At least in terms of recruiting I could not have been more wrong about North Carolina’s hiring of Mack Brown last off-season.
I thought Brown had been out of the game for too long and wasn’t going to be able to attract the elite kind of talent to North Carolina like he did in his best days at Texas.
Boy was I wrong.
Brown and his staff have done tremendous work on the recruiting trail as they’ve put together what’s widely seen as a top five class nationally. Now Brown and the Tar Heels have struck again, landing a commitment from the top corner back in the 2021 class.
Tony Grimes, a five-star talent from Virginia chose North Carolina over finalists Georgia, Ohio State and Texas A&M on Tuesday. Grimes is listed as at 6-0, 180 pounds and comes from Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Last year Brown took North Carolina from an embarrassing 2-9 to 7-6 and winners of the Military Bowl. Now he’s taken the Tar Heels to the truly elite levels of recruiting, as 247Sports puts their current class as the third best nationally, trailing only Ohio State and Clemson.
Now can Brown get it to translate into wins, and big wins at that on the field? In an ACC that has been Clemson or bust for the last half of a decade, it’s easy to see how they have the potential to climb so quickly and potentially start to enter the College Football Playoff contender conversation sooner rather than later.
In case you were wondering, Notre Dame’s ACC cycle includes dates with North Carolina in back-to-back years starting in South Bend in 2021. 247Sports currently ranks Notre Dame 14th in their team rankings in the 2021 recruiting class.