UNC Football: Tar Heels make 5-star OT’s Top 5

The UNC Football program is getting set to begin spring practices this week as excitement is in the air for the Tar Heels, and rightfully so. Mack Brown and his team are coming off a 2020 season in which they reached the Orange Bowl.

That was a big accomplishment when you think of where the Tar Heels were a few years ago, winning three games from 2017-18. But Brown and his staff have changed things here in Chapel Hill and a lot of that has to do with their recruiting.

UNC turned in another impressive class in 2021 and are hoping to build on that for 2022. A good start would be getting a five-star recruit and on Sunday, they took a big step forward for one recruit.

Five-star offensive tackle Zach Rice make a big update to his recruitment, cutting his list down to just five programs. North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, Notre Dame and Ohio State are the five teams that Rice will focus on moving forward as he announced on Sunday via Twitter:

In addition to naming his Top 5, Rice also revealed that he plans on taking official visits to each of these five programs before making a decision. Rice told Rivals.com that he will take an admissions visit to UNC next weekend and then will head to Virginia the 11th-13th.

He also dished on the Tar Heels and what he likes about the program in his recruitment so far:

"“It’s been kind of the same old stuff with them,” said Rice. “I really like the people that are there, the connections, and the Jordan Brand. A lot of their commitments are from Virginia too.”"

It’s tough to rank the teams for Rice right now but it does appear that the Tar Heels are a legit contender and could be his top school. But there is a long way to go in this recruitment and these visits could be the deciding factor for him.

For more on the UNC Football program,  please make sure to check back with Keeping It Heel.