The Mitch Effect
CHAPEL HILL – Mitch Trubisky’s growth as a quarterback and ascent up NFL draft charts is having a positive effect on the recruiting trail for North Carolina.
UNC has offered a few quarterbacks from the class of 2018 in recent weeks, and each has said Trubisky’s development and that he is expected to go high in the NFL draft make UNC appealing, or it’s at the very least are giving some prospects reason to take a longer glance at the Tar Heels’ program than maybe they would have previously.
“I think anytime a program prepares a player to be successful and utilizes his strengths, you have to be interested,” said Tanner McKee, a 4-star quarterback in the class of 2018 from Corona, CA. “Trubisky is a great QB.”
McKee has offers from Georgia, Louisville, Nebraska, Utah, and is in regular talks with Stanford and Alabama, among others. So, if UNC’s pursuit of his services continues to grow, the Heels will have some stout competition to land the southpaw.
But having Trubisky’s experience as a selling point can work in Carolina’s favor. But it also simply helps with overall awareness, and interest from prep signal callers is quite high.
“It’s very evident right now because we get phone calls every day (from) quarterbacks out there,” UNC coach Larry Fedora said Wednesday during his National Signing Day press conference.
“I can tell you, Heck (quarterbacks coach Keith Heckendorf), I didn’t know where he was most of the time. He was all over the country, from the state of California to Washington to you name it, looking at ’18 and ’19 quarterbacks, and in some cases ’20 quarterbacks.”
McKee was one of the quarterbacks Heckendorf visited, and the pair hit it off immediately. Heckendorf also visited 2019 quarterback Grant Gunnell from Houston, TX. It was their first in-person meeting and it went very well.
Gunnell was excited to have Heckrndorf in to watch him throw, noting the Trubisky factor was a big part of the excitement. After all, Heckendorf is partly responsible for Trubisky’s development.
(It’s) a good attraction, especially since he (Trubisky) is being looked as maybe the number one QB draft pick,” Gunnell said.
Trubisky went to UNC as a 3-star prospect, so his current status can’t be dismissed as just a supremely talented player cashing in on his natural gifts. A great deal of work went into his stock growing, and that’s something that helps UNC even more with prospects than if he was 5-star guy playing like a 5-star guy from day one.
“They all recognize what we’ve done,” Fedora said. “When you see how quickly Mitch developed as he was here, and what he was able to do and what he’s projected to do at the next level, I think there’s a lot of quarterbacks out there that are excited and interested in seeing what’s going on.”
No doubt, and UNC is seeing the evidence of that on a daily basis.