UNC Recruiting: Clint & Tim Brewster, the Crystal Ball, and reading tea leaves

Clint Brewster is a recruiting analyst for 247Sports. His father, Tim, is assistant head coach and tight ends coach at the University of North Carolina.

Given how gregarious and likable the elder Mr. Brewster is, I don’t think I’m making a huge logical leap in assuming that the father and son have a good relationship.

So, the question then becomes: How much should we be reading into Clint Brewster’s Crystal Ball projections?

Currently, 247 analysts are hitting 2020 picks at an 84.04 percent clip, with an average lead time of 37.6 days for their correct picks. Brewster is slightly behind in correct picks, at 18 of 24 (75%), but his lead time is 41.8 days. Not quite on the level of Steve Wiltfong, but quite good. His page says he ranks third among their prognosticators for the 2020 class.

I looked back on his history with Texas A&M recruits, as that was his father’s previous stop before being hired by Mack Brown in late November. There wasn’t much to go on, leading one to believe that either Jimbo Fisher ran a tight ship, or he was not very-well connected. Again, given Tim Brewster’s people skills, I’m leaning towards the former.

Since Tim’s move to Chapel Hill, Clint has correctly picked 4* DE Fadil Diggs to the Aggies, along with two more yet-uncommitted prospects for the 2020 class. (For what its worth, he also nailed 3* OG Zane Herring and 4* LB Jayion McCluster to Florida State, Clint’s employer until Jimbo jumped ship for College Station.)

In the last month, he’s hit on projections (albeit without much lead time) to South Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Florida— schools that recruit heavily against Tim’s former and current employers.

So what’s the point? The point is that Clint’s picks to North Carolina are fascinating, if not drool-worthy.

• On April 24th, he projected QB Malik Hornsby to UNC. On May 15th, Hornsby committed to the Heels.
• On the same day Hornsby committed, he projected ATH Jefferson Boaz to UNC. I’ll call that a wait-and-see as that is the only pick for Boaz right now.
• On January 15th, he made an early call on borderline 4/5 star LB Trenton Simpson for Carolina. Currently, the Mallard Creek (NC) star has 86% of projections to the Tar Heels, and 14% “cloudy”.
• And on Wednesday, he predicted that 5* mega-recruit Desmond Evans will commit to the Heels.

This made waves among recruiting nerds, as it is logical to assume Brewster might have a little bit of insider knowledge. With Evans and Simpson being the biggest must-gets from both a positional need perspective (more important) and a “recruiting victory public relations” (slightly less important) one, this could be an absolutely huge development.

Or, it could be nothing. Recruiting is a fickle business, and these things are subject to change.

I, for one, will choose to ride with Clint Brewster.