On Wednesday afternoon, North Carolina football head coach Larry Fedora walked up to the podium in Kenan Memorial Stadium’s press conference room and asked the assembled media a question: “So, what do y’all want to talk about?”
The answer, of course, was obvious. Wednesday marked national signing day, the final day for members of the class of 2018 to decide where they will be playing football in the fall. For college football coaches, as well as fans, it’s one of the biggest days of the year. For UNC, signing day 2018 provided more fireworks than it had in years.
The team finished with the No. 23 ranked class in the country, the top class of Fedora's tenure. Here’s a look at the seven new Tar Heels that signed.
At about 7 a.m., Matthew Flint became the first player to put pen to paper for UNC on national signing day. The 6-1, 213-pound linebacker has been enrolled at the school since January, but he made things official on Wednesday. Flint, a native of Gurley, Ala., comes in as the No. 16 outside linebacker in Alabama and No. 36 in the nation for the position, according to 247Sports. With the departure of junior linebacker Andre Smith for the NFL draft, Flint could certainly get the chance to step up and prove himself capable of a starting job early in his UNC career.
The second signing of the day was Joshua Ezeudu, who was announced shortly after Flint. Ezeudu is a 6-5, 305-pound offensive lineman hailing from Lawrenceville, Ga. Ezedu is the 80th-ranked offensive tackle in the country.
It took five more hours for the third signing to come, but it was worth the wait for Tar Heel football fans. William Barnes, a dominant offensive lineman, became the third new member of the UNC team at noon. Standing at 6-foot-5 and 320 pounds, Barnes is an exciting four-star prospect who ranks as the fifth best offensive tackle in the nation, and the 45th overall ranked prospect.
Barnes is seen by many to be a steal for the UNC program, and Fedora didn’t hide the fact he was proud of his signing.
“We knew he was a heck of a player,” the coach said. “We wouldn’t have recruited him if he wasn’t. We were excited about him … and he ended up loving this place and wanting to be a Tar Heel, and now today he is.”
The Apopka, Fla., native (who shares his hometown with men’s basketball star Joel Berry II) will likely be competing for starting time right out of the gate. He is joined on the offensive line by his high school teammate and fellow Apopka, Fla., native, Ed Montilus. Coming off a season in which he led Apopka High to a 10-4 record and a spot in the Florida 8A regional semifinals, Montilus joins up with Barnes in the hopes of continuing their dominant offensive line partnership in Chapel Hill.
