Bo Hines, North Carolina State’s leading receiver this past season as a freshman, will transfer to Yale pending acceptance, according to a Yale source.

Hines, a 6-foot-1, 190 slot receiver, made the announcement he was transferring via Twitter on Saturday.

“I must do what I believe is best for my future not only as a student-athlete, but also as a human being,” Hines tweeted.

Hines has been granted a release from North Carolina State according to the Charlotte Observer. Hines finished with 45 receptions for 616 yards and one touchdown. Hines led the Wolfpack with three catches for 79 yards in a win over Central Florida in the St. Petersburg Bowl on Friday and had eight catches for 103 yards, including a 54-yard touchdown against Florida State earlier this season.

 

The addition of Hines should help fill the void left by the program’s all-time leader in receptions in Deon Randall along with Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, running back Tyler Varga. He will join an offense that led the nation in total yards (571.5 ypg) and that ranked third in scoring (41.1 ppg). The Bulldogs (8-2, 5-2 Ivy) finished third in the Ivy League last season.

Below is a letter from Hines' Twitter account...

Here is a look at some players that should be headed to Yale next season, pending acceptance. DE Jamison Hale of California and WR/TE John Lager of Minnesota are the latest names added to the list...

Ian Baker, DE, 6-4, 225, North Canton, Ohio: Playing OL and DE at Hoover. VIDEO

Jamison Hale, DT, 6-5, 260, Fresno, California: Also had offers from San Diego and UNLV. VIDEO

Jackson Keimig, H-Back, 6-3, 220, Bothell, Washington: Received offers from a handful of Ivy League schools along with Idaho, Montana and Montana State among others. VIDEO


John Lager, WR/TE, 6-5, 230, St. Louis Park, Minnesota: Drew interest from several Ivy League schools, along with Army. VIDEO

Kyle Marcinick, WR, 6-1, 185, Dublin, Ohio: Also had interest from Northwestern, Toledo and Youngstown State. VIDEO

Tre Moore, Ath., 6-3, 180, St. Louis, Missouri: Chose Yale over Princeton and Cornell. Schools like Syracuse, Indiana and Notre Dame also showed interest. VIDEO

Hunter Roman, DE, 6-5, 205, New London: Register All-State honorable mention pick last season. Received interest from Boston College, UConn and Central Connecticut State. VIDEO

Jacob Van De Grift, OT, 6-5, 290, San Diego, California: Athletic and should bolster Bulldogs up front. VIDEO

Jimmy Wilkins, SS/WR, 6-4, 200, Frisco, Texas: Wilkins was a 9-5A first-team all-district selection this past season. VIDEO

Yale RB Tyler Varga and WR Grant Wallace have both earned All-America honors.

Varga was a FCS second-team pick by The Sports Network. Wallace was named to the Beyond
Sports Network FCS second team.

Varga, who also was named to the third team by BSN and the Ivy League offensive player of the year recipient, scored 26 touchdowns (22 rushing, four passing) and led the FCS in scoring.
Wallace caught a career-high 81 passes and led the FCS with 113 receiving yards per game.

OL Will Chism and QB Morgan Roberts were named to the Fall Academic All-Ivy League team. Both are political science majors.

1875 Yale-Harvard program up for auction

I came across this auction item on Lelands.com. It's an 1875 Yale-Harvard program. Get your bids in just in time for the holidays.

Originally headed to Yale, RB/DE Daniel Bailey has decommitted and looks to be on his way to Harvard, according to OCVarsity.com.

The 6-4, 255-pound Bailey finished his senior year at JSerra (California) had 11.5 sacks and earned all-league honors.

It looks like Jimmy Wilkins is the latest player to choose Yale (pending acceptance, of course).

Wilkins, a 6-4, 200-pound SS/WR, visited Yale last weekend. Wilkins is from Frisco, Texas, and earned 9-5A first-team all-district honors this past season at Wakeland High. Here are some clips of Wilkins.

Fellow Yale recruit DE Ian Baker sent this tweet out after hearing about Wilkins...

Congratulations to @Jwilks_34 for committing to the greatest school on earth! We are going to do big things! #rolldogs
— Ian Baker (@Idontbake31) December 10, 2014

Also keep an eye on two kids from New Jersey. 3-star OT Jared Southern and 3-star DT David Ryslik both took visits to Yale recently, according to NJ.com.

Tyler Varga was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year honors on Monday at the Bushnell Cup presentation.

Here's my story from Monday's event.

Video below of Varga after accepting the award.




And here's a pretty cool photo of former Yale RB Mike McLeod, Varga and former QB Matt Polhemus.

 

I don't have any news on who committed, if any, over the weekend. I do have a list of some players who came to Yale for a visit...

DE Ian Baker (Ohio)

OL Jack Bates (Virginia)

LB Anthony Carmargo (California)

Tyler Campbell

WR/DB Abu Daramy (Ohio)

LB Jonathon Dobie (Michigan)

DL/OL Peter Firestone (New Jersey)

Michael Gordon (Georgia)

Michael Johnson

LB/RB Noah Lazaro (Nebraska)

WR Kyle Marcinik (Ohio)

Ath Tre Moore (Missouri)

DL David Ryslik (New Jersey)

DB/LB Jimmy Wilkins (Texas)

Previous captains Will McHale and Beau Palin helped lay the foundation for the resurgence of Yale football.

This season, captain Deon Randall guided the Bulldogs as they turned the corner and placed themselves back among the top teams in the Ivy League.

Now Cole Champion is ready to lead Yale to the next step: a league title.

Tyler Varga was named a Bushnell Cup finalist Tuesday.

The award honors the Ivy League Football Players of the Year. Varga, along with Dartmouth quarterback Dalyn Williams, were named finalists for the league’s offensive player of the year.

Harvard’s Zack Hodges and Princeton’s Mike Zeuli are the finalists for defensive player of the year.

The players of the year will be named on Monday at 12:30 p.m. during a presentation at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, New York.

Seven Yale players have won the Bushnell Cup. Bulldogs running back Mike McLeod was the most recent in 2007. 

 Varga is a three-time All-Ivy selection. He scored a school-record 26 touchdowns (22 rushing, four receiving), while averaging 142 rushing yards per game.

Let the postseason accolades start piling up for Yale senior running back Tyler Varga.

Varga polished off a remarkable year with 1,423 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns (22 rushing, four receiving).

After being named a first team All-Ivy League selection, Varga has accepted an invitation to play in the prestigious Reese’s Senior Bowl on Jan. 24 in Mobile, Alabama.

In addition, Varga is the recipient of New England Football Writers’ Association Gold Helmet of the Year award and the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston’s Swede Nelson Award for the FCS. The honor is given to a player for outstanding achievement in academics, athletics, sportsmanship and citizenship.

Readers,

First, I want to thank you for the well-wishes. I went back and read all the comments, and I want to say I really appreciate them all. Thank you.

We had a boy. Bryce Christopher Hunn was born on Nov. 15 and weighed 8 lbs, 15 oz. He’s already got the size, so hopefully he will be running a 4.5 40 soon and I’ll be writing about him on this blog in 20 years.

Now for some Yale football news…

Here are the Bulldogs that earned All-Ivy honors.

First Team: Sr. OL Ben Carberry, Sr. RB Tyler Varga, Sr. WR Deon Randall, Sr. WR Grant Wallace and Sr. K Kyle Cazzetta.

Second Team: Sr. OL Will Chism, Jr. C Luke Longinotti, Jr. QB Morgan Roberts, So. DL Copache Tyler, Sr. LB Charles Cook and So. DB Foyesade Oluokun.

Honorable Mention: So. RB Candler Rich, So. TE Leo Haenni, Jr. DB Cole Champion.

Here’s a complete list of the All-Ivy League team.

REFLECTING ON “THE GAME”

Yale battled back from a 17-point deficit to tie the game in the fourth before eventually falling 31-24 to Harvard.

In front of a sold-out crowd, with the national spotlight shining bright and an Ivy League title on the line, Conner Hempel connected with Andrew Fischer for a 35-yard touchdown in the closing minute to hand Yale the crushing loss.

“Give Harvard credit, but we feel we lost that game,” Tony Reno said. “We had a lot of opportunities. We felt that should have been a 17-3 game, not a 7-3 game, at the half. We didn’t connect on a lot of plays. If we did, it was a different game…The players weren’t sad, but mad. They were upset. They knew we didn’t play up to their capabilities. The expectation was to win that game, and that’s something this team changed.”

The loss is clearly still burning. When asked about Harvard’s Andrew Fischer (8 rec., 149 yds, 2 TDs) and what made him so difficult to defend, DB Cole Champion refused to comment.

And if you missed it, here’s Chip Malafronte’s column on the 131st edition of “The Game.”

REFLECTING ON THE SEASON

Yale went from a two-win team in 2012 to playing for a conference title this season.

How does Reno sum up this season?

Reno said: “I didn’t know what to expect coming in. We knew our QB (Morgan Roberts) had a ton of talent, but not many snaps. Tyler Varga wasn’t healthy yet. We had young guys on the offensive line. The defense was still young. These were all questions I had coming in. And the league is so competitive. I’m definitely happy with the progress, but we still have a ways to go. We played for a championship at the end of the year, so we accomplished half of our goal.”

UP NEXT AT RB…

Varga will certainly be missed at RB. He had a remarkable season with 1,423 rushing yards and 26 TDs (22 rushing, four receiving), and will go down as one of the best backs in Bulldogs history.

Players like Varga can’t be replaced.

Candler Rich (67 car., 502 yds, 2 TDs) and Deshawn Salter (20 car., 111 yds) will look to step in and take over as Yale’s lead back.

“Both need to get faster and stronger,” Reno said. “They have different running styles.”

And don’t forget about John Barton. He was the starting JV RB this past season.

“He’s another guy with speed and patience as a runner,” Reno said. “He will compete too.”

MEDICAL HARDSHIPS

Unofficially, the following players will likely get an extra season because of a medical hardships: DT Nick Crowle, DT Ben Bedard, LB Brian Sykes, WR Myles Gaines and K/P Blake Horn.

CHAMPION NAMED CAPTAIN

Elected by his teammates, DB Cole Champion has been named Yale’s 2015 captain.

Champion has been a starter since his freshman season. He’s the first DB to serve as captain since Rob Masella in 1996. As a junior for the Bulldogs, he had a 51 tackles and an interception. He was also an All-Ivy League honorable mention.

“Carm Cozza told me a while ago, ‘guys always make the right decision,’” Reno said. “Cole is the perfect guy to help us make that next step. He’s a relentless worker and comes from a good high school program.”

Said Champion: “It means a lot. It’s humbling. But it hasn’t really set in yet. It’s a great honor mostly because it’s from my teammates.”

RECRUITING NEWS

Ray had it correct. OL Jacob Van De Grift is the latest player looking to be headed to Yale next season. The 6-5, 266 OT plays at Cathedral Catholic (San Diego, California). Here’s a look at the other likely future Bulldogs.