National Signing Day!

Today is the day that college football fans live for.  National Signing Day is the day that high school recruits sign their letters of intent (LOI) to attend whatever college they choose.  Butch Davis has done a fantastic job at the helm, and today has been a good day thus far for Tar Heel fans.  As of 11:30am EST, Carolina has 25 LOI's.  So far, Carolina has inked:


Updated @ 1:15pm


Kiaro Holts, OT, 5*
Delvon Simmons, DT, 5* (Updated 11:20am EST)
Marquise Williams, QB, 4*
Landon Turner, OG, 4*
Sylvester Williams, DT, 4*
Travis Hughes, LB, 4*
Norkeithus Otis, LB, 4*
Jack Tabb, TE, 3* (Updated 10:45am EST)
Alex Dixon, CB, 3*
Kameron Jackson, CB, 3*
Tim Scott, CB, 3*
Sam Smiley, CB/WR, 3*
Brandon Ellerbe, S, 3*
Darien Rankin, S, 3*
TJ Thorpe, WR, 3*
Travis Riley, RB, 3*
Romar Morris, RB, 3*
Eric Ebron, TE, 3*
Jarrod James, OG, 3*
Devonte Brown, DT, 3*
Shawn Underwood, DT, 3*
Keeon Virgile, LB, 2*
Tyler Alberts, DE, 2*
Miller Snyder, K/P, 2*
Stephen Houston, RB, Juco transfer (Updated 10:45am EST)


Chrisitan Russell, a 3* linebacker out of Hoke County HS has enrolled at Hargrave Military Academy. Russell's grades would not have allowed him to enroll at Carolina at this time.


The (*) listed are from scout.com, and they rank the players from 1*-5*.  Carolina's recruiting class is currently listed 16th by scout.com, 15th by rivals.com, and 13th by ESPN.com.  I will update this post as soon as I get more information. 

Recruiting Trail

There have been a few developments in Carolina football and basketball recruiting over the past week, so I figured I'd chronicle them here.

Basketball:  

Marcus Paige, the #5 rated PG in class of 2012 committed to North Carolina.  Paige was deciding between Carolina, Kansas, and Iowa, and chose the Tar Heels a few weeks after being offered by Roy Williams.  Paige is a good friend of JP Tokoto, another Carolina recruit out of Wisconsin, and it looks like Paige's decision may speed up Tokoto's decision process.  

Desmond Hubert, a center out of New Egypt, NJ, has received a scholarship offer for the 2011 season.  Hubert, at 6'9 and 200 lbs, is the 13th rated center in the '11 class.  Hubert would add some depth to the Carolina frontcourt next season, especially if John Henson decides to move on to the NBA.  He would be a good get, as he also has offers from Maryland and Villanova.  He recently stated that he's narrowed his list to Maryland and Carolina, and let's hope he choses Chapel Hill

Football:

With less than two week until National Signing Day, Carolina is looking to add to it's 15th rated recruiting class.  The big fish still floating around for Carolina are Savon Huggins, and running back out of New Jersey, and Curtis Grant, a linebacker out of Virginia.

Huggins is the 4th rated RB in the 2011class, and is rated as the #23 overall prospect.  It basically comes down to Rutgers and Carolina, with many experts picking Huggins to apply his trade in Chapel Hill.  Butch Davis also just had an in-home visit with Huggins, and he and his father stated that the visit went well.  Savon would be a huge pick up, and would probably move Carolina into a top-10 spot of overall recruiting classes.  He would also become the feature back that Carolina hasn't had since the days of Jonathan Linton and Leon Johnson.  Keep in mind, Carolina hasn't had a 1,000 yard rusher since Linton accomplished the feat in 1997.

Grant is the #1 outside linebacker in his class, and the #19 overall recruit.  Grant is an incredible prospect at 6'3 and 210 lbs, and is deciding between Carolina, Ohio State, and Florida.  The experts believe that it's between OSU and UF, but rumors circling have mentioned Carolina as the darkhorse in the race for his signature.  If Grant decides to pick Carolina, he'll be joining a great corps of freshman linebackers, with Travis Hughes (5-star), Norkeithus Otis (4-star), and Christian Russell (3-star) already committed.  

Having Grant and Huggins commit, which I would be happy with either, will certainly move Carolina up the overall recruiting rankings.  Nabbing both would certainly move Carolina into the top 10, and possibly closer to top five.

McAdoo Withdraws From Norfolk Christian

Unless your head has been in the sand over the past two weeks (if it has, I sincerely apologize), you have heard about the grumblings of James McAdoo enrolling a year early at Carolina. McAdoo is officially a rising senior, and is ranked as the #2 PF in the class of 2011, and was scheduled to enroll at Carolina after he graduated from high school this upcoming school year. But, it seems that McAdoo only needed three courses to graduate from high school and make the leap, which lead to some speculation that he would graduate early and aid Carolina's ailing front court after the surprise transfer of the Wear twins to UCLA.

Today, it was announced, by Norfolk Christian, that McAdoo had withdrawn from the school, increasing speculation that he will indeed enroll early to play for the Tar Heels. According to the article on nbebasketball.com, McAdoo would need three courses from Norfolk Christian, but only needs one English class to qualify for a GED, which would gain him acceptance into North Carolina in the fall. Keep in mind that McAdoo is a huge cog in the USA U-17 national team wheel, and taking three classes as opposed to only one, would leave little time for him to travel this summer with the national team. The move to withdraw and obtain a GED seems to have been made to open up space in his schedule to complete the required course and play USA basketball.

I'm not sure if this is good or bad for the kid, but I am happy that Carolina's front court depth issues seemed to have been solved by Justin Knox's addition (which is still pending), and McAdoo's apparent decision to make the leap.

Remember how things looked just a couple of weeks ago? Have a look at the new kid on the block: