Friday was the first full week of games in the state of North Carolina and OrthoCarolina Kickoff Night from historic American Legion Memorial Stadium was once again the center of attention. The event featured three of Charlotte’s top teams heading into the season and one of South Carolina’s powerhouse programs and produced two competitive games. While there was a good amount of young talent on the field, there was only one Tar Heel recruiting target that played in either game, 2026 4✮ CB Samari Matthews.
While Matthews’ Hough team was stunned by a furious comeback in the second half from Northwestern, the No. 8 player in the state in the 2026 cycle had himself a nice start to his junior season. Despite Northwestern throwing the football a ton down the stretch, they stayed away from Matthews, throwing at him just two times all evening. Both of those passes were caught, but they resulted in just 8 yards and zero touchdowns. He also finished with two tackles.
Matthews was the definition of a lockdown corner in this game. Hough used a press man coverage scheme on the outside nearly the entire night and he thrived in. He loves being physical at the line of scrimmage, making sure to get his hands on receivers right off the snap, forcing slow releases for the receivers. He has really good speed and has no issues staying on the hip pocket of whoever he is guarding We didn’t get a chance to see him play the football since they only threw at him twice all night, but that shouldn’t be seen as a negative by any stretch. He wasn’t overly involved in the run game, but there weren’t a lot of runs on the edge where he could have contributed. There is no doubt this is one of the best cornerback prospects in the 2026 class and the Tar Heels should have him as one of their biggest priorities.
We will close out our big weekend of scouting reports on Sunday with 2025 3✮ TE commit Marshall Pritchett as his Rabun Gap-Nacooche team takes on the Baylor School, a powerhouse program out of the state of Tennessee.
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