The Tar Heels have had some nice success in the state of Virginia in this recruiting class and on Wednesday afternoon they dipped back into the state to land one of its top receivers.
Just after 3:50 PM EST today, 2023 3✮ WR Paul Billups II announced that he was committing to Mack Brown and the Tar Heels via social media. Billups, the No. 82 wide receiver in the 2023 class according to 247Sports Composite player rankings, chose Carolina over Michigan State and Virginia Tech, the other two finalists that he laid out back in early July.
Billups, the No. 14 player in the state of Virginia in the class, is set to kick off his senior season at Western Branch High School in Chesapeake this Friday night. Last fall, as a junior, Billups finished with 572 yards receiving and six touchdowns on 32 catches while earning all-state honors while helping lead the Bruins to their first ten-win season since 2013. That followed the shortened 2021 spring season where he had nine receptions for 187 yards in six games where the Bruins limped to a 1-5 record.
Billups is a nice addition to round out this 2023 receiver class for the team. He gives the Tar Heels another player that can go up and win jump balls, something he did constantly on film in his sophomore season.
As a junior, he saw a lot more screens and short routes which allowed him to showcase his ability after the catch. He might not be the fastest wide receiver in this class, but he still has solid speed with his long strides and has enough shiftiness to make people miss in the open field. There is no doubt that he is still a bit raw and will certainly have work to do when it comes to developing as a receiver pre-snap, but he has shown the skill set of a guy that could develop into a complete receiver at some point in his career, especially with someone as successful as Lonnie Galloway is at developing receivers.
With the commitment, the Tar Heels have their third receiver commitment of the class and their sixteenth overall. They move up from 26th overall to 22nd overall in the 247Sports Composite team rankings and close them right up on Florida State who they are hoping to overtake for 4th in the ACC rankings. The team will hope to add another commitment tonight from another major target from the state of Virginia and vault themselves close to having a top 20 class once again.
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