College Football: UNC Tar Heels Fifth Best 2011 Recruiting Class in Nation?

We all dream of improvement, especially on signing day for college football. While talent may not win, it helps in key spots. And for many, prospect rankings in college football are so uneven among the various major websites that it seems more unworthy to rank prospects than to conduct a preseason top 20 in college football. Yet for all that, we care about prospects because the analyses are far better, and the detail far greater than ever before. Many people, articles and sites track recruits and their abilities. Getting good ones means money for attendance and higher placement in bowl games when the talent wins. So, despite the differences in team rankings between Rivals and Scout and MaxPreps and all the rest, most fans begin to follow college football and basketball recruiting. Today, none more than the growing supporters of UNC Tar Heels football.

Most began to review recruits last season, beginning to believe that the Tar Heels might actually do more than glance longingly at the upper echelon of college football. Then, Butch Davis was riding a good crop and making noise about his team and its improvements in quality and approach. But the recruiting season seemed totally lost when two events happened.

First, the roof seemed to cave in when the two NCAA investigations of UNC's Tar Heels began. Everyone knows that the loss of recruits can follow investigations. Sure enough, several players began to look elsewhere, and a number of recruits who were initially expressing their interest in the Tar Heels dropped the team from their list of favorites. 

Second, and perhaps worse, John Blake, UNC's associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, became entangled so much in the investigation that he resigned.

This double dose of trouble necessarily led to questions about those recruits who had committed orally over the previous months, especially Kiaro Holts, one of the top 3 offensive tackles in the nation who had given his verbal commitment on June 25 and was considered UNC’s prized recruit.

Yet, despite the speculation, the Tar Heels managed not only to continue to recruit but also to go to and win a thrilling bowl game despite the loss of most of the defense due to the investigation at the beginning of the year and many important cogs to the offense expected to be much improved from their 2009-2010 performance. We will say more about why this has happened in the next article. For now, we will concentrate on the recruits and whether it is possible that UNC will move up substantially above their already lofty recruiting height in the national team rankings.

In reviewing the list of top signees who remain with UNC on their list, we are left with the impression that this could be a very good recruiting year indeed. For many reasons, not the least are the academics and prestige of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, many top recruits have the Tar Heels on their list of favorites.

A quick review of possible leanings (often taken from these students favorable impressions and statements that could just be being polite rather than real prognosticators of their future intentions) makes us believe that although already in an enviable position in the national team recruiting rankings, UNC could become a rival of Florida State, at present the most highly ranked football team in the ACC, this basketball conference turned football conference that currently has the fourth best haul of all NCAA athletic Bowl Championship Series conferences. Look for that ranking to improve if the future appears as bright as it does for the ACC.

But it is North Carolina with the biggest potential. Despite the apparently wacky MaxPreps placement of UNC's class at number 21 in the country, the other major football recruiting websites have them close to the top 10 if not in that group. And those high school seniors who have North Carolina as a favorite include four of Scout's five star recruits (Nick O'Leary, Curtis Grant, Stephone Anthony and Savon Huggins) and nine of their four star recruits (Brandon Fulse, Phillip Dukes, Jeoffrey Pagan, Marquise Wright, Anthony Chickillo, Kris Frost, Dominique Terrell,Tanner McEvoy, and Sylvester Williams).

If they got all of these players, they might well vault into the number 1 team in the country for this recruiting year. Yet, even if they get only four or five, the value of those players could put UNC in the top 5 recruiting classes for this year.

At least one major recruiting writer writes that Nick O'Leary is going to Florida State. Yet, there is nothing yet confirming this fact. What is certain is that O'Leary has yet to make up his mind.

Scout is schizophrenic. The North Carolina centric list on Scout has Jadeveon Clowney, the number 1 recruit in the nation by most reckoning, with Alabama, South Carolina, Auburn, Florida State, LSU, Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, Miami (Fl), North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Tennessee still in the running. Yet the most recent report lists five schools where he will visit, with UNC not on the list. 

The list used for these recruits and their current favorites also does not take into account the latest news. Yet, for many reasons, the list of UNC potential recruits above is one of the better ones available and periodic checks show that they are all in the running.

5-Star recruit Curtis Grant and 4-Star recruits Phillip Dukes and Tanner McEvoy are visiting UNC this week (McEvoy) or during one of the next two weeks. All may sign with UNC.

All of the others visited after new of the NCAA investigations broke. While it is anyone's guess, here is betting that two or more will sign with UNC.

If by some stretch of the Carolina fan imagination all were to sign with UNC, the class would be the premier recruiting class ever landed at UNC. And the National Championship could be in hand. 

Only time will tell.