With most of the prospects in the 2025 recruiting cycle having signed back at the start of the month during the early signing period, the new Tar Heel staff has had to dig deep to find some hidden gems to add needed depth to their 2025 class. On Monday, one of the team’s few remaining offers announced his commitment to the team, giving them a much-needed body at one of their biggest positions of need.
As first reported by Inside Carolina, the Tar Heels have received a commitment from 2025 unranked RB Jariel Cobb. His commitment comes just eight days after the team hosted him for an official visit in Chapel Hill where they extended him his official offer.
Cobb just concluded his senior season at Reidsville High School in Reidsville, NC where he put together a career year. In just 10 games, he ran for a career-high 1,533 yards and 23 touchdowns on just 142 carries and caught 23 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns on his way to first team all-conference honors. This followed a breakout junior season in which he ran for 1,213 yards and 17 touchdowns on 154 carries, helping Reidsville win the 2A state title, the 23rd in program history.
Cobb’s film shows a running back with good instincts that has some upside but a lot of questions as well. The thing that you have to like the most is just how decisive of a runner he is. He has strong ball carrier vision and it doesn’t take him long to find the hole that he wants to hit and hit it. He has solid speed in the open field that allows him to pull away from defenders at his level of high school football but may prevent him from being able to hit a lot of home run plays at the college level. While he doesn’t need to run with physicality often because of the running lanes that his offensive line provides, he utilizes it when needed and it translates for him when he has to pass protect. The ability to catch the ball out of the backfield is there, but it’s probably not something that dominates his game at the college level. There is a bit of a stiffness to his running style and while his cuts are effective now, they will have to be more precise and sudden to work in college. The biggest concern across the board is the learning curve that he will have coming from the 2A level of high school football in the state of North Carolina. There is potential here, though, and the Tar Heel program has had a knack for finding hidden gems like this at the running back spot.
While Cobb’s commitment won’t help the team in terms of the class rankings, this is an important addition. Entering the day, the team was expected to enter next season with just four scholarship running back, one being fellow classmate Demon June Jr. who signed with the team earlier this month. This gives the room a little bit of security for this year in case anyone else from the room enters the transfer portal and provides a low-risk, high-reward option for the future.
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