{"id":69726,"date":"2024-12-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=69726"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:41:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:41:25","slug":"69726-wake-forest-recruiting-class-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/05\/69726-wake-forest-recruiting-class-of-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake Forest Recruiting Class of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Signing Day isn\u2019t what it used to be. The national holiday vibe for college football fans was all about the high school players who would spend years developing in the program. Now the transfer portal plays a predominant role in the makeup of a college football team. Sign high school players, develop them, and assume some will go elsewhere. Having laid that groundwork, it still is worth noting that Wake Forest signed 20 high school players for the recruiting class of 2025, hoping they are contributors for the future.<\/p>\n

As is historically the case, Dave Clawson signed a wealth of three-star recruits. Some will be early enrollees, in attendance for Spring camp and a chance to contribute early. Of course, some of that will depend on who Wake Forest has coming back and what positions. With the transfer portal opening next week, and the window being ajar for a month, the unknown future still rules the day.<\/p>\n

Quarterback<\/h3>\n

Elijiah Oehlke is listed as a three-star recruit in the 247Sports Composite. The Trinity Christian High School product has been committed to Wake Forest since May. He had 2,641 passing yards in the 2024 season. Oehlke was First Team All-Conference and was also named the BEIFC Player of the Year. He was also a track and field athlete in high school.<\/p>\n

Wake will likely be going from a sixth-year senior (Hank Bachmeier) to a youth movement with Jeremy Hecklinski next season, so Oehlke will have some time to develop in the system. He will still be 17 years old by the time he gets to Wake Forest.<\/p>\n

Linebacker<\/h3>\n

Tyler Houser, at 6-2, 225 pounds, is the highest-rated recruit on the defensive side of the ball in this Wake class. He was the #18 recruit in the state of New Jersey. The Pope John XXIII high product has been committed to Wake since late March. Rouser was second-team all-state. He also played varsity basketball and track and field. Depth at linebacker is going to be a huge factor in the next two years.<\/p>\n

Wake is also bringing in linebacker Joel Lowenberg from Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is 6-2, 210 pounds. He had 81 tackles, five tackles for a loss, two sacks, and one interception in his senior season.<\/p>\n

Offensive Line<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re looking for size, Jaishaun Offutt is your guy. He is 6-3, 342 pounds. Offutt played both right tackle and left tackle at John Handley High School in Virginia. Was first-team All-District in his senior year.<\/p>\n

Defensive Line<\/h3>\n

On the other side of the line, Wake signed Kadear Dembele from West Haven, CT. He is 6-3, 280 pounds and from West Haven High School.\u00a0 Dembele is ranked as the number eight player in CT by the 247Sports Composite. He also played two years at Stepinac High School where he had 75 tackles and six sacks in his time there.<\/p>\n

Wide Receiver<\/h3>\n

Trishtin Glass is coming all the way from Copperas Cove, Texas where he was a four-year varsity player at Copperas Cove High School. Glass is 6-4, 185. He had 1,125 receiving yards on 64 catches his senior year. Glass also had 12 touchdowns. He was Academic All-District his senior year.<\/p>\n

A sign of how the 2024 season went in terms of positions, Wake signed six defensive backs in the 2025 class. Head coach Dave Clawson also signed a total of four defensive linemen, three offensive linemen, three linebackers, one tight end, one quarterback, and two wide receivers. The 247Sports Composite ranks it as the 60th recruiting class in the country.<\/p>\n

As of this writing, two Wake Forest players have said they will be going to the transfer portal. Receiver Nick Ragano and offensive lineman Nick Sharpe are expected to put their names in the portal when it opens on the ninth<\/a>. There will likely be more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Wake
Photo courtesy: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National Signing Day isn\u2019t what it used to be. The national holiday vibe for college football fans was all about the high school players who would spend years developing in the program. Now the transfer portal plays a predominant role in the makeup of a college football team. Sign high school players, develop them, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":69729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,35643],"tags":[1135,8952,9226,1249],"class_list":["post-69726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-dave-clawson","tag-nick-ragano","tag-nick-sharpe","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69726"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69731,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69726\/revisions\/69731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}