{"id":277,"date":"2010-09-27T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T22:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsports.us\/?p=277"},"modified":"2010-09-27T15:41:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-27T22:41:00","slug":"final-amato-recruits-playing-key-role-in-n-c-states-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=277","title":{"rendered":"Final Amato recruits playing key role in N.C. State’s run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

So how good was Tom O\u2019Brien\u2019s first recruiting class? In hindsight, pretty strong \u2013 especially considering that Chuck Amato\u2019s future was in question much of that 2006 season, and O\u2019Brien came to N.C. State late and had to scramble for players.<\/div>\n
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What\u2019s interesting, when you look back, is that Amato\u2019s final recruits were critical to State\u2019s current success. So despite what you think of Amato and his ways, he actually found some real talent for the red and white. And O\u2019Brien and his staff also managed to find players who would be essential to this 4-0 start.<\/div>\n
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O\u2019Brien signed 22 players in February of 2007 for his first class. Of those, 12 had committed to Amato\u2019s staff and 10 committed after O\u2019Brien arrived in Raleigh, according to charts on PackPride.com.<\/div>\n
Here\u2019s how those two groups have played out:<\/div>\n
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Amato commitments:<\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Current starters:  <\/span><\/b>QB Russell Wilson, TE George Bryan, DE J.R. Sweezy, Safety Justin Byers.<\/div>\n
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Total number remaining in program: Seven of 12<\/div>\n
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O\u2019Brien commitments:<\/b><\/div>\n
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Current starters:<\/b> LB Audie Cole, LT Jake Vermiglio, DE Jeff Rieskamp, P Jeff Ruiz.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Total number remaining in program: Seven of 10.<\/div>\n
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A new coaching staff can often look for a different type of player than the previous staff, so players who committed to one group of coaches don\u2019t always fare well with the new regime. Given that, State has received fare production out of Amato\u2019s final group. Seven of 12 are still in the program, a reasonable number. Bryan is an All-ACC level players, and of course N.C. State wouldn\u2019t be where it is without Wilson.<\/div>\n
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Add to that the fact that O\u2019Brien\u2019s staff found some quality players as well and what you have is the foundation of this year\u2019s winning team.<\/div>\n
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By the way, that class had only one four-star recruit, receiver Jay Smith of Norfolk, Va., who committed to Amato. And Smith is not on the two-deep for Saturday\u2019s showdown with Virginia Tech. Bryan was a three-star recruit and Wilson, Cole, Vermiglio, Rieskamp, Sweezy and Byers were all two-star recruits.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So how good was Tom O\u2019Brien\u2019s first recruiting class? In hindsight, pretty strong \u2013 especially considering that Chuck Amato\u2019s future was in question much of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}