School By School Select School Boston College Clemson Duke Florida State Georgia Tech Maryland Miami NC State North Carolina Virginia VA Tech Wake Forest Coming In August! A New And Improved ACCSports.com Hey! What's The PooP? Wake Forest Shines In Academic Report FREE! Become an ACC Insider! Join our e-list today!

By John Anderson
ACCSports.com
May 6, 2008

Herman Davidson
Height: 6-2 Weight: 205
Position: Safety
Long Beach (CA) Poly
North Carolina

All the pepper had not yet taken leave from Bill Clinton’s "salt and pepper" hair. Michael Jordan’s comeback season ended in style, with an NBA-record 70 regular-season victories and the fourth of his six NBA titles. The average nationwide price for a gallon of gas was $1.36. Chris Keldorf signed to play football for North Carolina.

What do these things have in common? The year was 1996. And that was the last time the UNC football program managed to sign a California product to a national letter of intent.

Until now.

Herman Davidson, a hard-hitting 6-2, 205-pound safety from celebrated Polytechnic High in Long Beach, became the first Golden State product to sign with the Tar Heels since Keldorf did the same a dozen years ago.

In Davidson, the Tar Heels snared one half of what was quite possibly the best safety tandem west of the Mississippi. Miami-bound Vaughn Telemaque was Davidson’s pain-inducing partner in Poly’s secondary.

You could say that Davidson’s stock rose quickly, since he went from an afterthought, part-time player as a junior to one of the most sought-after prep safeties in the nation in less than a year.

His coming-out party occurred during Poly’s visit to Glenville High in Ohio in September. Early in the game, Davidson hit one receiver so hard that he knocked him out cold. Later in the same game, another Glenville receiver grew "alligator arms" when he had the chance to snag a game-tying touchdown pass over the middle.

Such is the impact of a safety with a reputation for leaving opposing backs and receivers looking for the license plate of the truck that just ran over them.

Another key moment for Davidson occurred in the 2007 playoffs, with his Jackrabbits clinging desperately to a 2-0 lead late in the game. With the opposition poised to score a touchdown and win in the final seconds, there was a fumble, and Davidson pounced on the ball. That saved his team’s season, and Poly advanced to claim the sectional championship the following week.

So how exactly did a player of Davidson’s caliber manage to escape the grasp of schools that weren’t 3,000 miles from home, as is UNC?

"UNC was one of the first schools to offer Herman, and they just stayed after him, with both Coach (John) Blake and Coach (Charlie) Williams coming all the way out here for in-home visits," Poly coach Raul Lara said. "That relationship they built was the difference."

In fact, Davidson had racked up offers from UNC, Michigan and Miami before he received his first offer from a Pac-10 school, Arizona State. Then came offers from California and San Diego State.

Although he took official visits to Michigan, Cal and Miami, with all three coming after his November voyage to Chapel Hill, none was able to trump the persistent Carolina staff.

As for the obvious question of whether or not his two stud safeties ever considered being a "package deal" and continuing their defensive partnership by attending the same school, Lara said that was never seriously considered.

In the years ahead, UNC might want to stay in touch with Lara and his staff, since Poly has a reputation for churning out great athletes, and safeties in particular. Former Pro Bowl safety Mark Carrier and current New York Jets safety Darnell Bing are on Poly’s list of distinguished gridiron alumni.

The broader list of well-known Poly alumni also includes actress Cameron Diaz, rapper Snoop Dog, and baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn.

Eteyen Edet
Height: 6-1 Weight: 235
Position: Linebacker
Fort Washington (MD) Friendly
Maryland

If boxing has the moniker of the "sweet science," maybe college football recruiting can be called the "inexact science."

For every Peyton Manning or Anquan Boldin, who harness their athletic potential and re-write the NCAA record books on their way to NFL riches, there is an Adrian McPherson or an Andre Reese.

The latter two players, after being named "Mr. Football" for the state of Florida earlier in this decade, have not had the kind of success most predicted for them. At last check, McPherson was bouncing around in the Arena Football League. After two years of junior college football and two more at the Division II level, Reese has fallen from the gridiron landscape completely.

Enter Eteyen Edet, a 6-1, 235-pound diamond in the rough who signed in February to play for Maryland.

Because of paperwork and procedural issues after his transfer from Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, where he played as a junior, Edet was able to play in only seven games during his senior season, which was his only year at Friendly High in Maryland.

As it turned out, that was a good thing, or make that a very good thing, for Friendly’s opponents.

In spite of that limited playing time, Edet still managed to amass an eye-popping 110 tackles, 5.5 sacks, two interceptions and two forced fumbles, to go along with one fumble recovery.

Not bad for a kid who, less than a year ago, was hoping only to get his GED, and who harbored no ambitions of even attending college, much less being the subject of a recruiting donnybrook that would result in a four-year free ride to the college of his choice.

Edet, who traces his family’s roots to Nigeria but who grew up in New York (Staten Island), was forced to leave Fork Union after only one season because he no longer could afford to attend the school, which has produced the likes of Heisman Trophy winners Vinny Testaverde and Eddie George.

That’s when Edet thought his pursuit of playing big-time college football had hit a big-time dead end, since he had no intentions of returning to his former home turf in Staten Island.

Then Edet’s aunt, Victoria Bassey, who resides in the Fort Washington area, stepped in and agreed to allow Edet to live with her.

After Edet corrected the misconceptions of the Friendly coaches (who initially mistook him for a parent as he watched practice in September), ironed out his eligibility issues and became part of the Friendly team, he began to haunt opposing offenses. That led to a rather spirited battle for his college services.

Edet ultimately received scholarship offers from Michigan State, Pittsburgh, Ohio and Louisville, in addition to Maryland.

Edet chose the Terps, based partly on the relationship he built with the Maryland coaches. Proximity to family also helped. His aunt and his mother, who will need to drive only three hours from New York, will be able to watch him play in College Park.

Although Edet’s score of 16 on the ACT once caused worries about his academic eligibility, his 3.4 GPA is expected to make him a qualifier on the NCAA’s sliding scale. Edet likely will fit in well with fellow Maryland signee Masengo Kabongo when it comes to discussions of world literature. Edet lists his favorite work as MacBeth, while Kabongo prefers the heroic epic Beowulf.

Josh Gehres
Height: 6-3 Weight: 190
Position: Wide Receiver
Tallahassee (FL) Lincoln
Florida State

As legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant used to say (with apologies to English professors the world over), "dance with the girl that brung ya."

Actually, given his home-spun demeanor, and his own occasional malapropisms, that quote just as easily could have come from legendary Florida State coach Bobby Bowden.

No matter, because in this case the end result is the same. Once again, the Seminoles have landed a prospect from nearby Lincoln High, which is located just five miles to the west of their Tallahassee campus.

This time, it is the relatively anonymous Josh Gehres. A lanky, 6-3, 190-pound wide receiver, he has a major-college pedigree, but his current strength and skills need much work if he is to perform up to the lofty standards of big-time ACC football.

The time to work on getting bigger, faster and stronger won’t be an issue for Gehres, whose grandfather played football at FSU, since he agreed to a "greyshirt" offer that will allow him to do some things with the team this year without starting his eligibility clock. As long as he takes fewer than 12 credits (the magic number that starts the NCAA’s five-year clock ticking) this fall, he will be able enter the program fully in January as a true freshman.

Although he isn’t coming out of perennial power Lincoln with quite the fanfare of other former Trojans, such as one-time FSU stars Antonio Cromartie and Craphonso Thorpe, Gehres nonetheless attracted more than his fair share of interest from major programs across the country.

In the end, Gehres received scholarship offers from Iowa, Iowa State, Memphis, Illinois, Michigan State, South Florida and Utah, in addition to FSU.

According to his high school coach, Kyle Rice, it came down to a decision among Iowa, Memphis and FSU. Gehres visited each officially before announcing his commitment to the Seminoles on Jan. 28.

"Both Iowa and Memphis came through here and recruited Josh hard, and we have a great relationship with all those guys," Rice said. "But in the end, Josh wound up following his heart, and he wanted to play for the same school his granddaddy played for."

Although Gehres caught only 29 passes during his senior season, he turned those receptions into more than 1,100 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. Despite the fact that he doesn’t have great "football measure-ables," as the recruiters say, his coach said he has the intangibles recruiters love.

"Josh is an extremely unselfish player, and he’s a great blocker who isn’t afraid to go over the middle for a pass and take the hit," Rice said. "There will be a definite speed difference in D-I football, but with his ability to pick up offensive terminology as quickly as he does, he’ll be fine."

The latter attribute likely has something to do with Gehres’ intelligence, which helps him in the classroom as well as on the field. In fact, Gehres probably is one of the few major college football signees whose 40-yard dash time (4.55) and GPA (4.5) are about equal.

"Josh was attracting interest from all the Ivys," Rice said of his second-team all-state performer. "But in the end, he was a Seminole at heart."

Gavin Hardin
Height: 6-4 Weight: 240
Position: Linebacker
Jackson (TN) Central-Merry
Miami

Everybody knows about the stud linebacker prospect signed by Miami coach Randy Shannon to assist in rebuilding a defense that lost its mojo somewhere between Ray Lewis and Tavares Gooden.

His name is Arthur, um, his name is…

Gavin Hardin.

ACC fans across the country, along with opposing offensive coordinators, may become very familiar with Hardin in the years to come.

Although he won’t arrive in Coral Gables with quite the same fanfare as the above-referenced Arthur Brown, who enrolled at UM in January, at 6-4 and 240 pounds Hardin possesses the size-speed combination that excites coaches.

"If you run at him, he’ll blow it up," said Cedric Hampton, Hardin’s coach at Central-Merry High in Tennessee. "And if you run away from him, he’ll chase it down."

Had it not been for the firing of a former Miami assistant coach, Hardin may have been chasing down running backs in the SEC instead of the ACC. Ed Orgeron, who coached superstars such as Cortez Kennedy and Russell Maryland as a UM assistant from 1988-92, was fired as the head coach at Mississippi in November. Orgeron had been at the helm for the first winless SEC season (0-8) for the Rebels since 1982.

Hardin initially had committed to play at Mississippi in February 2007, after his junior season, but in the wake of Orgeron’s dismissal, Hardin opened up his recruiting again. He eventually received scholarship offers from Tennessee and Kentucky. UNC and Vanderbilt also pursued Hardin, but neither extended an offer.

Notwithstanding Orgeron’s exit, and his subsequent replacement by Houston Nutt as the Rebels’ new coach, Hardin professed into mid-January that he remained a solid pledge for Mississippi.

Between then and the day before national signing day, though, Miami came on strong in its recruitment of Hardin.

"Gavin took his visit to Miami in January, and then Coach (Joe) Pannunzio came up here to visit him," Hampton said. "I think it was the home visit that sealed it for Miami."

His coach also indicated that Hardin grew up watching the Hurricanes on TV, and that he may have wanted to go there all along, but he had to wait until the late stages of the recruiting process for Miami to make an offer.

Some analysts rated Hardin the top 2008 prospect in Tennessee, ahead of fellow Miami linebacker signee Antonio Harper. Even though his team struggled to a 2-8 season in 2007, Hardin still was accorded honors for his on-field excellence, after registering 80 tackles and five sacks during his senior year.

Hardin was named to the West squad for the first annual Toyota All-Star game, which featured the best players from the Volunteer State. Hardin shined in the contest, racking up 10 tackles to go along with an interception.

Tobias Palmer
Height: 5-10 Weight: 165
Position: Tailback
Pittsboro (NC) Northwood
N.C. State

March 27, 2007, was more than a year ago. The time between then and now flew by for most people.

But the 10 months or so between that date and college football’s national signing day for 2008, which was Feb. 6, represented an eternity for many involved in the wild world of football recruiting.

Tobias Palmer, though, was different from most prospects in this regard. That had to please N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien.

Palmer, from nearby Northwood High, just 30 miles west of the N.C. State campus, committed on March 27, 2007, to the school he dreamed of representing since his days as a Pop Warner player. Given his local roots, and his love for the Wolfpack, the commitment was no major surprise.

The bigger story was that Palmer did not waver in his commitment to the Pack. He didn’t flinch when coach Chuck Amato, who was responsible for initiating his recruitment, was sacked in favor of O’Brien. And Palmer held to his word even though State finished 5-7 last fall, 3-5 in the ACC.

There might have been one major reason N.C. State was able to hang on to the first player to commit to its 2008 recruiting class, despite the adversity.

"About a week or so after he was hired, Coach O’Brien was here at school talking to me and picking up game films of Tobias," Northwood coach Bill Hall said. "He, along with Coach (Mike) Archer, made sure they got the message across: They still very much wanted Tobias to be a part of their team in 2008."

In spite of his slight, 165-pound frame, there was a lot for O’Brien and his staff to like about Palmer.

As a sophomore, he amassed 349 all-purpose yards and five touchdowns in one game. That included a thrilling, 99-yard dash in which Palmer had the opportunity to flash his sprinter’s (10.6 seconds in the 100 meters) speed. The fact that he rang up such gaudy numbers was made even more impressive given that he accomplished the feat against the defending state champions.

"That was sort of his coming-out party," Hall said.

Palmer went on to establish new single-season school rushing records in each of his three varsity seasons, with 1,420 yards as a sophomore, 1,577 as a junior, and 1,596 as a senior. He also scored 28 touchdowns in each of his first two seasons, and 25 more as a senior.

Numbers like that can open a lot of coaches’ eyes, especially when those eyes belong to the coaches of a team with a running game that was more like a crawling game in 2007.

The Pack averaged an anemic 3.0 yards per carry and 89 yards per game last season. Both numbers ranked above only Duke in the ACC.

But Hall said irrespective of the staggering numbers Palmer registered, and because Palmer remained steadfast in his commitment to the Wolfpack for almost a year before signing day, few schools did more than acknowledge a passing interest in his star runner.

"Tobias let it be known that N.C. State was it for him," Hall said. "And for the most part, the other schools respected that decision."

Riko Smalls
Height: 6-1 Weight: 190
Position: Quarterback
Plano (TX) East
Virginia

Here’s the Merriam-Webster definition of confidence: a feeling or consciousness of one’s powers.

Apparently, Virginia signee Riko Smalls has a ton of it.

Smalls, a 6-1, 190-pound dual-threat quarterback from Plano East High in Texas, knew he was good enough to be a signal-caller at the Division I-A level, even if many of the schools that had offered him scholarships early in the recruiting process did not.

One school wanted Smalls as a safety. Another penciled him in as an "athlete," which is football-speak for "we’re not sure where to put you."

So Smalls bided his time, waiting for the right offer to come along from a school that wanted him only as a quarterback.

Finally, in late January, that offer came from Virginia. Al Groh paid Smalls a visit at his high school, and the UVa coach came away with an extremely favorable impression.

Smalls accepted the offer the day before he took his official visit to Charlottesville on Feb. 1, and he subsequently signed on Feb. 6.

Groh had good reason to be in search of a quarterback that late in the recruiting process.

On Jan. 17, the school announced that starter Jameel Sewell was one of four UVa players who would not be enrolled at the school for the spring semester. Given that only one of the five quarterbacks on his projected 2008 roster (Peter Lalich) had ever attempted a pass in a collegiate game, Groh needed to sign at least one signal-caller in his 2008 class.

Smalls may not have prototypical size for a big-time QB, but he is fast (4.4 in the 40), and he had tremendous success running a spread offense at Plano East. There were some similarities to what the Cavs ran with Sewell in the game.

During his senior season, despite playing the last six games with a broken toe, Smalls completed 205 of 366 passing attempts for 2,989 yards and 33 TDs, while throwing only 11 interceptions.

Plano East coach Johnny Ringo said Smalls is well-prepared for success at the next level.

"Our playbook is pretty thick, and we play in the 5A (largest schools) classification," Ringo said. "So the experience he gained here, along with his natural intelligence and knowledge of the game, should allow Riko to fit in nicely with what Coach Groh does at Virginia."

Some of the other schools that extended scholarship offers to Smalls were Wake Forest (which wanted him as a safety), Louisiana Tech, Tulsa, Air Force, Colorado State and Georgia Tech.

Ringo said it came down to a battle among Wake Forest, Louisiana Tech and Virginia, with the Cavaliers being the only BCS-level school that wanted Smalls at his chosen position of QB.

Besides his need to bolster the Cavs’ depth at quarterback, one incident that took place while Groh was on his visit to Plano East may have spurred him to extend the offer to Smalls.

According to Ringo, the two were in the coach’s office, drawing up plays on a whiteboard, with Smalls going through his progressions and Groh countering each one with a different defense.

"No matter what he did, Coach Groh could-n’t stump Riko," Ringo said. "I think he knew right there he wanted Riko to play at Virginia."