CHAPEL HILL -- Clint Heaven had no shortage of Division I scholarship offers, but for a while he had liked the idea of playing football at North Carolina. Even so, a lot of coaches from other schools told Heaven, a defensive back from Bradenton, Fla., the same kinds of things, he said.
"Definitely, you'll encounter some coaches that say, 'Oh, they might be on probation, you don't really want to go there, they might have sanctions,' " Heaven said of rival recruiters discussing the specter of NCAA penalties to be levied against the Tar Heels program. "But I felt that it was a great decision and that everything will work out."
Heaven is one of eight prospects from the class of 2012 who have committed to North Carolina in the past month - the first in which new coach Larry Fedora and his staff have been on the job. With national signing day approaching Wednesday, North Carolina has received 22 commitments, according to Rivals.com.
A little more than a month ago, while Fedora was still finalizing his coaching staff, the Tar Heels had 14 commitments. After building a staff of assistants, stabilizing the Tar Heels' recruiting efforts became Fedora's most important priority.
In ordinary times, it would have been difficult enough for a new coach and a new staff to come together and salvage a recruiting class. But these haven't been ordinary times for North Carolina, which is still awaiting word from the NCAA about what penalties it will face in the wake of investigations into impermissible benefits and academic fraud.
Fedora had been hoping by now to know what penalties the program would endure. Instead, he has been faced with the unenviable task of recruiting amid the unknown - and without answers to questions that rival schools have inevitably raised in the minds of prospects.
"I think the unknown is the toughest thing," Fedora said this month. "Because as long as there's this unknown sitting out there, that's what everybody's going to use - they're going to make it the worst-case scenario possible."
One day before national signing day, the NCAA still hasn't released its verdict. The final penalties North Carolina will face remain unannounced. And yet, Fedora and his assistants still managed to improve a recruiting class that had been floundering until about a month ago.
The most heralded of the recent commitments came from James Summers, a quarterback from Page High in Greensboro. Summers had been committed to N.C. State until Thursday, when he switched his commitment to North Carolina.
Summers, who led Page to a 35-21 victory against Garner in the 4AA state championship, is a versatile athlete who fits the mold of what Fedora seeks in a quarterback for his up-tempo spread offense.
Still, Summers had long been an N.C. State fan, said Kevin Gillespie, the coach at Page.
"So I felt that's where he's going," Gillespie said. "And then right there towards the end, Carolina made a strong push with a new coaching staff, new system, all that stuff."
The Tar Heels won over Summers, Gillespie said, because they recruited him as a quarterback.
"He really wanted to play quarterback deep down, and I think that he feels UNC is the best place for him to do that," Gillespie said.
Rivals.com ranks Summers as a four-star prospect and as the ninth-best prospect in the state. Among Rivals' top 10 prospects in North Carolina, Summers is the only one who has committed to a state school. J.J. Patterson, an offensive lineman from Roanoke Rapids High, is another four-star recruit who has committed to North Carolina.
Summers and Patterson are the most heralded players of North Carolina's 22-man class.
Mike Farrell, a national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, said Fedora has done "as good a job as can be expected." He acknowledged the natural recruiting challenges for any new staff, and said North Carolina has faced more of a challenge because of the looming sanctions.
Rivals.com ranks North Carolina's class as the eighth-best in the ACC.
"It's not in the top tier," Farrell said. "I would say overall quality-wise, it's probably sixth at best. ... I think it's going to be a mid-range class, but you can't consider it a disappointment because of the coaching change."
Heaven said he didn't have any reservations about committing to North Carolina without knowing what sanctions might await the Tar Heels. Nor did the coaching change negatively affect his decision, he said.
In fact, he said it made him want to come to North Carolina even more. He said he appreciated the chance to start something new.
"Since we're the first recruiting class since (Fedora has) been here, that's definitely a special thing," Heaven said.
