Watch as head football coach Larry Fedora fields questions during UNC’s 2012 National Signing Day press conference — Fedora’s first signing day since making the move to Chapel Hill less than one month ago. Although the Tar Heel class of 2012 is not as highly ranked as some of the previous UNC classes, under the circumstances, most would agree that Fedora and staff performed admirably in signing a solid class. Twenty-three future Tar Heels faxed their LOI’s to UNC today, and it’s still possible at least one more highly regarded recruit joins the class.
Nine of ten of the top-ranked high school football players in the class of 2012 in the state of North Carolina have chosen to play their college football outside their home state. In the future, Fedora intends to do a better job enticing North Carolina’s most talented players to stay in state for their college careers. He explained, “My job is to put a product on the field that kids in the state get excited about — where a kid realizes, ‘Hey, I can reach every dream and goal I have right here on that field; so there’s no reason for me to leave; so there’s no reason for me to go very far.'”
Fedora and staff only had about three weeks to sign the Class of 2012, but in those weeks, they also managed to evaluate and offer scholarships to a number of outstanding players in the class of 2013. Not surprisingly, many of those players are from North Carolina.
Despite the negative recruiting, the looming sanctions, the program’s year under a lame-duck staff, the current staff’s very short time on the job, and the NCAA ‘investigation’ that never ends, the future of North Carolina football is bright.
