North Carolina State University Athletics
Doeren Excited About Signing Class
2/6/2013 12:00:00 AM | Football
Feb. 6, 2013
Doeren’s Signing Day Press Conference | Signing Day Central
RALEIGH, N.C - Wolfpack head football coach Dave Doeren says that the recruiting process normally takes at least 12 months. Prior to today’s press conference announcing the 2013 NC State signing class, his new staff had six weeks.
Doeren, whose enthusiasm was evident as he showed video clips of each of the 25 new members of what he calls the “family,” said that the normal recruiting methods were displaced with an “all hands on deck” mentality this year.
“This is a great day for NC State and our football program,” he said. “We are ready and excited to welcome this class. It’s been a busy couple of months for our coaches and for the kids making the decisions, but our motto was ‘1 Pack, 1 Goal’ throughout the process. We recruit as a staff and every member of our staff has contact with these guys. We look at our team as a family and if they choose to join this family, they have to meet a lot of people.”
The Pack’s new head coach said that everyone from Chancellor Randy Woodson and Athletics Director Debbie Yow, to the cooks who provided the food on recruiting visits, made the class a success. “We wanted to represent this place the right way and attract the right type of personality. Our strength coaches, trainers, academic staff - everybody did a great job getting this done.”
He also added that the basketball team’s victories over Duke and North Carolina on important recruiting weekends helped show the prospects the passion of the Wolfpack student body and fan base. One player, who eventually committed, actually rushed the court after the win over the top-ranked Blue Devils.
Doeren said that his staff was able to fill its needs for the class, despite the late start and short window. “We wanted to get faster and with our offensive tempo, we needed wide receivers, quarterbacks and running backs. We met those needs with high school players and transfers. We needed to increase our depth in the secondary and we were able to do that.”
The class included five defensive backs, nine in-state players, nine players from the state of Florida, 24 signees who played in state playoff games, six who played in state championship games, 12 all-state performers, six who played in the Shrine Bowl and 17 who appeared in all-star games.
“We wanted to build this class with winners,” he continued. “I know people on the outside are concerned with rankings and stars and those things matter to our staff, but I like recruiting winners – guys with championship rings. We have guys who are competitors and were on teams who won games.
“We won’t know until four years from now how good this class is. It will depend on what kind of workers they are and how we develop them. They have to be five times better in five years than they are today – in terms of fundamentals, their minds and their bodies. We want to take three-star players and make them five-star players by the time they leave here.”
Despite the staff’s excitement about the class, Doeren and company aren’t taking time to celebrate. They are already in meetings about next year’s signing class and beyond.
“We’re excited about the results, but from here on the process will be different,” he said. “Our relationship will be 12 months now. They are already calling us, wanting to come up to our underclassman recruiting days. They’ll know me, they’ll know our kids, they’ll know our academic people, they’ll be here on game days. They will know everything. I tried to talk about it this year, now we will be able to show it.”
For a complete list of bios and vidoes of each signee, click here.
| Name | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | Hometown | High School/Last School |
| Johnathan Alston | WR | 6-3 | 200 | Bunn, N.C. | Bunn HS |
| Cole Blankenship* | OL | 6-3 | 295 | Mocksville, N.C. | Davie County HS |
| Jacoby Brissett* | QB | 6-4 | 225 | West Palm Beach, Fla. | Dwyer HS/Univ. of Florida |
| Bra'Lon Cherry* | WR | 5-11 | 175 | New Bern, N.C. | New Bern HS |
| Travares Copeland | WR | 5-11 | 178 | Port St. Lucie, Fla. | Treasure Coast HS/West Virginia Univ. |
| Matt Dayes | RB | 5-9 | 190 | Weston, Fla. | Cypress Bay HS |
| Jerod Fernandez | LB | 6-1 | 215 | Lake Mary, Fla. | Lake Mary HS |
| Kenton Gibbs | DT | 6-2 | 290 | Detroit Mich. | Cass Technical HS |
| Josh Jones | S | 6-2 | 205 | Walled Lake, Mich. | Walled Lake Western HS |
| Ali Kassem | OL | 6-7 | 350 | Cincinnati, Ohio | Moeller HS/ASA |
| Pharoah McKever | WR | 6-6 | 215 | Tabor City, N.C. | South Columbus HS |
| Malcolm Means | S | 6-2 | 190 | Richburg, S.C. | Lewisville HS |
| Josh Mercer | RB | 5-11 | 190 | Guyton, Ga. | South Effingham HS |
| Monty Nelson | DT | 6-2 | 310 | Plantation, Fla. | Plantation HS |
| Dakwa Nichols | RB | 5-10 | 182 | Rockingham, N.C. | Richmond Senior HS |
| Quinton Patterson | LB | 6-0 | 225 | Shelby, N.C. | Crest HS |
| Sean Paul | CB | 6-0 | 180 | Vero Beach, Fla. | Vero Beach HS |
| Jumichael Ramos | WR | 6-3 | 190 | Lovejoy, Ga. | Lovejoy HS |
| Tylar Reagan | OL | 6-5 | 290 | Jacksonville, Fla. | Bartram Trail HS |
| Patrick Roane | OL | 6-7 | 310 | Hope Mills, N.C. | Gray's Creek HS |
| Artemis Robinson | LB | 6-1 | 205 | Laurinburg, N.C. | Scotland County HS |
| Bryant Shirreffs | QB | 6-3 | 218 | Jefferson, Ga. | Jefferson HS |
| Jack Tocho | CB | 6-1 | 190 | Charlotte, N.C. | Independence HS |
| Marquez Valdes | WR | 6-3 | 201 | St. Petersburg, Fla. | Lakewood HS |
| Dravious Wright | CB | 5-10 | 185 | Vero Beach, Fla. | Vero Beach HS |
*Enrolled at NC State for the 2013 spring semester
