North Forsyth’s Adriel Rojas gives Duke recruiting boost

Adriel Rojas’ pledge to Duke landed as more than another recruiting line for North Forsyth. The 6-foot-4.5, 220-pound edge rusher from Cumming chose the Blue Devils on June 7 after official visits to Duke and Alabama on June 5 and a trip to Georgia Tech on May 29, a decision that put one of Forsyth County’s most closely watched prospects on a Power Four stage.

Rojas entered the decision with a major list of options. 247Sports tracked offers from Georgia, LSU, Miami, Kansas State, Alabama, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Virginia, Florida State, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Ole Miss, Ohio State, NC State, Stanford, Wake Forest, Cincinnati and Liberty, a résumé that shows how widely his profile had spread by spring. He was rated a 0.8878 composite prospect, ranked No. 489 nationally, No. 42 among edge rushers and No. 56 in Georgia.

On3 had Rojas on Duke’s 2027 commitment board by June 9, alongside 16 other pledges in a class ranked 43rd nationally and 11th in the ACC. For a program trying to build depth and speed on defense, adding a North Forsyth player with that level of Power Four interest gives Duke another high-upside piece from a region that has become harder for major programs to ignore.

The local significance runs deeper than a single commitment. A North Forsyth student publication said Rojas already had 23 Division I offers in September 2025 and began playing football in sixth grade at Lakeside Middle School in Forsyth County. That kind of early development matters in a county where football visibility can rise quickly once a player turns into a college recruit with national traction.

Forsyth County has been down this road before. North Forsyth alum Colby Gossett became the first football player from Forsyth County, Georgia, ever drafted into the NFL when the Minnesota Vikings selected him in the sixth round in 2018. Rojas’ move to Duke does not match that milestone, but it reinforces the same point: Cumming and the surrounding schools are producing players who can attract heavyweight attention, and college programs are treating Forsyth County as a real pipeline rather than a peripheral stop.

For North Forsyth, that matters in the locker room as much as it does in the standings. Each high-level commitment gives younger players a clearer path to follow, and each new name on a Power Four board strengthens the idea that local talent can travel well beyond Friday nights in Cumming.