Can North Carolina turn recruiting success into on-field success?

By Lee Roberts  |   Wednesday, February 04, 2009  |  Comments( 1 )

North Carolina Tar Heels
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The North Carolina Tar Heels are the ACC champions of national signing day in college football. Butch Davis and the Tar Heels managed to reel in Scout.com's fifth-ranked recruiting class, by far the highest-ranked group in the conference. Perennial ACC recruiting giants Florida State and Miami had solid top 20 classes, but the Tar Heels were the only ones to finish in the top 10 on signing day. Recruiting has always been a strength of Davis, but now he must find a way to turn his victory in February into wins on Saturdays in the fall.

Davis' recruiting efforts have been strong since arriving in Chapel Hill. Despite only having two months after being hired, the 2007 recruiting class finished 14th in the country. In 2008, the Tar Heels had the 30th-best recruiting class. Both are terrific efforts, but neither can match the recruiting haul Davis pulled in this year. However, the Tar Heels have yet to see results on the field equivalent to their success in the living room.

As Virginia Tech proves on an annual basis, winning signing day isn't the most important piece of a program. If coaches can find players to match the program's needs and develop lesser known recruits into ACC talents, that still equates to being a good recruiter. However, having the best athletes certainly doesn't hurt. Just ask Pete Carroll and Southern Cal. Not only is Carroll a great coach who knows how to motivate his players, but he also consistently has top 10 recruiting classes. And that's the challenge for Davis.

Last season, the Tar Heels were on the verge of living up to their recruiting rankings, but injuries derailed the season. Little-known recruit Brandon Tate had developed into an All-ACC-level performer at wide receiver, but his knee injury and QB T.J. Yates' hurt ankle stalled the Tar Heel offense. Without enough high-level depth at those positions, UNC struggled and finished third in the ACC Coastal Division.

Now, UNC's recruiting class is one of the best in the nation. Davis has outdone national powerhouses like Texas, Georgia and Oklahoma. Of course, these will be the only rankings that UNC is ahead of those schools going into next season. But if the Tar Heels can continue to build depth on both sides of the ball, they have the chance to compete on that level. It's up to Davis and his staff to turn these recruiting wins into actual victories on the field. If he's able to do that, North Carolina could be a major player on the national scene for a long time to come.
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About Lee Roberts

Born in Richmond, Va, I moved south to UNC-Chapel Hill for college and received a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. I currently live in Charlotte, NC and cover Auburn, LSU and the ...
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