When John Blake resigned from the North Carolina football program, it not only lost its associate head coach but also its recruiting coordinator.
Blake, who resigned Sept. 5 amid speculation of his involvement with the NCAA investigation, helped UNC haul in a top-25 national recruiting class three of the past four years.
Despite the controversy surrounding the program, the time period in which UNC bags its recruits has remained essentially the same as it has the past four years, with Blake’s resignation a nonfactor thus far.
According to Scout.com, UNC received seven verbal commitments in the three weeks before news of the investigation broke July 15. Since then, only two recruits have given strong verbal commitments.
“I think everything’s in limbo until all this stuff is over,” said Miller Safrit, the Scout.com expert on North and South Carolina football recruiting.
“Everybody’s just waiting and seeing. That’s why you’ve only seen really two commitments since the news came out.”
But the lack of commitments since the investigation does not mean recruits are shying away from UNC. Recruiting normally drops off in the summer months and doesn’t pick up until winter.
In past Blake-led recruiting classes, verbal commitments level off in July and August after decent-to-strong showings in the spring.
UNC currently sits at No. 10 nationally in recruiting and is the top ACC school, according to Scout.com, due mostly to the strong recruiting done before the investigation began.