One of the Tar Heels top remaining targets in the 2025 class heading into the month was 4✮ S Kainoa Winston and it felt like the team had a fighting chance with him.
On Friday afternoon, though, the hopes of landing him were extinguished, as he announced his commitment to Michigan over Carolina and Penn State. The commitment comes as Winston was set to head to Oregon for his third official visit, a schedule that started with his official trip to Ann Arbor. He was scheduled to be in Chapel Hill next weekend as the headliner of that group of visitors, but will no longer be making that trip.
While missing on Winston was always a possibility, it does hurt that the team wasn’t able to get him on campus because of how high of regard he held the team in. The good news is, the team has a safety already committed to the class in Javion Butts and they brought in multiple guys who are capable of playing the position in this year’s class. Adding another guy here would be preferred, but it doesn’t seem like that is in the cards with the offers the team has out there right now.