Wake Forest Football: Recruiting Recap

The regular season is a little over 2 months away, and as we get closer and closer to the first game against Presbyterian I fully expect that the number of scholarships being offered by the staff will continue to dwindle. While the number of offers is certainly lower than the last couple of months, the staff is definitely still busy and always looking for players that can give Wake Forest a competitive edge of the competition. Here is a quick rundown of the players that received offers this week:

Jarvis Ware is a 5-11, 170lb corner back out of Wekiva High School in Apopka, Florida. He is rated as a 3-star prospect and the 91st best corner in the 2018 recruiting class. He holds offers from Oregon, USF, Virginia Tech, USA, Campbell, Tulane, UCF, and FAU. 247’s crystal ball predicts that Ware will sign with Oregon. Adding talent and depth to the secondary would really help the Deacs in the future, so hopefully Clawson can flip him.

Michel Dukes is a 5-10, 190lb running back at First Baptist Church School in Charleston, South Carolina. He is a member of the 2019 class and has not been rated yet. Because he plays in a conference of independent schools, Dukes could be overlooked despite running for over 2200 yards and 40 touchdowns last season. He currently only holds 1 competing football offer from Georgia State. It should be noted that Dukes is also a pretty good basketball player, but if he chooses to play football in college, the Deacs should be in a good position to land him in 2019.

Tahj Brown is a 6-3, 255lb linebacker/defensive end out of Donaldsonville High School in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. He is rated as a 3-star prospect and 44th best DE in the 2018 recruiting class by 247sports. He currently holds offers from Kansas, Kansas State, Mississippi State, Houston, Marshall, Memphis, NC State, SMU and Tulane. The crystal ball predicts that he will sign with Kansas.

Drake Thomas is a 6-0, 225lb linebacker out of Heritage High School in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He is a member of the 2019 recruiting class and is not yet rated. In his sophomore season he racked up 126 tackles, 5 sacks and 2 interceptions. He holds competing offers from App State, Charlotte, Duke, ECU, Houston, Marshall, Maryland, Michigan, NC State, UNC, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech. There is certainly a lot of interest in Thomas already, especially from the state of North Carolina.

Michael Jurgens is a 6-5, 275lb offensive tackle out of Damascus High School in Damascus, Maryland. He is rated as a 3-star prospect in the 2018 recruiting class by rivals. He currently has competing offers from Air Force, App State, Army, ECU, Louisville, Marshall, Navy, Rutgers, and Syracuse. The Deacs have shown in the past just how important the offensive line is to being able to win football games, so adding talent to the trenches would be great for Wake Forest.

Jacobi Bellazin is a 5-10, 170lb wide receiver out of Baker High School in Baker, Louisiana. Despite being in the 2020 recruiting class (current Freshman), he already holds 16 offers, notably from Georgia, TCU, Kansas State, Maryland, Ohio State, Purdue, Utah, and Virginia Tech. He is not rated yet, but with so many big name schools interested this early on, he’s obviously pretty talented. Unfortunately for Wake Forest, Bellazin committed to TCU on April 1st, long before we ever even offered him a scholarship. If nothing changes, we will likely not see Bellazin in the black and gold in 2020.