Owens Commits To Duke
by Andy Hilton, recruit757
Reggie Owens (Photo: Andy Hilton/recruit757)
In what should be the first of manyDivision I commitments from Ocean Lakes this season, Reggie Owens is the man to break the ice. Owens (SR 6-0 190) is a well-muscled and athletic DB who’ll be a great fit in the ACC. Duke nabbed a commitment from Owens after he had narrowed his choices down to Duke, East Carolina and Marshall. The Ocean Lakes defender had also claimed interest from Virginia, West Virginia, UConn, Richmond, Delaware and Old Dominion.
Duke is a program on the rise in the ACC. The arrival of Head Coach David Cutcliffe has sparked a winning attitude and a new level of fan interest in the program. Of course, Duke also offers significant academic advantages,which makes the opportunity to learn, play in a rising program and potentially play early attractive for Reggie.
Owens’ decision comes on the eve of football season kicking off. Ocean Lakes travels to Princess Anne tonight in what should be an interesting matchup, although recent games have been lopsided in the Dolphins’ favor. According to Ocean Lakes’ Head Coach Chris Scott, Owens was ready to get the decision out of the way and move on to playing his senior season.
Owens is a true student-athlete, carrying a 3.2 GPA at Ocean Lakes while excelling on the field for the Dolphins. He had eight interceptions in his junior season including two returns for touchdowns. You can see highlights of Reggie in action against Bayside in his recruit757 highlight reel here.
Ocean Lakes fans should still expect Lafonte Thourogood, Josh Mann, Chaz Lowery and Lamar Neal to make major college commitments this fall. The program is loaded full of talent and should be a recruiting stop for many colleges scouring the region for college ready talent.
- Andy Hilton
Connor Mewbourne – FC’s Lineman BCS Bound?
Connor Mewbourne (Photo: Andy Hilton)
Connor Mewbourne is on track to be one of the most highly recruited linemen since Brandon Noble graduated from First Colonial in 1992 and went on to play for Penn State, the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins. Mewbourne (OG 6-4 270) is readying for a senior year that could vault his Patriot team back into the playoffs for the first time in ten years.
For those that don’t remember, First Colonial’s last trip to the playoffs was in 2000 when they finished the regular season 8-2, but couldn’t get past the Bayside Marlins. They lost the regular season game 18-9 and lost the playoff opener (which was then the regional semi-final) by a score of 27-0 to Bayside. None of the current Patriots have played post-season High School Football. Mewbourne and the 2010 FC squad want to change that.
Along with prepping for his senior season, Connor Mewbourne has been busy with colleges visiting. The evaluation period for college coaches just ended and Mewbourne has seen more than his share of colleges come calling. I was able to ask him about the colleges that have visited and who he’s most interested in.
“I really like Duke right now and Stanford sent me an invite to their camp (this summer) which I plan on going out for. I’m planning on going to Senior camps this summer at Connecticut, Maryland and Duke,” said Connor. “Tennessee came in to see me. I want to try to camp at Ohio State, I’m going to try to plan that out. It’s going to be a bit of a long shot.”
Mewbourne went on to explain that with the exception of Stanford, he’d kind of like to stay close to home. ACC schools are holding most of his interest. “I’d like to stay close to home, but then I’ve got Stanford (on my list). That’s all about grades. I have a 3.3 GPA with a class load that’s heavy in AP classes.”
Mewbourne doesn’t have any official offers yet, but with his size, skill and grades, he has the look of a player that would make a fine fit at Duke, Stanford, UVA or Georgia Tech. Don’t look for an early commitment from Connor. He’ll take a trip to Stanford and perhaps even Ohio State. From there it will be a decision between staying close to home or going to a “dream school” further away. Either way, it seems that First Colonial’s star lineman could be BCS bound to a school with high academics.
Maury High School Update
Coach Quinerly at Maury High School updated me today on a few items related to the Maury Football program….
Class of 2010 UVA signee Stephen Lawe (OL/DL 6-5 270) has been named to the East team for the VHSCA All-Star Football game. It’s quite an honor to play in the annual All-Star game. This year Group AA and Group AAA players will be combined so the game will feature players from Divisions three through six. Fans will get to see Bay Rivers players on the same team with players from the Peninsula, Southeastern, Eastern and Beach Districts. The full rosters for the All-Star game should be announced soon.
George Murphy (Class of 2010, OL/DL 6-1 265) has changed his college of choice. Murphy was once headed to George Mason on an academic scholarship and had decided to play club football at GMU. He has now changed his plans and will attend Chowan to play Division II football for the Hawks.
Neal Anthony-Hale (Class of 2011, RB/LB 5-11 185) has seen his recruitment heat up. Hale had shown early interest in playing for William and Mary, but is now in touch with Virginia and Duke. It seems as though Duke is making quite a push to get an early commitment from Hale. His work on the field and in the classroom put him in good position to be a Blue Devil signee by this time next year.
Lastly, Coach Quinerly is hosting his annual football camp for middle school and high school youth during Spring Break. The camp will run from 1-4PM on April 6 and 7. Contact Coach Q at Maury High School for more details.
Duke Football Hires New Recruiting Coordinator
Duke Head Coach David Cutcliffe announced the hiring of Recruiting Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach Matt Lubick yesterday.
Lubick and Cutcliffe almost crossed paths at Ole Miss. Cutcliffe was head coach there from 1998 to 2005 and Lubick was wide receivers coach at Ole Miss in 2005 and 2006. Lubick comes to Duke from Arizona State where he was recruting coordinator and safties coach. Lubick’s experience is vast for a young coach and his work ethic is well regarded. In addition to stints at Ole Miss and Arizona State, Lubick has coached at Oregon State, San Jose State and Colorado State.
Lubick’s father is Sonny Lubick, a coaching legend at Colorado State. The elder Lubick coached at CSU from 1993 to 2007. CSU renamed the field in Fort Collins “Sonny Lubick Field” in his honor.
Matt Lubick has coached and recruited some significantly talented players in his coaching career. Perhaps his most talented recruit was Dexter McCluster, an all-purpose back who just finished his career for the Rebs. McCluster shined in his senior season, accumulating 1169 rushing yards, 520 receiving yards and a total of 11 touchdowns for Ole Miss last season. McCluster was the Cotton Bowl Offensive MVP in both 2009 and 2010, and finished second only to Deuce McAllister in all-purpose yards over a career for Ole Miss.
Coach Lubick replaces Coach Scottie Montgomery who left the Blue Devils’ staff to take a position with the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is the first East Coast job for Lubick. He’s sure to find the talent here to his liking.
ACC Out-of-Conference Schedule Peaks and Valleys
There are different philosophies to OOC scheduling. Some programs like to challenge themselves, figuring that a vigorous schedule will have them ready for the postseason. Other programs would prefer to schedule OOC as lightly as possible, hoping for easier wins and easier bowl qualification or perhaps even a shot at an undefeated season.
Today we’re going to look at the ACC. Each team plays a varied and somewhat unbalanced conference schedule of five games in division and three games against teams from the other division. Beyond that, everyone schedules four games out-of-conference.
Boston College takes an easier road in 2010. They open at home against Weber State and Kent State, get Notre Dame at home on October 2 and they finish their season on November 27 on the road at Syracuse. The first two games should be easy wins, Notre Dame is a rivalry game that could be far more interesting this year with new Notre Dame coach Mike Kelly at the helm for the Irish. Syracuse could be a win for the Eagles, but it’s not a gimme game.
Clemson has a mixed bag of OOC games. They start off with home games against North Texas and Presbyterian, then go on the road at Auburn. The Tiger-Tiger game will be a stiff test for Clemson. After their ACC games, Clemson closes out with in-state rival South Carolina.
Florida State scheduled quite a mix of teams this year. They have a warm up against Samford, then they dive head first into competitive games against Oklahoma and BYU. Florida State closes the season against Florida on November 27. It sure beats opening the season against the Gators.
Maryland has a Labor Day opener against Navy, then folow that up with games against Morgan State, West Virginia and FIU. The Terps play all of their OOC games right out of the gate.
NC State opens somewhat softly with OOC games against Western Carolina and UCF. The Wolfpack then get a Thursday night ESPN game against Cincinnati and play in-state rival ECU midseason on October 16.
Closing out the Atlantic Division, Wake Forest opens with Presbyterian on September 2. The Deacons go to Stanford on September 18, host Navy on October 9 and close out the season at Vanderbilt on November 27. Wake typically schedules games against higher academic schools and this year’s schedule doesn’t disappoint.
Moving on to the Coastal Division, Duke opens with Elon, then hosts Alabama on September 18. Duke has also scheduled the east coast Service Academies. They’ll host Army on September 25 and go to Annapolis on October 30.
Georgia Tech opens softly with South Carolina State, travels to Kansas on September 11, hosts Middle Tennessee on October 16 then finishes out the season with their traditional game against Georgia.
Miami gets Florida A&M on Thursday, September 2 to open the season. They then travel to Ohio State for a barnburner on September 11. The Hurricanes have a bye week, but go right back on the road for a Thursday night game at Pitt on September 23. After those ambitious games, the Canes have their ACC schedule then close out against USF, who could be a surprise in 2010 under new Head Coach Skip Holtz.
UNC gets LSU right off the bat. They follow that with a game at Rutgers on September 25 and then host East Carolina the following week. The Tarheels finish their OOC schedule with a home game against William and Mary on October 30. Since William and Mary shocked Duke last year, don’t expect the Heels to let down that week.
UVA has an intriguing opener against Richmond. The Cavaliers opened against Richmond last year and were stunned in that game, which very likely contributed to the demise of former Head Coach Al Groh. UVA hired Coach Mike London away from Richmond and he gets to coach his first game against old pal and protege Latrell Scott. UVA then has a game at USC in the second week of the season, plays VMI after a bye week, and takes on Eastern Michigan on October 23. Their bye week would have served them better after the VMI game and before the USC game, but you can’t have everything!
Virginia Tech starts the season on Labor Day Monday in prime time against Boise State at FedEx Field in Washington, DC. Both teams should be ranked in the Top 10 to start the season, so that game should draw a lot of attention. The Hokies then follow that game with an in-state meeting against JMU. In the very next week the Hokies host East Carolina and play their final OOC game against Central Michigan on October 9.
Each team schedules with different strategy in mind. No one has set up a murderous OOC schedule, but there certainly are some spicy out-of-conference games for ACC teams. Take a look at the attached video for the conference’s PR piece regarding this year’s scheduling.
Green Run DE Dean Leans to Cavs
David Dean (Photo: Virginian-Pilot)
David Dean is one of the rising stars of the Beach District. While defensive ends often lack the sex appeal of a blue chip wide receiver or quarterback, college programs need linemen too.
Dean (6-1 270) of Green Run High School is in a good position. Despite his team’s failure to make the playoffs in 2009, he got noticed in his junior year. Green Run High School sent four seniors from the 2010 class off to college scholarships, including RB Dejor Simmons to JMU, DB Zach Dunston to Marshall, DE Jagger Blehm to Old Dominion and DE Jamal Wallace to Duke. Wallace committed early to Duke, but the remaining three committed not long before National Signing Day. That’s good for the football program, and especially good for juniors like Dean.
Colleges come calling often when there’s college ready talent to be harvested. When college coaches are coming in for seniors, you can bet they’re taking an accounting of the juniors that will be “on the block” soon after signing day. Now it’s David Dean’s turn to be noticed.
Dean already has offers from Duke, Louisville, Virginia and West Virginia. All four schools have gotten players from the area and are recruiting regulars in these parts. Duke even nabbed Dean’s teammate Jamal Wallace last season. But Dean has Virginia on his mind.
Dean is the first DE that Virginia has offered for the 2011 class. It doesn’t hurt that Head Coach Mike London is new to the job at UVA and he’s fired up about recruiting The 757. That’s music to David Dean’s ears. The 2010 class for UVA was soft on linemen, so the Cavaliers will need help there in 2011. Morgan Moses was the only blue chip lineman in the 2010 class for Virginia, and he’s an O-Lineman that prepped a year at Fork Union.
Dean has four offers, but more may be on the way. Virginia Tech and North Carolina are also showing interest in Dean, so don’t count them out. It’s early, but it looks like David Dean will have plenty of choices for playing college ball.
Duke Breaks the Ice with First Spring Practice
It’s mid-February and already some college teams are starting to practice. Duke was one of the first to shake off the cobwebs by hitting the field on Sunday. With temperatures in the low 40′s in Durham, Duke football players donned shorts and helmets for a low contact, two hour Valentine’s Day run through.
The biggest story for the Blue Devils is their quarterback situation. They’ve lost Thaddeus Lewis to graduation and their number two QB from last season, Sean Renfree is sidelined after knee surgery. That put the practice in the hands of two first year quarterbacks, Sean Schroder, a redshirt freshman from Laguna Nigel, California and Brandon Connette, a true freshman from Corona, California that enrolled at Duke last month. The spring practice reps will be good for the young quarterbacks, and Renfree is scheduled to return from surgery in time for the start of the 2010 season. Head coach David Cutcliffe was pleased with the results of the practice. Fourteen more practices are planned before the annual Spring Game.
Duke’s annual Spring Game is scheduled for Saturday, March 27 at Wallace Wade Stadium on the campus of Duke University.
Younger Paulus Picks Tribe
#7 Mike Paulus at QB for UNC (AP Photo)
Mike Paulus was ranked as the number four quarterback in the country coming out of high school. Now he’s bringing his game to William and Mary.
You might recognize the name. Older brother Greg played basketball for Duke and went on to play a year of college football for Syracuse this past season. Greg made the move from point guard to quarterback. Mike is making the move from Carolina to the CAA.
UNC seemed like a good fit for Paulus. In three years there (including a redshirt season in 2007), he hasn’t seen much playing time. Now he’s transferring to William and Mary. He’ll benefit from the competitive play in the CAA. William and Mary lost in the National Championship Semifinal for DI-AA football last season. The CAA is the most competitive league at that level, and it’s not going to get any easier next year.
Assuming he wins the starting QB job, Paulus will add to William and Mary’s already potent offense. Up the road in Richmond, USC transfer quarterback Aaron Corp will up the Spiders’ game. Old Dominion’s moving into the CAA after next season and will likely have an uphill battle. The Colonial looks like it will be a competitive league for quite some time.
Click here to watch WAVY’s story about Paulus, reported by Ahmed Fareed.
South Florida and Tennessee Jobs Are a Hot Topic
ECU Coach Skip Holtz
The coaching carousel is spinning out of control now. The Tennessee and USF jobs are now open. National Signing Day is February 3 and these jobs have to be filled pronto. Of course, in order to fill these jobs, someone has to be taken from their current job. What happens next?
For the USF job, Skip Holtz of ECU has been rumored to be the front runner. Holtz has turned ECU into a conference champion and steady bowl team after the Pirates slumped from 2002-04 with a 7-27 record. Holtz arrived in 2005 and has now led the Pirates to four straight bowl games. If Holtz were to depart from ECU, AD Terry Holland would have his hands full trying to fill the position. Equally challenging would be the task of growing the program further. While East Carolina has been elevated by Holtz’ leadership, it may be difficult for a new head coach to build the program into anything more than what it is now without a move up to a BCS conference. Big East membership for ECU has been dreamed about for years, but nothing concrete has developed out of those aspirations as of yet.
USF offers Skip Holtz the opportunity to build off of Jim Leavitt’s success. South Florida has grown considerably since the program’s birth in the 1990’s, but USF still has the challenge of conference championships and BCS bowl berths to work toward.
Texas Coach Will Muschamp
Tennessee is in a completely different situation. Lane Kiffin gave the Vols a one year honeymoon and has abruptly left, taking a significant portion of his staff and part of the 2010 recruiting class with him. Whoever comes in for that job would have to come in quickly and immediately work toward salvaging this year’s recruiting class. Candidates for the position have been bandied about already, and those names include Will Muschamp (defensive coordinator and heir apparent at Texas), Randy Edsall of UConn, and David Cutcliffe of Duke.
Muschamp is the hottest name in the bunch, but he’s already in line for the head coaching position at Texas as soon as Mack Brown decides to step down. The problem for Muschamp is that no one knows when Brown will vacate the job.
Edsall was in the mix for the Notre Dame job, though no one is sure that he wants to leave UConn. Coach Edsall has coached at UConn for eleven seasons now and is a native northeasterner. His recruiting ties to the South are few.
David Cutcliffe has coached in the SEC before, as an assistant at Tennessee and head coach at Ole Miss from 1998 to 2004. His success as a head coach has been minimal. His combined record as a head coach at Ole Miss and Duke is 53-44. Beyond his head coaching experience, Cutcliffe’s claim to fame is that he coached both Eli and Peyton Manning, who now enjoy life as stars in the NFL. ”Cut” has the most southern connections of the three names mentioned, but do the Vols want to see him come back? Is there a bigger name that they have in mind?
The USF and Tennessee jobs will get filled and in turn will create two new openings. The coaching carousel will continue to turn.