UNC Recruiting: Early Signing Day Primer for Tar Heels Football

The early College Football signing day begins on Wednesday and lasts 72 hours

One of the new additions to College Football this season was the early signing day period beginning on December 20.

Thanks to new rules set by the NCAA, the 2018 class can now sign during this 72-hour period rather than having to wait until Feb 1. It’s a chance to get early recruits signed and enrolled in their program.

For the North Carolina Tar Heels, the biggest news of the 2018 class was the decommitment of two players.

Tyler Shough announced he was decommitting from UNC and then committed to Oregon just a few months ago. The Tar Heels already had Jace Ruder in their 2018 class and currently, have Chazz Surratt and Nathan Elliott battling it out for the starting spot.

But the biggest shock was in the form of linebacker Payton Wilson.

Aside from Jordyn Adams, Wilson was UNC’s most important recruit in the 2018 class as a four-star in-state player.

Wilson started taking visits to NC State, Notre Dame and Ohio State before decommitting from UNC.

It was a big blow for the Tar Heels not only for the fact that they didn’t have a linebacker committed but that Wilson flipped to NC State.

Still, without those two recruits, UNC has a pretty solid class. Here’s what we should expect come Wednesday.

Early signings

The Tar Heels currently have 15 players verbally committed to their 2018 class. With this new rule, it’s unknown how recruits will use it.

They can use the early signing period to officially sign with the team, ending their recruitment or they could wait.

We fully expect most of the Tar Heels verbal commitments to sign during the early signing period this year. But don’t be shocked if a few don’t.

A few players have already decided they will sign during the early signing period:

Inside Carolina is reporting that the majority of UNC’s class is expected to sign during the period and could come early on Wednesday.

Any surprises?

There’s still plenty of uncommitted recruits left in this very important 2018 class and the Tar Heels could land some of them.

With the loss of Wilson, UNC’s focus shifts primarily to Dax Hollifield.

The linebacker is one of the best in the nation and is a top priority for the Tar Heels, as Hollifield admitted to reporters just weeks ago.

Hollifield is good friends with Wilson and there was once a dream of the two playing together in Carolina Blue. That has disappeared now and UNC is hopefully looking to land one of them.

Don’t expect Hollifield to announce during this three-day period. He’s taking a visit to Stanford in January and then will make an official announcement following that.

The other big target on UNC’s radar is offensive lineman William Barnes.

UNC’s offensive line struggled last season and couldn’t get on the same page, so a rebuild is totally needed and it needs to start with this class.

The Florida product is one of the best at his position and would be a huge get for the Tar Heels.

As for any surprises? Don’t expect any big recruits to flip to UNC on this three-day period.

The best chance for UNC to land a player like Hollifield or Barnes will be during the next signing period.

There is one player that UNC fans should keep their eye on. Defensive lineman Nick Fulwider committed to UNC on Nov. 2 following a visit to Chapel Hill.

But now, he’s going to make his decision between the Tar Heels and Arkansas Razorbacks during the early signing period.

Fulwider told SEC Country that he will make his announcement public Friday afternoon at Noon ET.

Class overview

The Tar Heels currently have 16 recruits in their 2018 class, headlined by Adams. But if Fulwider heads to Arkansas, the class will go down to 15.

Even with the potential loss of Fulwider, the Tar Heels still have a strong class.

They are currently ranked No. 31 in the 247 Sports college football recruiting class rankings that were last updated on Tuesday night.

UNC climbed up two spots in the latest rankings and now have the No. 6 class in the ACC.