Grimsley star edge rusher Andrew Rogers commits to East Carolina

Grimsley’s latest defensive star is heading to Greenville, and East Carolina pulled off a recruiting win that reaches well beyond one commitment. Andrew “Pook” Rogers, the 6-foot-6, 240-pound edge rusher from Greensboro, announced for ECU after a June 18 official visit that helped close a chase involving several of the biggest programs in the country.

Rogers arrives with the kind of profile that has made him one of the most watched players in Guilford County. 247Sports lists him as a 4-star prospect, and the site’s composite ranking has him No. 429 nationally, No. 37 among EDGE defenders and No. 12 in North Carolina. His reported offer sheet stretched to 22 schools and included North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Kentucky, LSU, Louisville, Michigan State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, UCLA, Notre Dame, Troy, Florida Atlantic, James Madison and Liberty.

The numbers behind the recruitment match the production. At Dudley High School in 2024, Rogers posted 76 tackles, 34 tackles for loss and 23 sacks as a sophomore before transferring to Grimsley. In his junior season with the Whirlies, he finished with 50 tackles, 13 tackles for loss and eight sacks as Grimsley went 15-0 and captured the NCHSAA state championship, a run that turned the Greensboro program into one of the state’s most visible powers.

Rogers’ path also reflects how fluid recruiting has become in the transfer-and-reclassification era. He originally was in the 2027 class, moved to the 2026 cycle earlier in the process, then shifted back to 2027 after his commitment to Virginia Tech. He pledged to the Hokies on Aug. 22, 2025, then decommitted on Nov. 9, 2025 after the coaching change in Blacksburg. By June, the recruiting trail had swung back toward East Carolina, which hosted him in Greenville and secured the commitment logged by 247Sports on June 20.

For ECU, the victory matters because it adds another high-end defender to a program that is trying to keep building under Blake Harrell. The Pirates went 9-4 in 2025 and won the Military Bowl, and their January mid-year signees already had pushed the 2026 class to 39 members before Rogers made his pledge. Rogers credited ECU defensive line coach Roy Tesh during the process, and he said on social media that the Pirates landed the “2nd highest rated commit in ecu history.” For Guilford County, the bigger story is that Grimsley is now producing recruits whose decisions can reshape a major in-state program.