Post by Bornthrilla on May 11, 2022 13:54:43 GMT -5
Deion Sanders has helped HBCU football recruiting hit a new high. Is it paying off at NC schools?
Chapel Fowler
The Fayetteville Observer
DURHAM — When North Carolina Central’s Trei Oliver sits down to pitch a high school football recruit and his family, he’s keenly aware of what he can offer as a Division I FCS coach. And what he can’t.
Oliver can’t dazzle a prospect with the perks common across college football’s highest levels: a glitz and glamor he described as “the 80,000-seat stadiums and the four or five different helmet combinations and everything like that.” But the Eagles’ coach does have one clear advantage over his competitors.
“I can sell myself,” he said.
Oliver, 45, played football for N.C. Central from 1994 to 1997. He earned all-region honors as a defensive back and a punter. He advanced rapidly across 20 years as an assistant and coordinator for top historically Black colleges and universities. He landed the coaching gig at his alma mater in 2018.
He lays it out to parents like this: “I’m what your son will be able to do. That’s what I can offer … I’m what the other schools don't have, and I’m here to take care of your child and develop him into a man.”
That personal plea has resounded with plenty of prospects over Oliver’s three-plus years as N.C. Central’s coach: the type of players who may not have netted a flashy star rating on 247Sports or Rivals but produced for the Eagles, last season’s Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference runner-up, all the same.
Now, thanks to an evolving college football world, Oliver’s pitch is starting to reach the ears of a higher-profile audience. He has always approached recruiting with an inward focus, pursuing players he sees as good fits for N.C. Central regardless of who else has offered, but recently momentum’s hit a new level.
When N.C. Central announced its 2022 signing class in February, the list included not just the standard haul of in-state producers but a former SEC receiver who ranked as his state’s top recruit out of high school and a three-star linebacker whose Power Five offers included UNC, Georgia Tech and Louisville.
Those rumblings extend beyond N.C. Central’s Durham campus, too.
A three-star defender committed to Saint Augustine’s, a Division II Raleigh HBCU, over various Division I FBS offers. At Greensboro’s North Carolina A&T, the country’s largest HBCU, the football program was a finalist for North Carolina’s top 2022 high school recruit and also signed a coveted cornerback transfer.
Read more:
www.fayobserver.com/story/sports/college/football/2022/05/11/deion-sanders-hbcu-football-recruiting-nccu-ncat/9585650002/
Chapel Fowler
The Fayetteville Observer
DURHAM — When North Carolina Central’s Trei Oliver sits down to pitch a high school football recruit and his family, he’s keenly aware of what he can offer as a Division I FCS coach. And what he can’t.
Oliver can’t dazzle a prospect with the perks common across college football’s highest levels: a glitz and glamor he described as “the 80,000-seat stadiums and the four or five different helmet combinations and everything like that.” But the Eagles’ coach does have one clear advantage over his competitors.
“I can sell myself,” he said.
Oliver, 45, played football for N.C. Central from 1994 to 1997. He earned all-region honors as a defensive back and a punter. He advanced rapidly across 20 years as an assistant and coordinator for top historically Black colleges and universities. He landed the coaching gig at his alma mater in 2018.
He lays it out to parents like this: “I’m what your son will be able to do. That’s what I can offer … I’m what the other schools don't have, and I’m here to take care of your child and develop him into a man.”
That personal plea has resounded with plenty of prospects over Oliver’s three-plus years as N.C. Central’s coach: the type of players who may not have netted a flashy star rating on 247Sports or Rivals but produced for the Eagles, last season’s Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference runner-up, all the same.
Now, thanks to an evolving college football world, Oliver’s pitch is starting to reach the ears of a higher-profile audience. He has always approached recruiting with an inward focus, pursuing players he sees as good fits for N.C. Central regardless of who else has offered, but recently momentum’s hit a new level.
When N.C. Central announced its 2022 signing class in February, the list included not just the standard haul of in-state producers but a former SEC receiver who ranked as his state’s top recruit out of high school and a three-star linebacker whose Power Five offers included UNC, Georgia Tech and Louisville.
Those rumblings extend beyond N.C. Central’s Durham campus, too.
A three-star defender committed to Saint Augustine’s, a Division II Raleigh HBCU, over various Division I FBS offers. At Greensboro’s North Carolina A&T, the country’s largest HBCU, the football program was a finalist for North Carolina’s top 2022 high school recruit and also signed a coveted cornerback transfer.
Read more:
www.fayobserver.com/story/sports/college/football/2022/05/11/deion-sanders-hbcu-football-recruiting-nccu-ncat/9585650002/
