Travis Shaw, a 5-star defensive tackle who attends Grimsley High School in Greensboro, NC, announced Saturday evening he will play football for Mack Brown at North Carolina.

The No. 3 overall prospect in the nation for the class of 2022, Shaw is the top player in North Carolina and is the highest-rated player to commit to the Tar Heels since Ronald Curry flipped from Virginia to UNC in March of 1998. Curry, who was from Hampton, VA, was the national player of the year in both football and basketball, the only such athlete to ever earn that distinction in both sports.

Shaw is the highest-rated commitment for UNC in the Rivals.com era, which started in 2002.

At 6-foot-6 and 325 pounds, Shaw led Grimsley to the state championship this spring and was named the NCPreps.com state Player of the Year. He chose UNC over a final list of four schools that also included Clemson, Georgia, and N.C. A&T.

“Carolina is in your backyard, the home school, so it’s real special, especially with some of the other names that came out of North Carolina,” Shaw told THI.

The relationship with defensive line coach Tim Cross was a big factor, too.

“Them my dogs,” Shaw said about the UNC staff. “I rock with them hard. Coach Cross, Coach Mack Brown.”

Shaw was at UNC for its spring game and stuck around despite rain and poor weather. He was back at UNC in early June and then took his official visit on the last weekend of June. He visited Clemson early in the month and was at UGA in Athens twice before taking his official visit to UNC over the final weekend in June. His official visit to Georgia occurred the weekend of June 18. Shaw returned to Chapel Hill in late July for Carolina’s recruiting cookout.

Shaw also had offers from Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Oregon, Florida, Auburn and many others.

Shaw told THI he will be enrolling next January.

Note: THI is at Grimsley High School right now, so stay with us for extensive coverage on Shaw's commitment to Carolina.

“Shaw is the jewel of the class and the possible cornerstone to a dominating defense in the near future. This is so big for the Carolina program to keep an elite player home from the national powers of Clemson and Georgia.”