Top Class of 2026 quarterback visiting UNC football in April

Fans of the UNC football program got some very good news on Friday. One of the top quarterback prospects in the Class of 2026 is paying a visit to Chapel Hill in April. Namely, Brady Hart from Cocoa, Florida.

Hart told 247Sports that he has a long list of official visits to make over the next two months--and North Carolina is among them. He plans to visit Chapel Hill on April 9, three days after visiting Miami. He also has visits scheduled with Central Florida (his hometown school), Penn State, LSU, and Florida State.

You read that right.

A high school quarterback from a longstanding gold mine for high school talent mentions the UNC football program in the same breath as some of the sport's longstanding blue bloods.

Hart is fresh off leading the Cocoa High Tigers to their second consecutive Florida Class 2S title, a 20-6 victory over Bradford High. Watch highlights here.

Hart's head coach, Ryan Schneider, told 247Sports that even as a sophomore, Hart had the traits to go far and fast at the next level. Specifically, "his work ethic, his competitiveness, how serious he takes everything on and off the field." Schneider added that Hart took the helm of "a senior-laden team," but quickly "earned their respect."

According to Schneider, Hart already showed he had "that it factor" as a sophomore, and demonstrated that he "wants the ball in his hands" at clutch time. Those are traits you don't often see in a sophomore quarterback, especially one coming from a state as hyper-competitive as Florida.

Hart told 247Sports that he's looking for two things in a school--"(the) culture of the team" and "an offensive scheme I fit into." It looks like he prefers a team that runs the spread; of the teams Hart is slated to visit, LSU is the only one that doesn't use some form of the spread as its base scheme.