Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels Flip 4✮ S from Ohio State

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The Tar Heels momentum on the 2026 recruiting just continues to get stronger.

As first reported by Hayes Fawcett of Rivals, the Tar Heels have completed a flip of 2026 4✮ S Jakob Weatherspoon from Ohio State. Weatherspoon had been committed to the Buckeyes since January 2nd. He did take an unofficial visit to Chapel Hill back in early March, but never did take an official visit to campus.

Weatherspoon, the No. 178 overall prospect and No. 14 safety prospect, hails from Avon High School in Avon, OH. This past season, as a junior, he finished with first team all-state, county, district and conference honors while helping lead his team to a perfect 16-0 record and a OHSAA Region 6 title. Unfortunately, stats are not available as they are not reported to MaxPreps by his high school.

Weatherspoon, who measures in at 5’10, 172 lbs. might be slight in terms of his frame, but he is as complete of a safety as you are going to find in this class. The first thing that sticks out is the motor that he constantly shows off, running down play after play even if he is not in the area where the play is initially happening. His speed is very impressive and when combined with his ability to break on the football, it makes life tough for opposing quarterbacks. Even though he doesn’t pile up interceptions, he does a great job of making plays on the football and coming away with important pass breakups, especially in the deep part of the field. He gets in and out breaks smoothly and efficiently and when he is forced to play one-on-one in coverage, he does so handles his own pretty well. As a run defender, he boasts some nice physicality to go along with the speed, leading to big hits at times. He is also a strong tackler, doing a good job of wrapping up in open space to avoid big plays.

With his commitment, the Tar Heels now have 33 total commits in the class, including four at the safety position. When it comes to the 247Sports Composite Player Rankings, the class sits 17th overall and 4th in the ACC thanks to this commitment and the huge jump from Travis Burgess in the latest round of rankings from 247Sports.