As we close in on National Signing Day 2019, you attention may be focused in on how the Heels can close the 2019 recruiting cycle with a bang. That means that you may have missed some of the other storylines around the football program. Let’s catch you up with this week’s edition of Weekly Storylines.
Heels Make Top Five For Most Important Remaining Prospect
When 2019 4✮ OLB Eugene Asante previewed an announcement on Friday night, many, including myself, believed that we would be seeing an announcement from the Heels most important target remaining in the 2019 class, especially with the time of the announcement. Instead, Asante released his top five schools that he will be considering over the final week of his recruitment. The Heels join Florida State, Virginia Tech, Nebraska and Maryland as the schools who will have their last shot to impress the athletic linebacker prospect. The Heels will be in the best position, as they welcome Asante in for an official visit on Saturday. Can they leave a lasting impression on Asante heading into his Wednesday decision?
Heels Also Crack 2019 3✮ SDE Michael Lockhart’s Top Three
The Heels cracked another important prospect’s top schools on Friday. The Heels will join Mississippi State and Georgia Tech in the battle for the for the final three days of the 2019 recruiting cycle. If the Heels were to land his services, he would be the fifth prospect signing at strongside defensive end in this recruiting cycle. For that reason, the Heels are currently seen as being third in the race for his services.
Billy High Hired as Assistant AD and Recruiting Director
The Heels added another impressive piece to the 2019 football staff on Monday. High will move from Auburn to take over as the assistant athletic director and recruiting director for the Heels and Mack Brown. At Auburn, High was the on-campus recruiting director and also was the head of player personnel. As mentioned by Coach Brown in High’s official hiring video, High is regarded as one of the best young names in recruiting throughout all of college football.
Maurice Sims Joins Strength and Condition Staff
High wasn’t the only staff hire of the week for the Heels, as Brian Hess’ former assistant Marcus Sims will follow him to Chapel Hill. Sims will hold down the same role that he held at Army the past two seasons, as the assistant strength and conditioning coach. Bringing yet another member of the Army staff that helped build Jay Bateman’s defenses in West Point will only continue to help the Heels establish the defensive mindset that Bateman wants. The focus on defense is refreshing after the years of neglect on that side of the football under Larry Fedora. Sims is also back in the state of North Carolina A&T, after being part of the strength and conditioning staff that helped turn that program into one of the best at the FCS level.
Allen Cater’s Injury Will Cost Him Spring Camp
When Cater went down with the injury against Syracuse back in the fall, the severity of his leg injury was relatively unknown. We are now learning, however, that the injury was a fairly severe one and that recovery will be a long one. Andrew Jones of Tar Heel Illustrated spoke with Cater earlier last week and has said that he hopes to be back with the team by fall camp. Cater (12 ttkl, 2.0 TFL, 2.0 scks) is coming off a season that was off to a strong start prior to the injury, and was expected to be counted on heavily this season with Malik Carney and Tyler Powell departing due to graduation. Cater may still have a sizable impact in the fall, but Chris Collins, Tyrone Hopper and Jake Lawler among others will have to take steps forward to make things easier on Cater early on in the season.
Rod Broadway and Paul Miller Elected to North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
The two former Tar Heel football players were elected to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame last week. Broadway, who will be remembered by many for his contributions to the HBCU college coaching ranks, was an All-ACC defensive tackle at Carolina back in 1977, before going on to coach North Carolina Central, Grambling State and North Carolina A&T to a 125-45 record under his watch and five black national championships between the three schools. Paul Miller was under center for the Heels from 1969-71 and was an All-ACC first team selection in 1971.