UNC Athletics: It’s not just a great day to be a Tar Heel, it’s the best day

It’s always a great day to be a Tar Heel, but at the moment it just might be the best for the UNC Athletics program

Right now is a great time to be a Tar Heel.

I’m sure I’ll have a couple of disagreements as the UNC basketball program just had their worst season in nearly twenty years but trust me, the memory of the 2019-20 Tar Heels will quickly vanish.

North Carolina fans usually base their fandom solely around the basketball program, but what makes these times so exciting is that football may no longer play little brother to basketball in Chapel Hill.

At the moment, the Tar Heel football program ranks 3rd in the country for the 2021 class per 247 Sports with more five-star commits then LSU, USC, and Florida. And, in terms of four-stars, they have received more commitments than Oregon, Michigan, and Alabama.

The future is bright but so is the present.

Quarterback Sam Howell is coming off a masterful freshman season under center and don’t be surprised if his name slowly starts to make it’s way into the Heisman conversation as the season goes on.

For basketball, the 2020 recruiting class is one of Roy Williams’ highest-ranked classes in his tenure in Chapel Hill. With 3 five-stars and 3 four-stars, the class ranks second in the country trailing only to Kentucky according to the 247Sports class rankings.

Garrison Brooks is returning, Armando Bacot continues to develop, and the incoming class is loaded with talent. The expectation is that the Tar Heels spend the entirety of the season hovering around the top of the national rankings.

I can’t remember a time when there was more buzz around the school as a whole. With a potential Heisman candidate under center in the fall and a plethora of five-stars dominating the court in the winter, it just may be the greatest time ever to be a Tar Heel.

Obviously, it’s always been a great day to be a Tar Heel because of the legacy of the basketball program built by Dean Smith and Roy Williams, but what Mack Brown has been accomplishing recently will put UNC on the national stage not only on the court but on the field too.

Just imagine a season over the next few years where the Tar Heels manage to make their way into the final four for not just basketball, but football too.

It seems like a reach but with Sam Howell locked in for at least two more seasons and with Trevor Lawrence leaving Clemson after next year, anything is possible.