Triangle ACC Coaches Pleased with Signing Day

The Research Triangle area's three ACC football programs ended 12 months and more of recruiting yesterday in a matter of only a few hours.
By mid-afternoon, the classes for North Carolina, N.C. State and Duke were. Coaches Butch Davis of UNC, Tom O'Brien of N.C. State, and David Cutcliffe of Duke all said they were pleased with the results and the work of their coaching staffs.
Cutcliffe, entering his third year at Duke, was especially happy after signing all 19 of the players from whom he had commitments, not including a junior-college transfer who enrolled for the second semester.
"Duke football got better today," Cutcliffe said. "Absolutely, Duke football got better today."
UNC signed 21 players and N.C. State signed 19, not including two players who enrolled for the second semester. Both classes underwent movement yesterday, with UNC's enduring the most.
Allen Wallace, the editor of SuperPrep recruiting magazine, was still evaluating classes late yesterday but ranked Florida State, Miami and Clemson as the ACC's top classes in that order. UNC, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech were next in order.
The rest of the ACC rankings were N.C. State, Maryland, Boston College, Wake Forest, Virginia and Duke.
UNC added Ethan Farmer, a 6-3, 255-pound tight end and defensive lineman from Tabor City; Carlos Gray, a 6-3, 290-pound defensive tackle from Pinson, Ala., and Sean Tapley, a 6-1, 185-pound receiver from Jacksonville, Fla. Casey Turner, a running back from Jacksonville, Fla., did not follow through on his commitment and signed with Rutgers instead. Markeith Ambles, a receiver from McDonough, Ga., chose Southern Cal over UNC and Tennessee.
Davis said that Turner's defection was a surprise and that he had been unable to talk to Turner or his family about the change in plans. Davis wanted two running backs in the class and was left with one, Giovanni Bernard of Davie, Fla.
Tapley switched a commitment from South Carolina to sign with UNC. Davis wasn't surprised by Tapley's move. Davis said he had known for two months that Tapley was going to sign with UNC and that the commitment to South Carolina was a smokescreen.
Tapley caught 33 passes for 607 yards and 11 touchdowns as a senior. He and Farmer built UNC's total of SuperPrep All-Americas to six. SuperPrep ranked Tapley the No. 37 receiver nationally and the No. 25 senior in Florida. Farmer was ranked the No. 38 defensive lineman nationally and the No. 5 senior in North Carolina.
At the top of UNC's class are two offensive linemen — James Hurst, 6-7 and 305 pounds, and T.J. Leifheit, 6-7 and 320 —who should be of immediate help for one of last season's biggest weaknesses.
Davis said that UNC had a good day and filled its needs.
"I'd like to think that this is somewhat typical of what a recruiting class in future years will look like," Davis said.
Wallace said that UNC's class would rank nationally between 25 and 30, but its finish was not strong enough to move into the top level in the conference rankings.
"They've got a great defensive-line class with (Kareem) Martin, Farmer and Brandon Willis," Wallace said. "When they got the commitment from Brandon Willis in January; that kind of set the tone for them."

N.C. State added Billy Bennett, a place-kicker from San Diego and Mira Costa Junior College. He will have two seasons of eligibility left. It did not sign Fre'Shad Hunter, a defensive lineman from Cary and the state's No. 11 senior in SuperPrep's state rankings. Hunter was dismissed from his Cary High School team after seven games for violating team rules. Coach Ben Kolstad of Cary told the Raleigh News and Observer yesterday that Hunter could go to prep school or junior college before signing with a program.
N.C. State's class includes three of the state's top 10 seniors in SuperPrep's rankings. Robert Crisp, an offensive lineman from Raleigh, is ranked No. 2 nationally at his position. David Amerson, a defensive back from Greensboro, is ranked No. 9 nationally at his position.
Crisp and Amerson are among three SuperPrep All-Americas in the N.C. State class.
O'Brien was pleased with six recruits from North Carolina, one of which is a junior-college transfer and an N.C. State commitment from 2008. Four of the other five were all ranked among the state's top 17 seniors by SuperPrep.
"I expect them all to come in and contribute and help us win a lot of football games," O'Brien said. "We addressed a lot of things we had to address in this recruiting class.
"We signed 11 on offense and 11 on defense, so once again we signed a football 'team,' along with a kicker who hopefully resolves some of the problems we've had kicking off."
Wallace thought that O'Brien made progress in putting together his fourth N.C. State class.
"They're pretty much in the middle of the ACC," Wallace said. "They had a little improvement from ninth in the ACC last year. I'd put them around seventh."

Cutcliffe decided to not wait by the fax machine for signed national letters of intent to come in yesterday morning. Instead, he and his coaches started work on Duke's recruiting classes for 2011 and 2012.
Duke signed two quarterbacks, eight backs and nine linemen. Among the linemen is Nick Sink, a 6-5, 250-pound senior at Forsyth Country Day who played tight end and on the defensive line.
Laken Tomlinson, a 6-5, 295-pound offensive lineman from Chicago, was a SuperPrep All-America and was ranked No. 26 nationally at his position.
Strengthening physical play on both lines with size and weight was one of several priorities for Cutcliffe.
"We really addressed needs," Cutcliffe said. "When we came in I made the statement, 'If you can run, we're going to find you.' We addressed speed. I was really looking for speed on both sides of the ball.
"This class represents 10 guys that are 4.5 (second quickness) or less. It's one of the fastest classes that I've been around. I'm really, really pleased with that."