LYNCHBURG, VA – Rivals.com was on hand this past Friday night for Liberty Christian Academy’s 39-6 victory over Roanoke (VA) Fleming in a game that featured 5-star offensive lineman Zach Rice for Liberty.

Above is a highlight video from Rice’s performance. He is currently the No. 17 overall prospect in the nation for the class of 2022, No. 3 at his position, and he is the No. 1 prospect in Virginia.

Rice has more than 35 offers and announced a top eight of Florida, LSU, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Virginia, and North Carolina. But Rice told THI last week Alabama is now very much in the mix. UNC is one of his top schools, he told THI.

There are other reasons he’s impressed with Mack Brown’s program.

“I would say it took one trendsetter for UNC just to start off and they're gonna keep getting more trendsetters,” Rice said. “I would say the biggest thing for me is how they're getting recruits from Virginia. That's very cool. It's something that Virginia Tech and some of the other schools aren't really focusing on, so I would say that's the biggest thing. They have three of their four commits out of Virginia.

"And also I would say, man, they have trendsetters, they have people that work hard. Two years ago, I would have said UNC’s a basketball school and now UNC has flipped everything. That's kind of crazy how you see UNC coming from being unranked in football and now I think they’re going to be top 10 this year.”