CHAPEL HILL– With the 2013 Tar Heel football season in the books, attention turns to the recruiting trail. And that includes incoming players along with an offensive coordinator following Blake Anderson’s departure for Arkansas State.

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Inside Carolina’s Greg Barnes says with the limited scholarships from the NCAA sanctions still in effect, the Tar Heels have managed to load up on plenty of young talent.

“They’re loaded in terms of everything they need. They’re limited in terms of scholarship numbers. They’ve got pretty much everybody in place that they need,” Barnes says.

Running back Elijah Hood has been turning heads lately with his mind-boggling numbers. Recently, he was named North Carolina AP player of the year.  Barnes says the Tar Heel commit could be an impact player for UNC.

“The headliner, of course, is Elijah Hood. […] He’s a big-time running back – one of the top guys in the nation. He’s kind of the headliner at the moment,” Barnes says.

Defensive end Kareem Martin will be heading to the NFL following his top-notch senior campaign. But Barnes says the Tar Heels have a promising replacement coming in, Jeremiah Clarke out of Virginia, to fill the void.

“You lose guys like Kareem Martin on the defensive line. They’ve got a kid committed, Jeremiah Clarke, who’s considered the No. 11 defensive end in the country. So that’s a nice trade-off,” Barnes says.

And as for the timeline of offensive coordinator search, Jones Angell of the Tar Heel Sports Network says he expects Carolina to hire someone before the recruiting dead period ends in mid-January.

“Football is right in the middle of a dead period, recruiting-wise. I believe it’s Jan. 18 or right in that time period when the recruiting dead period ends. So I would expect the Tar Heels would badly want to make sure they have an offensive coordinator in place at that point,” Angell says.

Angell didn’t name any specific names, but he says the pressure is off because at the end of the day, this has always been Head Coach Larry Fedora’s offense.

“They aren’t going to change the way that they play offense. And that’s the caveat that comes with having a head coach who was an offensive coordinator and that really has his own unique style of offense,” Angell says.