GoHeels Exclusive: Early Signing Day Notebook

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

Given only 22 days to recruit between his hiring as North Carolina's head football coach in November 2018 and the start of the early signing period, Mack Brown still managed to put together a top-30 class last year.

Ultimately, that proved to be an all-important first step in putting the program on the upward trajectory it's currently on. And on Wednesday, the first day of the 2019 early signing period, Brown and his staff continued that momentum with the signing of 25 players to UNC's 2020 recruiting class.

"We felt like after a year of very hard work this is a very, very successful day," Brown told reporters during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Brown's class is ranked No. 3 in the ACC and No. 19 in the nation, according to 247Sports, good for the Tar Heels' best haul since the 18th-ranked 2011 class. It's comprised of 14 recruits from North Carolina, including 12 of the state's top 30.

Since his hiring, Brown has stressed the importance of keeping North Carolina's best recruits in state, just as he did in his first tenure in Chapel Hill. He and his staff not only accomplished that with this class, but they also achieved another goal of bringing in players who can help the team as soon as next season.

"It gives us a lot more strength as a team with our depth. …" Brown said. "We've always told our players to try to outrecruit yourself, let's get someone here who is going to challenge you to get better. The more depth you get, the more guys you get to challenge each other, the more competitive your team becomes and the fewer injuries you have because you have more people playing."

Here are five more notes from Wednesday's press conference.

Sending a message

The headliner of the class, defensive lineman Desmond Evans, ranked No. 32 nationally in the 247Sports Composite, is the fourth-best prospect to sign with Carolina in the Internet era, dating back to 2000. Just as importantly, the Lee County High standout is the second straight No. 2 in-state recruit to sign with UNC, joining Sam Howell.

"When the top players flip or stay here, it sends a message to all the young '21s who are out there that it's OK to come here now," Brown said. "'We're the best players in the state this year and we're coming, so you can come with us.' Actually, they're the ones who recruit them, and that's when you start getting a lot better."

Improving a strength

During his time at Texas, Brown said the Longhorns got behind at quarterback due to injury and transfer. Combine that experience with the position's importance, he and the staff made signing another quarterback in Jacolby Criswell a priority despite Howell's success and the promise Jace Ruder has shown when healthy.

That'll be the Tar Heels' approach going forward, as well.

"We've got to keep at least three quarterbacks who can play on our campus," Brown said. "And it depends on if you think you're going to lose one, you sign another one every year because you can't have enough good quarterbacks. And then we're going to try to see if we can play two. I've always wanted to do that; we tried (this) year and Jace got hurt."

It's one thing to sign another quarterback. But it's another to bring in one like Criswell, a Morrilton, Arkansas native and the nation's 11th-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the 247Sports Composite.

Some recruits might shy away from joining a room that includes a true freshman who did the sorts of things Howell did while starting every game this season. That, however, wasn't a deterrent for Criswell, Brown said.

"Really and truly, (Criswell) didn't ask a lot about Sam," Brown said. "He was proud of him and thought he looked really good, but he wants to play. It's also very interesting that great prospects never ask about who is there, even at that position. … You want the guys who aren't scared.

"And I think the fact that Phil Longo had a relationship with (Criswell) for the last 2 1/2 years was huge. I don't know if we could've gotten him out of Arkansas if Phil hadn't known him and had the relationship with him for that long."

Criswell is one of 12 early enrollees. The others are offensive lineman Jonathan Adorno, defensive lineman Kedrick Bingley-Jones, tight end John Copenhaver, receiver Tylee Craft, receiver Josh Downs, linebacker Cedric Gray, running back D.J. Jones, tight end Kendall Karr, defensive back Cameron Roseman-Sinclair, linebacker Ethan West and offensive lineman Trey Zimmerman.

Developing depth in the trenches

The biggest point of emphasis for Carolina in this recruiting cycle was to improve along both lines of scrimmage. By signing five defensive linemen and four offensive linemen, Brown believes UNC accomplished that.

"We don't have any junior offensive linemen," Brown said. "All these guys are back expect Charlie Heck and Nick Polino, but after that, next year nobody leaves. So, we've got two years of these guys, but we need to start getting more competition and more depth in that area, so that was key.

"And the same thing in the defensive line. You lose Aaron Crawford and you lose Jason Strowbridge, and next year you lose (Tomon) Fox and (Tyrone) Hopper. So, you're losing a lot of the guys who have played the last few years in the defensive line, so we've got to upgrade in that area."

Searching for versatility

As he broke down tape of the signees during his press conference, Brown mentioned a few players who might play multiple positions. Among them is Jefferson Boaz, who Brown said will be given a chance to play quarterback after throwing for 4,615 yards and 65 touchdowns at East Surry High this fall, but "could be a great NFL tight end."

Brown said Dick Tomey – who served as the head coach at Hawaii, Arizona and San Jose State, and was also Brown's assistant head coach and defensive ends coach at Texas in 2004 – opened his eyes to the importance of recruiting multi-positional players.

"He said something that made a lot of sense to me: 'If a guy can play a lot of different places, he's going to be successful because if you take him at one place and he can't play that place, then he's through,'" Brown said. "But if you take a guy like (three-star athlete) Cedric Gray, who can play six or seven places, we're going to find a place for him to play. That makes sense to me.

"(Recruits) say, 'Where am I going to play, Coach?' And I said, 'I don't know. You've got a lot of places you can play.' And that makes it so much better than if you're locked into one place."

What's next?

Brown said he and his staff are starting to shift their attention to the 2021 class. But the Tar Heels might sign a few more players to the 2020 class between now and the traditional signing day on Feb. 5.

"We're going to look hard because we found probably six or seven guys in that second window last year who we didn't really know a lot about before," Brown said. "And we'll probably look at a couple of transfers. Grad transfers are something, too, because we weren't able to do that last year. We'll look at both of those moving forward. We don't have to sign anybody else. You'd always like to have as many pass rushers as you can get. You'd like to always have a great center, if you could do that. But we'll keep looking at any of the positions.

"It'd just have to be a great player. We'll have fewer numbers of scholarships next year, so you don't want to take an average player this year who costs you a great player next year because next year's class is tremendous in this state. So, we're so excited about the '21s. We're not going to take an average guy. He would have to be a really special player before we would take him between now and February."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jonathan Adorno

Kedrick Bingley-Jones

Jefferson Boaz

John Copenhaver

Tylee Craft

Aaron Crawford

Jacolby Criswell

Josh Downs

Desmond Evans

Cedric Gray

Charlie Heck

Sam Howell

D.J. Jones

Kendall Karr

Nick Polino

Cameron Roseman-Sinclair

Jace Ruder

Jason Strowbridge

Ethan West

Trey Zimmerman

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