It was quite the week for the football program, which got a running start to the class of 2020 while the basketball staff remains patient for the class of 2019. Here’s our weekly rundown of all the most important happenings.

Football

• Last Saturday, four-star 6’1”, 220 pound wide receiver Ray Grier committed after taking an unofficial visit to Chapel Hill. Grier, who plays for South Point High School in Belmont, North Carolina, is currently ranked as the #10 player in the state of North Carolina. He is Mack Brown’s fourth commit from the state of North Carolina in the class of 2020, and the second prospect in the state’s top-10 rankings to commit to UNC according to both Rivals and 247 Sports.

• On Wednesday, Grier was joined by another 4-star wide receiver. Josh Downs from North Gwinnet High School in Suwanee, Georgia announced on twitter that he will also be attending UNC. Despite standing at just 5’9” and 160 pounds, Downs is currently the #30 player in the state of Georgia.

His commitment is a small coup over N.C. State, where Downs’ father played running back in the early 1990’s. As has been the case early and often in the class of 2020, Dre Bly’s connection certainly helped seal the deal. Bly is Downs’ uncle by marriage.

It’s early, but UNC’s six commitments have them ranked #13 on 247 Sports and #9 on Rivals. Four of the six recruits have 4-star rankings on the 247 Sports Composite list. For context, just four of 2019’s entire class had 4-star rankings on the 247 Sports Composite.

Basketball

• Another week and still no definitive news on the remaining big fish in UNC’s proverbial pond. However, Roy Williams did watch 2019 target Precious Achiuwa earlier this week. He’s now made multiple visits this year to the 6’9” forward at Monteverde Academy in Florida.
• One name that can be removed from the list is 2019 shooting guard, Anthony Edwards. He will stay close to his hometown of Atlanta. He committed to Georgia for what is likely to be his only year of college ball.
• On Tuesday night, Roy and his wife, Wanda, watched 2020 verbal commit, Day’Ron Sharpe. Sharpe is currently the only commitment in his class. One thing is crystal clear from the following video – Roy Williams loves to be photographed from his right side.

• Speaking of Day’Ron Sharpe, 247 Sports released their updated organic rankings for the class of 2020. Sharpe is now the #33 player in the country. That’s a 13 spot jump from his previous ranking at #46. All other UNC targets saw minimal movement.
• Finally, both Arizona and Kansas may finally be feeling the pressure stemming from the FBI case against Adidas and various assistant basketball coaches. You can read about Arizona’s mounting problems here and here, and Kansas’ concerns here. (To be fair, the reports about Arizona are from the Yahoo! Sports folks who have a flair for dramatic and disingenuous angles, so a cautious approach is encouraged for the moment.)

It may not impact anything, but it will be interesting to see if the problems push former UNC targets Josh Green and Zeke Nnaji to re-open their recruitments or persuade Matthew Hurt to cut Kansas from his options. Green has already signed an LOI, so he could face additional obstacles IF he decides to look elsewhere. Nnaji has committed to Arizona, but has not signed an LOI. Hurt still hasn’t even committed to a school.