The transfer portal is starting to heat up again as we close in on the reopening of the portal and the Tar Heels appear to have their first official target in that spring window.
Earlier this week, the Tar Heels hosted Penn State transfer EDGE Smith Vilbert, who entered the portal late last month. Now, just a couple of days later, the Tar Heels have picked up multiple forecasts to land his commitment across the major recruiting sites. Both Brian Dohn of 247Sports and Pete Nakos of On3 Sports foresee the Tar Heels landing him for his seventh and final year of eligibility at the college level.
Vilbert, the No. 142 overall and No. 17 edge rusher in the portal according to 247Sports, spent the last five years in State College with the Nittany Lions, playing in 35 games across those seasons.
In 2019, as a true freshman, he played in just two games, failing to register any stats before he took a redshirt season. The following year, during the COVID season, he played 49 snaps between defense and special teams, finishing with just one total tackle and one quarterback pressure.
In 2021, he saw the most extensive action of his career to that point when he played 182 snaps on the defensive side of the ball and finished the season with seven total tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks and four quarterback hurries. All three of his sacks that season came in the Outback Bowl against Arkansas where he simply wrecked shop and had many hopeful about what he could become.
He was hoping to build off of that the next season as a junior in 2022, but only saw action in the team bowl game against Utah where he played just five snaps before he missed the entire 2023 season with an injury that led to a medical redshirt.
This past year was his most successful at the college level, as he featured in all 16 games that the Nittany Lions played, playing a career-high 339 defensive snaps and 80 special teams snaps. In those snaps, he collected 12 total tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, five quarterback hurries, one pass defensed, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
While he might not have the production of a Pryce Yates that the team added back in the winter, this would still be a welcome addition for the Tar Heels. He would provide some much-needed depth at the position that can rotate in behind the starters like he did last year in Happy Valley and could even build upon those numbers this season with a depth chart that isn’t nearly as firm ahead of him as Penn State’s was.
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