New, old combine once again at The Wolfpacker

One of the old sayings is you never get to go home again.

By a series of several crazy events since April 2020, I am back writing for The Wolfpacker, but under different circumstances. On3.com has taken the college sports world and recruiting scene by storm over the last four years, and bought Rivals. Several of the team sites and recruiting gurus also started off at Rivals and have been at On3. Some good friends who I’ve never worked with before in the past will also be soon arriving. Simply put, the industry is changing.

What Rivals started in 1999 it was the first of its kind, and it eventually spawned Scout, 247 Sports and On3 networks, with On3 leader Shannon Terry at the forefront of many of the moves. My arrival to covering NC State came June 2007, and the first night I arrived in Raleigh was the night then rising sophomore C.J. Leslie picked NC State — the first time. He eventually decommitted and then picked NC State in the end.

One thing I will always be proud of is my work with and friendship with Matt Carter, formerly of The Wolfpacker. It would be neat to have him do a few projects here and there that only he could do.

I am also looking forward to working for Noah Fleischman, who I’ve gotten to know the last 18 months or so. He’s a rising star in the business and has the potential to reach any career goals he has. He’s had to carry the load at The Wolfpacker, and now he has some help, and we both have basketball recruiting guru Jamie Shaw for help, who I’ve probably known for close to 12-plus years.

Overall, next year will essentially be my 26th in the business since college, and more and more times I am watching sons or daughters of players I watched in the distant past. It’s crazy to think that in a year I’ll be watching former NC State player and assistant coach Levi Watkins’ son on the high school level in the class of 2030 (people I trust have been impressed). I still remember Watkins battling future UNC power forward Jawad Williams at Nike Camp at IUPUI.

It might be year one of the Will Wade era at NC State, but I’ve known Wade since around 2010 when he was an assistant coach at VCU, and watched him go through the 2017 Wolfpack coaching search. He has always been known for his tireless approach to recruiting.

NC State football coach Dave Doeren has been on the sidelines since 2013, but I covered him some when he was the defensive coordinator for Wisconsin against Arkansas and Auburn in the Capital One Bowl games in Orlando, Fla. He’ll probably say the Arkansas backfield was one of the toughest he ever faced — Felix Jones and Darren McFadden — but the Badgers won 17-14 to finish 12-1 in 2007.

For those unfamiliar with my work and new to my style, I am aggressive and do a little bit of everything. Whatever questions someone has, I’ll answer as best I can in a straight forward manner.

Not many football or basketball players in the classes of 2026, 2027 and 2028 (and even a few in 2029), I haven’t met, interviewed or seen play. For many prospects, I have been one of the first people that interviewed them, filmed them and broke down their games. I’ve never worried about attention, but more so being thorough and accurate.

Everything starts with “Is he good enough to play for NC State?” and for those that can’t answer that question, then it typically becomes word salad. I’ll try not to duplicate something the site has already done, but also keep in mind that some things will not be knew for Rivals only subscribers, it is a new audience with On3.