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Sometimes we forget the Shrine Bowl isn't intended as a showcase for future college stars. Instead, it raises money for charity and tries to reward the best senior high school players in North Carolina and South Carolina. At the same time, each staff attempts to find a group of 44 players who can beat that "other Carolina."
"Some kids who didn't make it will be great college players in two or three years," S.C. Shrine coach Lewis Lineberger said Tuesday. "But we don't have two or three years to wait. We have one week."
That is the week of practice before the Dec.19 game at Wofford's Gibbs Stadium.
So the S.C. team includes 14 of the Observer's Top 25 Prospects list for the state, and the N.C. team, 13.
The newspaper's lists rank kids in the two states with the highest potential to be excellent college players. The Shrine Bowl coaches want great high school players, and sometimes there's a difference.
For example, Butler High safety/wide receiver Nate Charest hasn't been offered a scholarship by a Bowl Championship Subdivision school, though he's an outstanding high school player, always around the football and making plays.
That wasn't lost on Shrine Bowl coach Jim Oddo of Catholic and his N.C. assistants. What wasn't lost on the big BCS schools is that Charest is listed generously at 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds with good but not great speed. Oddo took Charest because he thinks he can help the N.C. team win. The big colleges aren't so sure he can do that for them.
There are other reasons talented members of the Observer's Top 25s haven't been "enshrined." No.4 Fre'Shad Hunter of Cary was suspended for much of the season. Ardrey Kell linebacker Prince Shembo has been slowed by lingering injuries.
"And there are some kids who are very talented but just don't fit in with what we want to do," Oddo said. "But we were thorough; we looked at over 900 kids, at combines and on film."
The biggest name missing from the S.C. roster was Calhoun County guard Eric Mack (6-4, 315 pounds).
Lineberger would not comment on kids who didn't make it, but a source close to the process said it was primarily because the coaches were looking for smaller, quicker linemen.
Lineberger did say, "If a player wasn't chosen, it wasn't because we didn't look at him."
Finally, each coaching staff narrowed its list to 44, meaning many deserving players were left off.
Blue Devils add Georgia linebacker
Duke picked up its 16th commitment in Clerance France, a 6-2, 210-pound linebacker at Carver High in Columbus, Ga.
France also was offered scholarships by Western Kentucky and Troy.
He had been playing offensive line but was shifted this season because coach Dell McGee thought he'd have a better shot at college, given his size.
