Heel Tough Blog: Five 2026 Prospects Place Tar Heels in Top Schools Lists

The attention around Tar Heel football has been firmly focused on the transfer portal and rightfully so as this staff attempts to scramble and build a competitive roster for this season. While that has been happening, though, there are a handful of targets for the team in the 2026 class that have narrowed down their recruitments. Here’s a look at the five players that have released their top schools lists recently.

4✮ DL Kendall Guervil- Fort Myers (Fort Myers, FL)

@1._kenn- Instagram

Guervil announced his top ten on Monday via social media and has the Tar Heels as one of those still alive. While they may still be in the running, it appears that they are not that serious of a contender, especially considering the fact that he hasn’t been to campus yet. Barring a dramatic shift here and an official visit to campus, it looks like he will be heading elsewhere.

4✮ LB Adam Balogoun-Ali- Cardinal Newman (West Palm Beach, FL)

@24productionz- Instagram

Balogoun-Ali announced his final eight schools back on April 19th via his social media after a round of unofficial visits to many of his finalists. The Tar Heels were one of those schools who got a visit and on Wednesday, it was reported by Brian Dohn of 247Sports that he will be officially visiting Chapel Hill at some point this summer. Landing that official visit shows that the Tar Heels are a serious contender in this race.

3✮ IOL Jax Tanner- Rocky Mountain (Meridian, ID)

@bomber_tanner- Instagram

Tanner released his top ten schools back on April 17th via social media with the Tar Heels amongst a group of schools that he had taken unofficial visits to as well. As of now, Tanner only has two official visit scheduled, one to Oregon and the other to Michigan, meaning the Tar Heels need to get an official visit set to have any chance. Right now, Oregon is the heavy favorite to land him with Michigan as the lone serious challenger.

3✮ S Jamar Owens- Douglas County (Douglasville, GA)

@courtsidebp- Instagram

Owens revealed his final eight schools on Easter Sunday, with the Tar Heels being one of the lucky eggs that was found. Most of the schools that remain in contention received an unofficial visit from him in the summer and are waiting to see if they will be a part of his official visit schedule. With him still not having a single official visit set, it is too early to tell just how serious of a contender the Tar Heels are here.

UR Braylon Edwards- Duncanville (Duncanville, TX)

@BraylonEdward10- Twitter

Edwards is the latest guy to narrow his list down, doing so by releasing his final five schools on Thursday. As of right now, the Tar Heels are the only school on this list that doesn’t have an official visit scheduled, something that clearly has them behind the eight ball. To become a contender of any kind here, they must be able to get him on campus the weekend that he was supposed to visit Wisconsin, who is no longer in the race.