Why leave when you can stay home?: How local Recruiting shaped UNC Football program

For athletes everywhere, the recruiting process is always something to boast and be excited about. Having colleges express interest in your talents to possibly join their team leads to a huge life decision of what university to attend. 

Most of the top recruits want to play at the best programs and leave home to better their chances at making it to the league; however, we’ve seen players like Trae Young (University of Oklahoma) and Tim Tebow (University of Florida) turn down great offers and excel at their home universities.

So what happened to in-state recruiting? Why are schools not taking advantage of local talents who end up leaving?

Schools in the southern geographic location land the best athletes during most recruiting seasons. Schools such as Georgia and Alabama have some of the largest recruiting budgets in the country. Combined, both universities spend about $2 million every year to bring in the best talent consistently. Recruiting locally saves the pockets for university travel budgets during the recruitment process. 

In recent years, schools in North Carolina have taken advantage of all the local recruits coming out of the state. Based on a Max Prep survey from 2016, 67% of football recruits in North Carolina stay home for college. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) brought in legendary Coach Mack Brown to coach their football team in 2018. In three years, Brown has changed the landscape of Tarheel football. 

Ever since his first tenure at UNC in the 90s and historic stint with the Texas Longhorns, Brown has always been strong on local recruiting. In his first recruiting class, Brown flipped ESPN 300 quarterback Sam Howell, a native of Charlotte N.C., from Florida State to join the Tarheels. The following year, he brought in a total of 15 local recruits. In 2021, UNC finished with the No. 4 ranked class in the country with All 11 of UNC's ESPN 300 commitments hailing from North Carolina. 

“I want guys where their parents can see them play,” Brown said. “I want guys where their friends can see them play, their high school coaches can see them play. I’d love for guys to play on our team, by and large, that are going to live in that area when they get through because it’s easier for them to get jobs.”  

In addition, Brown believes that recruiting more in-house players ultimately makes the relationships closer on the team since they have prior chemistry in high school competitions. 

“The confidence that they come in with, the closeness that they come with, is something that I’ve never seen in a recruiting class before,” Brown said. “So many of them are from in-state, they’ve played against each other, they’ve gone to camps in the state. 

2022 looks to be a promising year for the Tarheels after landing the five-star defensive lineman Travis Shaw out of Grimsley Highschool in Greensboro N.C. Shaw committed to the Tarheels this past August. In total, he had 28 offers from schools like Georgia, Alabama and N.C. A&T. 

“Committed 1000% Tarheel Nation, I’m home,” Shaw said in his announcement on Instagram. 

The Tarheels will forever be known as a basketball dominant university to the public, but the new-look football program has given fans a new team to support in the college football world.

Browns' passion for local recruits has set a standard for opposing schools to consider recruiting at home before traveling across the country.