Josh Snead is in the house!

[OZZIE4DUKE]

http://www.highschoolot.com/content/video/6779468/

He and two other recruits start school Monday!

[RockyMtDevil]

Football or Basketball? I am lost.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Football or Basketball? I am lost.

Football

[ricks68]

Sounds like a very, very personable, intelligent, nice guy. Typical Duke material!:)

[DukeSean]

sweet! lets hope he gets some really solid coaching to complement his Snead Speed

[OZZIE4DUKE]

sweet! lets hope he gets some really solid coaching to complement his Snead Speed
As I said in an earlier report when I saw him play in October, he was the SSS (Smithfield Selma Senior High School) offense. The first two times he didn't touch the ball, a pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown and a fumble was recovered and returned for a touchdown, both in the first quarter :() To say defenses keyed on him is a huge understatement. He's quick, shifty and fast, a very nice combination! It'll be fun seeing him in the backfield with Desmond Scott next fall (if he doesn't red shirt, and if he does, the year after).

[jimsumner]

QB Brandon Connette and the juco tight end Helfett (sp?) also are enrolled this spring. Getting Connette in early is huge. With Renfree recovering from ACL surgery, Duke was looking at the prospect of going into spring football with only one healthy QB (Schroeder). Connette gives them some much-needed insurance.

[Acymetric]

QB Brandon Connette and the juco tight end Helfett (sp?) also are enrolled this spring. Getting Connette in early is huge. With Renfree recovering from ACL surgery, Duke was looking at the prospect of going into spring football with only one healthy QB (Schroeder). Connette gives them some much-needed insurance.

Getting Connette in early is definitely a big plus for us this spring. I also can't say how excited I am about Snead, the guy is a force wherever we end up using him. I thought I had read a while back that one of our OL commits might enroll early, which apparently isn't the case, but I have high hopes for our redshirt freshman class so hopefully we won't need any true freshmen to step into any role anyways.

[formerdukeathlete]

Getting Connette in early is definitely a big plus for us this spring. I also can't say how excited I am about Snead, the guy is a force wherever we end up using him. I thought I had read a while back that one of our OL commits might enroll early, which apparently isn't the case, but I have high hopes for our redshirt freshman class so hopefully we won't need any true freshmen to step into any role anyways.

I hope we will see some true freshman play for the reason that they surprise to the upside. Snead may provide that surprise, in the sense of earning serious playing time early. Connette's stock has risen since he verbaled to Duke, and so has his position ranking at scout. His scout position ranking is second highest in the class.

http://duke.scout.com/a.z?s=167&p=9&c=8&yr=2010

rivals evaluated Snead well

http://rivals.yahoo.com/duke/football/recruiting/player-Joshua-Snead-68368

Vandy, NC State, Wake, Ga Tech also offered. Note the 4.35 GPA

Helfut attended Hopkins and was a straight A student in junior college.

Connette was / is a math tutor, offered by Stanford and Spurrier at South Carolina.

Each of these kids appear to be exactly the right kind of student athlete at the playing level as well as in terms of academic qualifications. When Cut goes after the really good students, these kids show he can get his man / men. As an aside, while I hope Sean Renfree is an all-american at Duke, either or both Schroeder or Connette may provide stiff competition for pt next fall.

[Acymetric]

I hope we will see some true freshman play for the reason that they surprise to the upside. Snead may provide that surprise, in the sense of earning serious playing time early. Connette's stock has risen since he verbaled to Duke, and so has his position ranking at scout. His scout position ranking is second highest in the class.

http://duke.scout.com/a.z?s=167&p=9&c=8&yr=2010

rivals evaluated Snead well

http://rivals.yahoo.com/duke/football/recruiting/player-Joshua-Snead-68368

Vandy, NC State, Wake, Ga Tech also offered. Note the 4.35 GPA

Helfut attended Hopkins and was a straight A student in junior college.

Connette was / is a math tutor, offered by Stanford and Spurrier at South Carolina.

Each of these kids appear to be exactly the right kind of student athlete at the playing level as well as in terms of academic qualifications. When Cut goes after the really good students, these kids show he can get his man / men. As an aside, while I hope Sean Renfree is an all-american at Duke, either or both Schroeder or Connette may provide stiff competition for pt next fall.

I was talking specifically about true freshman offensive lineman. I would be relatively surprised if we don't see Snead this year, though we're fairly stacked at both positions where we would use him so the staff may want to give him the redshirt for that reason. Despite the QB uncertainty and questions about the linemen on both sides, I'm pretty excited about the coming year.

[Olympic Fan]

Getting kids in early gives them a nice head start. For Snead and Helfett, it gives them a chance to compete next fall as positions where Duke is very deep (TE) or fairly deep (TB).

Connette is a different story.

While I don't think that he'll compete for playing time as a freshman next fall, his early arrival really helps the team in spring. As Jim Sumner noted, Schroeder is currently our only healthy quarterback. Renfree is hoping to do some very limited work this spring as he recovers from ACL surgery.

Without Connette, Duke would have been extremely limited in what it could do with just one healthy QB. They might have used Corey Gattis, who played some scout team QB last fall (he was a prep QB), but that would have limited his chances of working at WR -- where Cutcliffe has said he expects the ex-Hillside star to be a big-time player.

The team went through a spring with one QB a couple of years ago, when Asack was suspended, and it make it tough to get enough work with Thad having to run with the first, second and third teams. Now, Cut will have at least two (maybe two and a half if Renfree is able to do a little work) QBs to work with. That will be a BIG help.