Recruiting Rundown: Offers Roll In as Season Begins

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The football season has begun, and while recruiting season has quieted a bit, it's never fully dormant. It's been about a month since I've written anything on the recruiting side of things.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prep Redzone is a scouting site. We may pick up a tidbit of information here and there, but that's not the business we deal in. Instead, I like to use this space to find overarching storylines, highlight colleges that are successfully recruiting North Carolina, or share offers and commitments. Here's our late-August recruiting rundown.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">August 29 Recruiting Rundown</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I haven't touched recruiting since the end of July, when more was happening, and I was putting out a recruiting article every Friday. To start, here's a basic rundown of what's happened in the last month.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">2025s Make August Decisions</h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Several of these have been mentioned elsewhere on the site, but I want to make sure I give each player a shoutout for their commitment.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>New Hough athlete (LB) <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='974827' first='LJ' last='Porter']</strong> kicked things off in early August with a commitment to East Carolina. Since then, he's gotten off to a great start with the Huskies, racking up 10 tackles and two sacks against South Point (SC) to kick off the year.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>That same day, we got a rare early long-snapper commitment, as Pinecrest senior <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1751991' first='Sam' last='Creed']</strong> pledged to Elon. It certainly helps that he has some upside as an offensive lineman as well, but it's mainly a testament to his ability as a snapper. Creed wasn't the only player to commit to the Phoenix in August, either.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tarboro star <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='473838' first='Kamerin' last='McDowell-Moore']</strong> added his name to Elon's lengthy in-state commit list on August 20, joining players like West Carteret QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='870217' first='Tanner' last='Payne']</strong> and JM Robinson OL <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1301238' first='Elijah' last='Shoe']</strong>, who are each sitting well within the FBS range of our rankings. West Charlotte DB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1254427' first='Xavier' last='Porter']</strong> and Mountain Heritage TE <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1665273' first='Cason' last='Jones']</strong> round out the strongest in-state haul among FCS teams.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/whelms21/status/1960073894603153721","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/whelms21/status/1960073894603153721 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>North Raleigh Christian TE <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1737717' first='Marcus' last='Monroe']</strong> committed to Stanford early in the month. He's a high-upside, athletic pass-catcher who should grow as a run-blocker, especially as he goes to a school known for multi-tight end sets. He's the second RDU prospect of the cycle to commit to the Cardinal, joining edge rusher <strong>Kaysaun Eleazer</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One of our first 2027 dominoes fell in early August when Rolesville RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='378957' first='Amir' last='Brown']</strong> committed to North Carolina. There's a long way to go in his recruitment, but this always felt like another possible move in the Rolesville-to-Chapel Hill pipeline.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Northeast Guilford defensive back <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1368142' first='Jeremiah' last='Deese']</strong> committed to Old Dominion, joining edge/tight end <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1663808' first='Malachi' last='Harris']</strong> from Rolesville on the Monarchs' commit list.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cleveland linebacker <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1600424' first='Jaylen' last='King']</strong> shut down his recruitment right before the season, choosing the University of Pennsylvania over several other high-academic offers.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Finally, there was a baseball commitment that our staff thinks could eventually become a multi-sport commitment. Providence quarterback and infielder <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='620328' first='Jackson' last='Debe']</strong> committed to Wingate for baseball earlier in the month. He's battled injuries and hasn't been able to reach his football potential over the last season and a half, but we have him highly ranked. Unless he decides to focus solely on baseball, expect the Wingate football staff--and other teams--to make a late run at him as a quarterback.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">More Offers Roll In</h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It would take 10,000 words to list out every offer dispensed to North Carolina high school players over the last month, but here are a handful that we noticed.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One of the big ones was Scotland RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1858055' first='Mike' last='McLean']</strong> earning a Power Four offer from North Carolina before the season began. We featured him in our first <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2025/08/freshman-friday-episode-1/">"Freshman Friday"</a> piece as a guy not only to watch on the recruiting trail but also on the field as a freshman.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A long-time scouting favorite of ours, Southern Nash linebacker <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='205617' first='Luke' last='Faulkner']</strong> earned an offer from Chowan University earlier this month. He's a big, old-school linebacker who can really improve a team's run defense.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A.L. Brown athlete <strong>Tucker Farabee</strong> earned an offer from Denison College, his second after a July offer from Washington and Lee.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Three key receivers who will see increased workloads as seniors earned early-month offers as South Iredell's <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1654186' first='Brody' last='Hunt']</strong> earned an offer from Bethel College, South Meck's <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1600773' first='Quinn' last='Rucker']</strong> was offered by Bentley University, and West Carteret's <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1581460' first='Jay' last='Murray']</strong> was offered by UNC Pembroke.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lastly, H-Back <strong>Isaiah Townsend</strong> announced his reclassification to 2027 and transfer to Cannon School.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Who did we miss? Keep me updated on recruiting on Twitter (@<a href="https://x.com/whelms21">whelms21)</a></em>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->