UNC Football: Tar Heels trending for 4-star defensive end George Wilson II

4-star defensive end and UNC football target George Wilson II is set to announce his college decision next week.

Class of 2021 defensive end George Wilson II announced last week that he’d be making his college decision on July 12. He elaborated a bit further on the specifics of his announcement on Tuesday night, stating that the decision will be made public at 4:00 p.m. EST time Sunday afternoon.

It’s a decision that comes down to Arizona State, North Carolina, Penn State and South Carolina, the four programs that made Wilson’s list of finalists in early June. The Tar Heels, who weren’t even on Wilson’s list of seven finalists leading up to his June announcement, made a strong push toward the end of his recruitment to get into contention. In the time since, however, they appear to have taken the lead over the other three schools on his list.

A senior at Green Run High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Wilson recently credited UNC assistant coach Dre Bly as one of the driving forces in the Tar Heels’ recruitment of him. It was Bly who led the charge in the team’s recruitment of 5-star cornerback Tony Grimes, who committed to North Carolina last week. It appears to be working with Wilson, too, as all indications point to another upcoming UNC victory on the recruiting trail.

A trio of Crystal Ball predictions in favor of North Carolina came through last week when Wilson announced his decision date. That included one from Director of Football Recruiting Steve Wiltfong. That’s a good sign for the Tar Heels, given Wiltfong’s track record for correctly predicting the college destination of top recruits. He’s missed on just two of his 306 picks for the class of 2021. National Recruiting Analyst Brian Dohn, who has correctly predicted better than 98 percent of his picks for the 2021 class, is also on board with the Tar Heels. He submitted his pick the same day as Wiltfong.

Since then, four more predictions in favor of North Carolina have been submitted by college football insiders on 247Sports. The Tar Heels have 100 percent of votes in Wilson’s Crystal Ball, and the odds are in their favor. If they can, in fact, reel Wilson in next week, it’ll be their 12th 4-star recruit in the class, and would likely move them ahead of Clemson for second-place in the 247Sports team rankings.

Wilson is ranked 337th in the nation according to the 247Sports Composite. He’s 23rd among players at his position, and ninth in the state of Virginia. He’s ranked even higher in the Top247, which pegs him as the No. 182 overall prospect in the class, 13th among weak side defensive ends, and seventh in his home state.

Stick with Keeping It Heel for all the latest on the George Wilson recruitment, and everything UNC football.