North Carolina Football: 3 instant impact signees from 2020 class

Mack Brown has turned North Carolina football back into a relevant program in just one year and he’s signed the No. 19 recruiting class for 2020.

The excitement is back in Chapel Hill on the gridiron and that has a lot to do with the quick turnaround engineered by Mack Brown. Well, Brown and rising star Sam Howell at quarterback.

In his first year back with the Tar Heels, Brown went 7-6 with a Military Bowl blowout of Temple. His team was sitting at 4-6 with two games left and the Tar Heels were able to win out and then end the season with a three-game streak with that bowl victory.

North Carolina is a far cry from its Larry Fedora days and that’s because the program actually looks like one that has a bright future and will help fans get out of the funk that has been this basketball season.

Which signees will have an immediate impact for the Tar Heels?

Not many people realize that North Carolina had a couple of 1,000-yard receivers in 2019 in Dazz Newsome and Dyami Brown but the position that was lacking was tight end.

In fact, Garrett Walston was the No. 1 tight end last season and yet had just nine receptions for 76 yards and a touchdown. He actually had less receiving yards than both running backs who were featured for the Tar Heels in 2019. That means that a kid like John Copenhaver will need to make an immediate impact to pick that position up.

Tight end is a young quarterback’s best friend and Sam Howell didn’t quite have one that he could rely on, and that’s where the three-star Georgia-native will come into play.

Copenhaver is enrolled early and has some weight to put on his 6-foot-3 frame still, but he should be able to learn the offense and break the two-deep by the end of spring ball.