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Grey Shirts
Most programs try to avoid awarding scholarships to specialists until they are ready to start. NC State has taken the route that has become popular lately of promising grey shirt statuses to Kyle Bambard and A.J. Cole. This means the two signed their Letters of Intent and are locked in to the university, but will not arrive in Raleigh until January of 2015. With Niklas Sade and Wil Baumann graduating at the end of the 2014 season, the Wolfpack needed to get the kicker and punter positions settled going forward.
Bambard (Walled Lake, Michigan) played quarterback as well as handling all kicking duties for his high school team. From the same high school as redshirt freshman Josh Jones. Also had an offer from Air Force.
Cole comes to Raleigh as the fourth ranked punter in the nation in the 247 Composite rankings. NC State was Cole's first offer and he jumped on it immediately. The coaching staff has said his punts at summer camp were the highest they had ever seen from a recruit.
Blue Shirts
There was one surprise on National Signing Day for Wolfpack fans, but this was a pleasant one. Three star linebacker Airius Moore, long committed to Indiana, accepted a blue shirt offer from Dave Doeren's staff. This was completely out of the blue (pardon the pun), as only the night before were there any vague rumors of a surprise coming on February 5th.
In addition to Indiana, Moore had scholarship offers from Ball St, Bowling Green, Eastern Illinois, Illinois, Marshall, Miami (Ohio), Ohio and Western Michigan. While Moore won't count against the 25 scholarship players allowed to be brought in each year, he will count against the 85 total limit once he arrives in August. Moore is not allowed any in-person interactions with coaching staffs of any school until he arrives in Raleigh as an "unrecruited athlete".
The good news here is that the Pack got a solid player without counting against their 2014 haul. The bad news is that Moore's addition means there will be one less spot available in the already small 2015 class. Either way, Doeren and Co. made a strong statement to pull a player away from another BCS conference school without taking a visit since summer.
Walk-Ons
RC Brunstetter, Ty Linton, and Max Stoffer will all be arriving at NC State as walk-ons, but all three have taken different journeys to Raleigh. Brunstetter is already on campus as an early enrollee. From the same high school as redshirt freshman Cole Blankenship, Brunstetter is being groomed as the replacement for Scott Thompson at longsnapper. Linton is a former UNC signee from the class of 2010, but went pro in baseball when he was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 14th round. Arizona is paying for Linton to go to school, so he will not count against the scholarship limit and may even be able to contribute relatively early at linebacker. Yet another future Pack player from Charlotte Christian, Dave Doeren's relationship with Bo Hines helped him find out Linton was interested in playing football again. Within days, Linton flipped from the Tar Heels. Stoffer is a highly productive linebacker from Nashville, Tennessee who recorded 351 tackles in his three seasons at the varsity level.