Wolfpack, Pirates, W.Va. jump on a sleeper

His name is Josh Morehead, and I had never heard of him until an alert reader tipped me off this morning. One of the problems is that he plays at Eastern Guilford High in Gibsonville, and his team is off to an 0-5 start.

But I called Eastern Guilford coach Scott Loosemore, and he simply raved about Morehead.

"There's nothing not to like about Josh as a player," Loosemore said. "He's the next-best player in the area after Keenan Allen, and he'd be as good as Keenan if he had his size.”

Josh, who is 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, is starting to blow up after being moved to QB in the fourth game of the season. In two games since, he has 275 rushing yards and 4 TDs, and 332 passing yards and 4 more scores, with one pick.

Morehead could always play. As a sophomore, he was an all-state DB with 10 interceptions, and he had 6 last year and made all-state again. This year, he has 3 picks, and his 6 kickoff returns have gone for 380 yards (a 63.3-yard average). Two went for touchdowns, and he was caught after 85 yards on another.

Now teams kick anywhere but to him.

N.C. State, East Carolina and West Virginia are among about a dozen teams that have started noticing Morehead. Although none of the BCS schools has offered yet, Loosemore expects that to happen shortly.

The Tar Heels aren’t in the mix yet, but if they do offer, we could call it the Morehead scholarship.
Sorry.

“I just wish I had put him at quarterback sooner,” Loosemore said.

--Stan Olson