As we hit the final week of February, spring football for the Tar Heels is just around the corner. Before we talk spring football, though it’s time to catch you up on this past week’s storylines, including a look at the Heels big recruiting weekend that just took place.
Junior Day A Successful One For the New Staff
While Saturday’s Junior Day festivities on campus did not bring about a committed, it did have an impact on the players that were in attendance. 5✮ OLB Antoine Sampah was the biggest name amongst the group and seemed to enjoy the visit to Chapel Hill, as witnessed by the fact that the Heels were part of his top eight schools that he named on Sunday. His high school, who was on campus with four of his players, three of which now have offers from Carolina, showed his appreciation for what he says is a “reestablished relationship” with Carolina and Mack Brown. Joe Williams, the father of 2020 3✮ WDE Quentin Williams tweeted out “I must admit… As a parent, I’m thoroughly impressed with Coach Mack Brown and his staff” following his visit with his son on Saturday. Many other prospects in attendance tweeted about their enjoyment of the experience, and 2020 4✮ OG Jimmy Christ also had some great things to say about the visit in an interview with Tar Heel Illustrated. Overall, this was another successful weekend helping to reestablish those lost connections among high school coaches and repair the Heels’ name on the recruiting trail.
Nick Polino Named Football Team Scholar Athlete
Saturday, the school’s athletic director’s scholar-athletes were honored at the basketball game against Florida State. The football team’s representative for the 2018 season is offensive guard Nick Polino. Polino started every game a year ago after playing in 20 games in the first two years of his career. Polino was also named to the All-ACC Academic back on January 30th.
Three Former Tar Heels Trying to Make Impacts in New AAF
The Heels three representatives in the sports newest league are still trying to find their roles with their teams at this point of the inaugural season. The Atlanta Legends have two former Heels on the roster, and one, cornerback Des Lawrence, was a starter, but went down with an injury in Week 2 and was out for this week’s game against Birmingham. He is part of a secondary that is allowing over 350 yards passing so far this season, but he should be a starter once he returns from injury. Teammate Bug Howard was an influential part of the passing game in the first game of the season at tight end, the position he made the move to after signing with the Legends. However, his role has been scaled back from Week 1, although his amount of snaps in Week 3 show he does still have a role at tight end. Meanwhile, in San Antonio, Marquise Williams has carved out a role as the backup to starting quarterback Logan Woodside and has been the short down quarterback. Barring an injury, expect Williams to hold down that same role once again.