Duke Is On a Recruiting Roll, But Is It Historic?

Duke coach David Cutcliffe has had a huge June, getting verbal commitments from 11 prospects from the Class of 2015 since the start of the month. 

Assuming all 11 high schoolers remain on board until signing day (no guarantee) and Cutcliffe doesn’t convince anyone else to come to Durham before end of day Monday (also no guarantee), how does Duke’s June boon rank among best recruiting months? 

Using Scout.com’s commitment database, which has verbal commitment dates for prospects going back to the Class of 2003, we looked at the ACC’s best months. As it turns out, Duke’s June isn’t even the best month for Duke over that span and ranks tenth overall among current ACC teams.

Team

Month

No. of Verbals

Highlights

Louisville

Jan. 2003

20

Amobi Okoye

Virginia Tech

July, 2006

17

Tyrod Taylor, Davon Morgan

Pittsburgh

Jan. 2011

16

Isaac Bennett

Louisville

Jan. 2004

15

Eric Wood, Brian Brohm

Duke

July, 2008

15

Ross Cockrell, Conner Vernon

NC State

June, 2013

15

B.J. Hill, Germaine Pratt

Florida State

Jan. 2004

13

Xavier Lee, Lawrence Timmons

NC State

Jan. 2005

13

Toney Baker

NC State

Jan. 2003

12

Derek Morris

Duke

June, 2014

11

 

Clearly, a sudden flood of recruits doesn’t guarantee an impactful group of college players.  Looking at the average star-rating for the prospects, Duke’s current month ranks near the top in talent level. 

Team

Month

Avg. Stars

Florida State

Jan. 2004

3.23

NC State

June, 2013

3.00

Duke

June, 2014

2.91

NC State

Jan. 2003

2.83

NC State

Jan. 2005

2.77

Virginia Tech

July, 2006

2.65

Pittsburgh

Jan. 2011

2.56

Louisville

Jan. 2003

2.30

Louisville

Jan. 2004

2.27

Duke

July, 2008

2.27

Still, it’s worth keeping in mind that the three recruiting months that brought in the least projected talent were the Duke players that formed the core of last season’s Coastal Division champions, and two Louisville classes that each produced an NFL first-round pick.