CONWAY Coastal Carolina football coach Joe Moglia was halfway through his National Signing Day news conference Wednesday afternoon when he got handed a note confirming that the final recruit the Chanticleers were waiting for was indeed on board.
“All of our guys are in so we have all 11 of our players now,” Moglia said, interrupting his answer to a question. “Good, that makes me feel good.”
With only about a month to pull this recruiting class together after Moglia was hired in late December and officially settled in on campus in early January, Coastal announced the addition of 11 players to the program and had no late surprises Wednesday as the recruits made their decisions official with signed National Letters of Intent.
Interestingly, none of those 11 players are from the state of South Carolina. Moglia noted that he hoped to do a better job next year securing in-state talent, but overall he was not disappointed by the modest size of the recruiting haul, which was down from the 19 players the Chants signed a year ago.
“We said we are not going to worry about whether or not we get the maximum number of players we are allowed this year,” Moglia said. “In fact, that would be a mistake if we brought in people just to bring in big bodies or guys that look like they were good athletes or guys that are rated four or five stars of whatever it might be. Our intent was to bring in people we thought had the right character and are good players that will be able to contribute to this program, if not as freshmen then early on in their careers. I feel we were able to do that.”
He identified offensive and defensive line as two areas of need for the Chants going into the recruiting process, and the team added a pair of players along both sides of the line.
Quarterback Dalton Demos, meanwhile, joins the program all the way from Chesterfield, Mo., after an impressive senior season at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis where he passed for 2,764 yards, 34 touchdowns and 15 interceptions while leading his team to the Missouri Class 6 state championship game. The 6-foot-5, 195-pound dual-threat quarterback, who also rushed for 257 yards and four scores, chose Coastal over Missouri State and Murray State.
He joins a group of quarterbacks that includes returning starter Aramis Hillary, who will be a senior next season; sophomore-to-be Cody Craig; Alex Ross, who redshirted last season as one of the prizes of the 2011 recruiting class; and little-used junior Logan Hall.
“We think Demos is a kid that can play at a lot of [programs],” Moglia said. “He’s got tremendous potential, and we feel pretty good about that. Like I said, we only recruited for the quarterback position one guy. But he’s got to learn the system too. We’ve got three guys in-house that we think are pretty good that all bring a little different skill set, and we’re excited about looking at them in the spring.”
The Chants also picked up one addition from the junior college ranks in 6-foot-2, 230-pound running back Lorenzo Taliaferro, who rushed for 428 yards in 76 carries with 123 receiving yards last season at Lackawanna (Pa.) College. He ranked second in the Northeast Football Conference in kick returns while averaging 27.2-yards per his 11 returns. Moglia noted that he is one player who could make an immediate impact next season.
But the coach didn’t spend a lot of time Wednesday talking about the individual signees. Instead, he reiterated that he and his staff of assistants were focused on finding players who were the right fit for the program.
Moglia estimated that only two of those 11 signees came from the pool of recruits that former coach David Bennett and his staff were pursuing before the coaching change, and he indicated that played into the lack of in-state additions -- which he expects to change next year.
“I am a little disappointed that there is nobody on this list from South Carolina,” Moglia said. “We did have a handful of guys that we inherited that were being recruited by the former staff that in some cases we had committed to. They have walked away. They’ve decommitted. In some cases, they actually said they were concerned about how they were going to be treated by the new staff. I can’t worry about that too much.”
The Chants ended up with three players from Pennsylvania, two each from North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia, and one each from Missouri and Connecticut. Moglia said he expects to add some preferred walk-ons and could give out partial scholarships to other additions later this month.
Coastal also has two other newcomers who enrolled in classes this semester in freshmen running back DeAngelo Henderson -- a late arrival from the 2011 recruiting class -- and wide receiver Tyrell Blanks (who spent last season at a prep school).
Going forward -- and with a full year to work on the 2013 signing class -- Moglia said the Chants will be aggressive in recruiting South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia while also looking at Alabama and Florida and making inroads up north.
As for the 11 who make up his first batch of recruits at Coastal, though, Moglia said he couldn’t be more excited by the overall quality of the group.
“It would have been very easy to double the size of this list. ... That’s not the commitment,” he said. “The commitment is to lay the foundation upon which to build character, give these kids a real shot after they get out of here and to be competitive one day to win a national championship.”
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2012 CCU football signing class
Marcus Crowder, 6-1, 290 DL -- Mebane, N.C./Eastern Alamance HS
-Registered 115 tackles (65 solo) with four sacks, six pass break-ups, an interception and two forced fumbles as a senior.
Dalton Demos, 6-5, 195 QB -- Chesterfield, Mo./Christian Brothers College HS
-Passed for 2,764 yards, 34 touchdowns and 15 interceptions and rushed for 257 yards and four scores in 2011.
Dominic DiGalbo, 6-4, 270 OL -- Clingdale, Pa./Monsignor Bonner HS
-Helped block for an offense that scored 79 touchdowns and averaged 36.5 points per game last season.
Roderick Holder, 6-3, 225 DL -- Chesapeake, Va./Indian River HS
-Rated a two-star recruit (out of five) by ESPN.com/Scout.
Andre Johnson, 5-11, 220 RB -- Buford, Ga./Buford HS
-Former high school teammate of CCU quarterback Alex Ross, he rushed for 1,006 yards and 18 touchdowns as a senior.
Clark Krimmer, 6-3, 225 LB -- Kathleen, Ga./Houston County HS
-Had 58 tackles (47 solo), six tackles for loss, one sack, four pass break-ups, three forced fumbles and a blocked field goal in 2011. He only played his freshman and senior seasons.
Voghens Larrieux, 6-5, 265 OL -- New London, Conn./New London HS
-Tallied 38 pancake blocks and did not allow a sack last season.
Bruce Mapp, 6-1, 170 WR -- Philadelphia, Pa./West Philadelphia Catholic HS
-Had 32 catches for 639 yards and 10 touchdowns as a senior.
Richie Sampson, 6-2, 195 ATH -- Kennett Square, Pa./Unionville HS
-Rushed for 1,554 yards and 22 touchdowns last season.
Kamron Summers, 5-11, 180 DB-- Statesville, N.C./West Iredell HS
-Had five interceptions, returning three for touchdowns, to go with 60 tackles and nine pass break-ups as a junior and starred at receiver as a senior.
Lorenzo Taliaferro, 6-2, 230 RB -- Virginia Beach, Va./Bruton HS/Lackawanna College
-Rushed for 428 yards in 76 carries, tallied 123 receiving yards and ranked second in the Northeast Football Conference with an average of 27.2 yards per kickoff return.
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