Hurricanes Class of 2012: They're Arriving, Now the Fun Begins

Up till now, all of the practices, scrimmages, and the spring game have all been exercises in "how has that guy from last year improved" and "how has the depth chart changed from last year." While they have been informative, interesting, and sometimes fun to watch, it's the young guys that Golden brought in with this year's class that we really want to see. Nine of them (Larry Hope, Preston Dewey, Gray Crow, Josh Witt, Raphael Kirby, Ereck Flowers, Taylor Gadbois, Dwayne Hoilett, and Ladarius Gunter) are already on campus andhave been working with the team, and Hope, Gunter and Flowers actually appear on the last official depth chart. Even so, some would argue that it's the guys that are still incoming that everyone wants to see perform. Guys like Duke Johnson, Tyriq McCord, Deon Bush, and, of course, Tracy Howard. So when will these kids hit campus? Hit the jump to find out!

According to a few sources, but mainly Matt Shodell over at Rivals, there's a pretty good list of incoming freshmen that have given the dates they will be reporting to campus. Keep in mind that these dates may or may not be official, the thing to take from this is that the incoming kids are on their way, and all of them should definitely be on campus by the end of June. Here's what we have so far:

Deon Bush - May 17th

Malcolm Lewis - May 17th

Tracy Howard - May 15th

Rayshawn Jenkins - May 15th

Vernon Davis - June 22nd

D'Mauri Jones - June 26th

JaWand Blue - June 28th

Dequan Ivery - May 21st (although he says he isn't sure yet)

Jake O'Donnell - June 26th

Earl Moore - June 26th

Jelani Hamilton - May 17th

Antonio Crawford - May 17th

Duke Johnson - This week (these dates were given earlier this week, so he could already be on campus)

Robert Lockhart - Same as Duke Johnson

This list obviously leaves a lot of guys off, but as I said they should be on campus before the end of June. Golden has said that he should have a full roster by July 1st, ready to go. One thing you can take from this list is that the majority of the guys that are trying to get to campus as soon as possible are the guys who are expecting to play early. Obviously we all expect Deon Bush, Tracy Howard, and Duke Johnson to feature prominently this year, but the rest of these guys, specifically Malcolm Lewis and Robert Lockhart, have just as good of a chance as the others. These guys will provide a much needed spark andbuzz around the program, because the existing team wants to see these kids play just as bad as the fans do.

A few of the major names that are as of yet missing from the list, Tyriq McCord, Danny Dillard, Herb Waters, and Dequan Ivery. There hasn't been any official word on them yet, but don'tworry, they will be there. The only expected academic casualty from this class is Angelo Jean-Louis, who will attend a year of prep school. He has come out and said that he is all Cane, andwe will not have to worry about him going somewhere else. The other name in limbo as of now is David Thompson. While we don't have an exact, final decision on what he plans to do yet, all signs point to him coming to Miami, where he will be a dual sport athlete. If this is the case, expect to see him fly up the depth chart andbe the number 3 quarterback behind Morris and Williams.

Of course, if we see any updates on any of the other guys, we will get that info to you ASAP.

GO CANES!