Carolina football kept recruiting right through the second signing day.

Of the 18 high school seniors Mack Brown signed back in December, more than half of them are already on campus preparing for spring practice. The class was rated in the top 15 in the country and in at least one top 10 ranking.

But Dre’ Bly had his eye on one more recruit, a 3-star, three-sport athlete from Florida who was being recruited by mostly SEC schools and Virginia from the ACC throughout the fall. The UNC staff met cornerback Dontae Balfour via Zoom in December and offered him a scholarship on Christmas Eve. He signed Wednesday.

He had only visited LSU before COVID shut down in-person recruiting, but somehow the Tar Heels made a digital impression on Balfour and snatched him away from Auburn and LSU. He became Carolina’s 19th member of the 2021 recruiting class.

The traditional first Wednesday in February signing day passed without much notice because most college-bound players around the country had already committed and signed. So, there was no press conference, no hoopla, just one last surprise.

It says something that UNC’s recruiting strategy is to wrap up the Tar Heel state, and Brown certainly did that, but also keep chasing one more out-of-state kid who seemed better than his 3-star ranking. Balfour also played basketball and ran track at Starke High School in Bradford, Florida, drawing offers from Penn State and Oregon as well as the SEC, where it looked like a two-school race between the two Tigers.

But Carolina loved his versatility. He competed in the 300 hurdles and triple jump in track and was a big scorer for a 6-2 guard in hoops. In football, he was most versatile, leading Bradford with 77 tackles and four interceptions. He also caught two touchdown passes and scored twice more on kick returns.

If anyone has a knack for cornerbacks, it’s Bly, one of the legendary defenders in Tar Heel history. He must have seen something in this kid to crash the party and stay on him till the end of the day.

 

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees. You can support local journalism and our mission to serve the community. Contribute today – every single dollar matters.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related Stories
‹
Chansky's Notebook: Let's Play Through
There should be no COVID testing for the Final Fours. Although her team lost a controversial game to UConn in the Elite 8, Baylor women’s coach Kim Mulkey is saying what many others are thinking. With this being the last weekend of college basketball for the men and women, why risk one team having to forfeit a game […]
Chansky's Notebook: Winning Attraction
Coincidentally, the Pitinos proved it’s about winning after all. This has been an interesting week for the basketball Pitinos. Father Rick returned to college coaching at Iona after scandalous stays at Kentucky and Louisville that drove him to pro ball in Europe. By winning the Metro Atlantic Conference tournament, after missing the most games this […]
Chansky's Notebook: Wins and Wisdom
What a weekend; didn’t go quite as expected. How many of you had Carolina losing to Florida State and Duke beating Louisville for its fifth-straight win? I did, and imagined that light at the end of the regular-season tunnel was a freight train ready to run over the Tar Heels’ intended trip to the NCAA […]
Chansky's Notebook: Bubble Burst
Well, as they say, the Tar Heels control their own destiny. With a bad loss to a pretty good 9-10 Marquette team, Carolina is on the verge of shooting itself out of the NCAA tournament. In fact, the Heels may have to run the table against three difficult ACC opponents to avoid missing the Dance […]
Chansky's Notebook: A Record 150
The old KO’d the older on a true senior night in Durham. The Syracuse-Duke game in Cameron Monday marked a clash between the two oldest coaches in the history of college basketball. Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski are 150 years old, the Orange leader at 76 and Coach K at 74. This distinction may have occurred in recent games between the long-time rivals […]
Chansky's Notebook: Miami Vice
Carolina is getting swamped by a perfect storm – and a Hurricane. The Tar Heels lost two games on Saturday afternoon, and both were predictable. In his Zoom conference Friday Roy Williams lamented, “We’ve had 18 games so far and only six at home.” The next day, his team played its fourth straight road game […]
Chansky's Notebook: Selfish Play
Kids will be kids, but what about everyone else? After Carolina’s dramatic win at Duke Saturday night, social media was filled with two video threads of celebrations. First the Tar Heels hugging on the Cameron Indoor Stadium court followed by the typical victory dance in the locker room led by Coach Roy Williams, who has […]
Chansky's Notebook: Commissioner K?
It seems like the countdown is on for Mike Krzyzewski. Before his team dropped to .500 in both ACC games and overall with the loss to Carolina, Krzyzewski acknowledged that he was coming to the end of his Hall of Fame coaching career. And he hinted, ever so slightly, what his next job might be. “In about a week (February 13), I’ll […]
Chansky's Notebook: Trap Game?
It’s Duke week and the Tar Heels are sitting pretty. Now that February is here, we can start the official jockeying for first-round byes in the ACC tournament at the empty Greensboro Coliseum. And with the balance that may be good or bad for NCAA bids, the ACC race is up for grabs. Virginia Tech […]
Chansky's Notebook: COVID, Scram!
The football Tar Heels are set up for another New Year’s Six Bowl, maybe more. Just coming off a season when the original football schedule was torn up and rewritten due to the pandemic, the ACC sure got the 2021 slate out fast, released Thursday when it usually rolls out in February. Carolina fans should be very excited, […]
›