Big commitment for Wolfpack

NC State landed a big commitment Wednesday night when defensive end Kenderius Whitehead from Martin Luther King High in Lithonia, Ga., announced via Twitter that he had committed. A source later confirmed that Whitehead had verbally committed to the Pack.

Although Martin Luther King head coach Chad Carson could not independently verify that Whitehead had committed when reached by The Wolfpacker Wednesday evening he said that the news did not surprise him.

"I think Coach [Mike] Reed and some of the other coaches from NC State, I think they made it very personable," Carson noted. "They made it a lot more personable I guess than other schools that were recruiting him."

Whitehead had narrowed his choices to Clemson, Georgia and NC State. He officially visited NC State Nov. 18 with his teammate and fellow Pack commitment Jarnor Jones, a safety. Before then, NC State was a long shot for Whitehead.

"His top three was really Georgia, Clemson and North Carolina prior to the NC State visit," Carson noted. "They rolled out the carpet out for those guys when they went up him and Jarnor Jones. I think they just fell in love with what happened up there. He felt like that was the right fit for him."

Rivals.com rates Whitehead as a three-star prospect, the No. 25 recruit in Georgia and No. 25 weakside defensive end nationally. He had 19 sacks as a senior at MLK.

Whitehead played in the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl in Phoenix earlier this month.

"They are getting a tremendous football player," Carson noted. "Kenderius Whitehead is the type of kid that has the passion for the game of football. He plays the game the way it's supposed to be played. He's definitely a kid that three or four years from now he'll be looking at the stage in New York going in the first, second or third round.

"He just has tremendous football abilities and is a good person all together. He did some tremendous things for us, a tremendous leader on and off the field. They are definitely getting a quality person."