 | 170 | Melbourne, FL | Palm Bay |
| 10:04 am | Josh Bush | CB | 5-11 | 185 | Lexington, NC | West Davidson |
| 10:11 am | Michael Hoag | OL | 6-6 | 290 | Knoxville, TN | Farragut |
| 10:12 am | Tristan Dorty | LB | 6-2 | 235 | Woodleaf, NC | West Rowan |
| 10:13 am | Cyhl Quarles | LB | 6-3 | 215 | Tucker, GA | Meadowcreek |
| 1:27 pm | Kyle Wilber | DE | 6-5 | 230 | Apopka, FL | Apopka |
Signees By Side Of The Ball: Defense (11), Offense (9)
Signees By Position: Linebackers (4), Offensive Line (3), Wide Receivers (3), Cornerbacks (2), Defensive Ends (2), Defensive Tackles (1), Quarterbacks (1), Running Backs (1), Safeties (2), Tight Ends (1).
Signees By Home State: North Carolina (7), Florida (7), Georgia (1), Ohio (1), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (1), Texas (1), Virginia (1).
Signing Day Quotes
Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe
On this year's recruiting class:
"I am excited about our class. All the signatures came back. Everybody that we are hoping to get signed their national letters of intent. I think the one thing that stands out about this class is we got another balanced class. That is one of our goals. The first two or three years here we weren't able to do that. We were putting out fires at certain positions because of depth issues and I think what we have been able to do the last couple of years is spread our needs out at a certain positions. I feel good about where we are right now depth wise at all of our position and I think this class helps bolster that."
On the impact of the season on recruiting:
"We had a lot of early commitments and in some cases when you get an early commitment that just opens up recruiting. It basically starts the battle to keep kids. An early commitment on one hand is good but on the other hand you've got to hang with them. So I think our success towards the end of the year helped us hang on to some pretty good football players that had committed to us early. There were some kids down in Florida at the end of recruiting, a couple of kids that we thought were key to us in recruiting committed later. I think it will help us more in the future than this particular year but I do think our success helped us hang on to some early commits."
On his excitement of this class:
"The character of this class is really special. There is chemistry in this group. A lot of these guys already know each other. They have already started calling, emailing and text messaging each other. I think it's a very representative class academically. They have a lot of football ability but more than anything else I think it's a special group of kids."
On the success of recruiting:
"I think with our success people start figuring out we are not making too many mistakes in recruiting and so when we get an early commitment it kind of opens up the recruiting to these guys. We had a battle on our hands to keep these kids locked up. I think the coaches did a nice job presenting Wake Forest to the kids. We did get a lot of good early commitments. Because of the number of school that came after these guys after they have verbally committed we felt like we were on the right kids and we really felt like we were on the right kids when they stuck with their commitments."
On the recruiting in North Carolina:
"This is a very popular state for football recruiting. We do the best we can. I think seven is a good number. We would have taken more than seven. I think our success in the state of Florida really has really helped us. I think we have a good representation from North Carolina. Each year that is where we start and we want to make that our home base. I think we have done a nice job of getting the kids that can come in and help us win."
On the high character of this class:
"What stands out about this class is first of all, we have good character coming to Wake Forest. Secondly, I think everyone is very capable of leaving Wake Forest with a degree. When you start assigning stars to all these guys, a lot of them have stars on the scouting report, but not a lot of stars on their report card. A lot of these guys have stars on their helmet, but they don't have too many stars in the character department. It's a well-rounded class. They're really good kids. They are kids who want to leave Wake Forest with a degree. They have the ability to win for us and they're kids that I think we'll still be coaching in five years. And all these kids will show up for second session of summer schools. It's not just a class that we're looking from a football perspective, but we think these guys are program guys who will be with us until the end."
Recruiting coordinator Ray McCartney
On his approach to recruiting at Wake Forest:
"The single biggest thing is finding fit for Wake Forest. You can go out and recruit a great player and do a great job out recruiting other schools to get a kid but if he doesn't fit here at Wake Forest it is a waste of time. We spend a tremendous amount of time trying to recruit kids that we think fit in the Wake Forest environment and go to class, do the right things, be on time, and do the things you have to do academically here to survive.
