The Tar Heels were firmly in the running for one of the best defensive lineman in the transfer portal but they have come up just short.
Earlier this evening, Penn DT transfer Joey Slackman announced via social media that he will transfer to Florida for his final year of eligibility. So far in his college career, he’s played in 28 games and earned Ivy League Player of the Year honors.
In the end, the race for his services appears to have come down to the Gators and Tar Heels following a week of official visits around the country. The Tar Heels hosted him in the middle of last week and established themselves as one of the leaders in large part because of his ties to defensive line coach Tim Cross. Unfortunately, it was enough to top the Gators who blew him away when they hosted him in Gainesville last weekend.
With Slackman now headed elsewhere, the Tar Heels need to establish some other relationships at the defensive tackle spot immediately. James Madison transfer James Carpenter should be one of the first names that they reach out to after his extremely productive career in Harrisonburg where he was one of the top tacklers in the country at the position. The team should also strongly consider Oklahoma transfer Kelvin Gilliam Jr. and Alabama transfer Isaiah Hastings, high-profile recruits that just never panned out at their first stops.