2025 Duke Football Recruiting
- Thread starter budwom
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AtlBluRew
Member
OZZIE4DUKE
Well-known member
His first name is Cameron. Of course he wants to come to Duke!
Welcome Cameron Smith!
AtlBluRew
Member
Hopefully that applies to Cameron Boozer as well.
Cam Smith has the potential to be a core part of the team… Signing day for current high school juniors is a long ways away, but it’s great to get the commitment. It’s also great to read about Penn State being worried about Duke…
https://basicbluesnation.com/penn-s...e-secure-pa-lb-after-recent-penn-state-visit/
https://basicbluesnation.com/penn-s...e-secure-pa-lb-after-recent-penn-state-visit/
Coach Diaz obviously knew Cam Smith through camp, but Gabe Infante may have been at least as important a recruiter.
Infante was head coach at Smith’s high school for 9 years until going to Temple and then Penn State and now Duke. Infante won 4 state championships at St. Joseph’s, though it helps to have players like Kyle McCord (Ohio state and now Syracuse) and Marvin Harrison, Jr.
Infante won 3 different national high school coach of the year awards. I’d guess that winning such awards means 3 things: you’re a good coach, your teams have been very good, and your colleagues respect you. I bet it also means that other high school
coaches will trust you with their best players.
We just picked up our final 2024 recruit, Khari Reid, also a young man from Philadelphia.
We also just got named to a final 5 list of a 4 star recruit, Anthony Sacco. While he didn’t include Penn State, where his dad had been the quarterback, Sacco did list Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Wisconsin along with Duke. A top 5 list for 2025 is nice, but it’s especially interesting that Sacco and Smith are both 4 star linebackers at the same high school, St. Joseph’s.
That means two of the top 25 high school junior linebackers play on the same team, and both could come to Duke, where we have a coach who is presumably somewhat legendary around there.
https://www.si.com/college/pennstate/football/penn-state-football-analyst-gabe-infante-ohio-state-kyle-mccord-marvin-harrison-jr
https://athlonsports.com/college-fo...-ohio-state-alabama-notre-dame-duke-wisconsin
Infante was head coach at Smith’s high school for 9 years until going to Temple and then Penn State and now Duke. Infante won 4 state championships at St. Joseph’s, though it helps to have players like Kyle McCord (Ohio state and now Syracuse) and Marvin Harrison, Jr.
Infante won 3 different national high school coach of the year awards. I’d guess that winning such awards means 3 things: you’re a good coach, your teams have been very good, and your colleagues respect you. I bet it also means that other high school
coaches will trust you with their best players.
We just picked up our final 2024 recruit, Khari Reid, also a young man from Philadelphia.
We also just got named to a final 5 list of a 4 star recruit, Anthony Sacco. While he didn’t include Penn State, where his dad had been the quarterback, Sacco did list Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Wisconsin along with Duke. A top 5 list for 2025 is nice, but it’s especially interesting that Sacco and Smith are both 4 star linebackers at the same high school, St. Joseph’s.
That means two of the top 25 high school junior linebackers play on the same team, and both could come to Duke, where we have a coach who is presumably somewhat legendary around there.
https://www.si.com/college/pennstate/football/penn-state-football-analyst-gabe-infante-ohio-state-kyle-mccord-marvin-harrison-jr
https://athlonsports.com/college-fo...-ohio-state-alabama-notre-dame-duke-wisconsin
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CameronBornAndBred
Well-known member
There's a whole lotta talk about players in the 25 class in the 23 thread.
I went looking for the '25 thread but saw that this particular recruitment had started in the '23 thread.
Given that we can't even be sure which coaches and current players will still be on the team next week, it may seem premature to discuss 16 year olds who put us on a list alongside recruiting juggernauts, but why let uncertainty get in the way of a good story?
CameronBornAndBred
Well-known member
Well, there's always the '24 thread as an option at least.
https://forums.dukebasketballreport...p?49978-Duke-Football-2024&highlight=Football
good time to point out that Manny says he pays ZERO attention to star ratings and other internet ratings, despite how fans religiously follow them.
Manny is a great salesman with an impressive staff, so anyone he accepts a commitment from this early in the cycle is definitely someone he's confident about.
I love the staff's enthusiasm and willingness to recruit many geographic areas.
JasonEvans
Host, The Duke Basketball Roundup
Yeah, I saw this image and was like... "what is happening here?!!??"
This would be like if Khaman Maluach listed a final five of Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, GLeague, and Boston College.
I don't mean to be stupid but is Duke football the equivalent of Boston College basketball or the GLeague?Yeah, I saw this image and was like... "what is happening here?!!??"
This would be like if Khaman Maluach listed a final five of Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, GLeague, and Boston College.
You also have to wonder if the Ohio St., Alabama, ND, and Wisc coaches are thinking: Duke?? WTF??Yeah, I saw this image and was like... "what is happening here?!!??"
This would be like if Khaman Maluach listed a final five of Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, GLeague, and Boston College.
chrishoke
Member
To quote a great man, "Hell yes it's Duke Football!"
Predictive value of stars.
To extend a decade after high school, you could look at the 49ers and Chiefs and start counting. Or you could do what I did and plagiarize someone else’s research, though the reference is below.
Among likely offensive starters for the 49ers, average high school star rating: 3.27
For the Chiefs? 2.64
For the 2 teams, the only offensive skill player with a 4 or 5 star rating is Christian McCaffrey.
The article also points out that every NFL team is populated largely with 3 star players. This is partly due to the reality that there are 50 times as many 3 stars as 5 stars every year. There are also 10 times as many 4 stars as 5 stars. Adjusted for those numbers, 5 star players are 70 times more likely to be first round draft picks, but teams are composed of way more than 1st rounders.
Defenses have moderately higher average star scores (around 3.3 for both teams), and the players are more likely to have gotten the 4 or 5 stars (though there are unstarred players dotting both lineups.
I’d add that just about the only non-kicker Duke player in the past decade who was a 2 star recruit was Daniel Jones.
This article argues that the reason that defensive stars are a little higher iis that defensive players are more athletic (or more athletic as 16 year olds?) and that offensive linemen and quarterbacks have to mature significantly before they’re ready for the nfl—and it’d be hard to predict how people are going to mature. This is in contrast to, say, a cornerback, where an expert might be able to watch a 16 year old and see whether they have the sheer athleticism that allows them to cover the fastest guy on the other team while running backwards.
But, back to us: these ratings are probably relevant, but also absurd. Nobody can watch more than 1 hs football game per week. They all play at the same time on Friday. Tape is nice but edited, and most future nfl players are playing against substandard competition most of the time (or at least substandard compared to them).
And we saw the basic reality this past year: Clemson, Florida State, and Notre Dame are all teams with about 55 players who were 4 or 5 star players (way more than any NFL team), while we have a few guys who were bestowed 4 stars—yet we played essentially even with all three of those teams (even as in a couple of breaks, the other team would win).
Anyway, here’s the article:
https://atozsports.com/kansas-city/...-were-rated-as-high-school-football-recruits/
To extend a decade after high school, you could look at the 49ers and Chiefs and start counting. Or you could do what I did and plagiarize someone else’s research, though the reference is below.
Among likely offensive starters for the 49ers, average high school star rating: 3.27
For the Chiefs? 2.64
For the 2 teams, the only offensive skill player with a 4 or 5 star rating is Christian McCaffrey.
The article also points out that every NFL team is populated largely with 3 star players. This is partly due to the reality that there are 50 times as many 3 stars as 5 stars every year. There are also 10 times as many 4 stars as 5 stars. Adjusted for those numbers, 5 star players are 70 times more likely to be first round draft picks, but teams are composed of way more than 1st rounders.
Defenses have moderately higher average star scores (around 3.3 for both teams), and the players are more likely to have gotten the 4 or 5 stars (though there are unstarred players dotting both lineups.
I’d add that just about the only non-kicker Duke player in the past decade who was a 2 star recruit was Daniel Jones.
This article argues that the reason that defensive stars are a little higher iis that defensive players are more athletic (or more athletic as 16 year olds?) and that offensive linemen and quarterbacks have to mature significantly before they’re ready for the nfl—and it’d be hard to predict how people are going to mature. This is in contrast to, say, a cornerback, where an expert might be able to watch a 16 year old and see whether they have the sheer athleticism that allows them to cover the fastest guy on the other team while running backwards.
But, back to us: these ratings are probably relevant, but also absurd. Nobody can watch more than 1 hs football game per week. They all play at the same time on Friday. Tape is nice but edited, and most future nfl players are playing against substandard competition most of the time (or at least substandard compared to them).
And we saw the basic reality this past year: Clemson, Florida State, and Notre Dame are all teams with about 55 players who were 4 or 5 star players (way more than any NFL team), while we have a few guys who were bestowed 4 stars—yet we played essentially even with all three of those teams (even as in a couple of breaks, the other team would win).
Anyway, here’s the article:
https://atozsports.com/kansas-city/...-were-rated-as-high-school-football-recruits/
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martydoesntfoul
Member
Excellent. William Felder is now a 2025 hard commit—a cornerback with P5 offers from Louisville and BC.
Like a lot of juniors, he hasn’t been rated yet.
Like 100% of the 3 guys who have committed to Duke in February, he’s from Philadelphia.
Since NIL is expensive and we’ve identified our geographic focus, I suggest the coaches just get a monthly pass to Philly’s extensive system of trains and trolleys:
https://www.septakey.org/info/fare-products
cato
Member
Honest question: how many BC players are going to play football on Sunday?
Honest hope: Noah Gray gets a big catch or two. I’ll be dancing and yelling if he gets a TD.
JasonEvans
Host, The Duke Basketball Roundup
My point was that BC does not ordinarily compete for the kids who are considering Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, or the G-League.
Just like Duke does not ordinarily swim with ND, Alabama, and Ohio State when we are recruiting.
The times they are a changing.