UNC Football: Tar Heels battling a top SEC program for 5-star

Mack Brown and the UNC Football program added to their 2022 class on Sunday with another commitment, this time from a three-star offensive lineman. With seven commitments in the 2022 class, the Tar Heels are off to a great start for their class and have the potential to add to their class.

Among the targets left on UNC’s board is five-star defensive lineman Travis Shaw.

The Greensboro native is ranked as the top recruit overall in the state of North Carolina and has a total of 27 offers in his recruitment. But with top programs showing interest, are we headed for a two-team race?

Robbie Weinstein of 247Sports wrote a piece on Shaw’s recruitment based on Director of Recruiting Steve Wiltfong’s predictions. On a recent podcast, Wiltfong went on to talk about Shaw and named two teams to watch in his recruitment: North Carolina and Georgia.

"“Yeah, those are the two I’m keeping the closest eye on,” Wiltfong said. “I think Clemson’s in the top three, and he was at Clemson a couple weeks ago. But something just tells me that Georgia and North Carolina are in the best spot. He was at North Carolina a couple weeks ago and now returning for his official visit. Tim Cross, Lonnie Galloway, Mack Brown of course — those guys have really put North Carolina in a great position.“Talking to Travis Shaw’s mom, just the family feel that they have at North Carolina is something that is really intriguing and exciting. North Carolina, they’ve recruited the defensive line as well as any program in America the last two cycles, and Travis Shaw is as big a target as Mack Brown has had since he has come to Chapel Hill. Right there in the same breath with Sam Howell, who was a program-changing win. Travis Shaw would be a program-sustaining win with the expectations that North Carolina has coming into the season.”"

While Shaw does have a top four that also includes Clemson and North Carolina A&T, this recruitment might be a battle between the Tar Heels and Bulldogs down the stretch.

The 6-foot-5, 310-pound defensive tackle is ranked No. 9 overall, the No. 4 defensive lineman and the No. 1 player in the state per the 247Sports recruiting rankings. As for a decision, one could be coming this Summer per Wiltfong and if that’s the case, we have to imagine UNC has a legit shot to pull it off and take down an SEC program in this recruitment.

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