Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels Land 2026 4✮ RB

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The Tar Heels are in the midst of a huge official visit weekend in Chapel Hill. Along with the nine official visitors, the staff is also hosting some important unofficial visitors and amongst them is the team’s newest commit.

On Saturday afternoon, in the middle of his trip to campus, 2026 4✮ RB Jaylen McGill announced his commitment to UNC via social media. He chose the Tar Heels over offers from Alabama, Tennessee and Clemson amongst others.

McGill, the No. 255 overall prospect and No. 18 running back in the 2026 class according to 247Sports Composite Player Rankings, hails from Mountain View Preparatory School in Spartanburg, SC. This past season, as a junior, he finished with 1,658 rushing yards and 24 rushing touchdowns on just 163 carries on his way to being named the Region 3 AAA Offensive Player of the Year. He also caught 22 passes for 379 yards and seven touchdowns. Prior to that, he spent two seasons at Broome High School in Spartanburg where he ran for 2,638 yards and 47 touchdowns on 319 carries and caught 17 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns. He was also named a MaxPreps All-American in both years.

McGill, the one-time Rutgers commit, is a complete back that just has a nose for the endzone. His ability to stop and start and change directions in an instant makes it very hard for defenders to get him on the ground. He does an outstanding job of being patient and waiting for the holes to open up and has a nice burst once he finds the correct hole to run through. He might not be what you call a blazer, but he has good speed which allows him to pull away from defenders in the open field. He doesn’t run through a lot of tacklers with power, but arm tackling him is difficult because he does run hard. As a receiver, there is a reason that the team was able to line him up on the outside at times and he should only improve as time goes along. His ability to pass protect is the big question like it is with a lot of high school running backs, but the limited reps of blocking on his tape shows some promise. The learning curve might be a bit of a question mark with him coming from the AAA level of football in South Carolina, but this is an outstanding addition to this running back room and one that could battle for rotational reps immediately once he gets to campus.

With the commitment, the Tar Heels have 13 commitments now in the class, including two from running backs. The addition also jumps the recruiting up to 17th overall and 5th in the ACC according to 247Sports Composite Team Rankings.