North Carolina has landed the big one for the Class of 2022. Five-star defensive lineman Travis Shaw is a Tar Heel, choosing UNC over finalists Clemson, Georgia and North Carolina A&T. He made the announcement during a Saturday night ceremony streamed by CBS Sports HQ.
Shaw, a 6-foot-5, 330-pound interior D-lineman out of Greensboro (N.C.) Grimsley, is ranked the No. 1 player in the state, the No. 2 defensive lineman in the country and the No. 4 overall player in the country, per the 247Sports Composite.
Shaw has a .9972 rating, making him the second-highest rated recruit UNC has landed (Marvin Austin, .9979) in the Internet recruiting era.
He’s thus a huge pick up for head coach Mack Brown and his coaching staff. Shaw has a large presence on the line of scrimmage paired with immense strength and quick movement.
“He is athletic enough to play all over the defensive line with great production,” 247Sports nation analyst Chris Singletary wrote. “He is light on his feet and makes plays off the edge and the interior. … Shaw brings athleticism not normally seen in a player his size, which makes for his upside being off the charts.”
Shaw is the third five-star recruit to select the Tar Heels since Brown returned, joining Class of 2020 cornerback Tony Grimes and Class of 2021 defensive lineman Keeshawn Silver.
In June, Shaw named his final four schools. Right after that release, he revealed that his timeline was moving up after his mother, Catina, finally was able to make the trip to Chapel Hill for an unofficial visit back on June 10.
“All those [prior] visits [the UNC coaches] were just talking about, ‘Oh, we have to get mom down here. Mom this. Mom this,'” Shaw told Inside Carolina. “We finally got here down there. And, everything [UNC’s coaches] said, they did. They made my mom feel like she’s been there every time I’ve been there — they made her comfortable. They made her feel at home. So really, they just showed the love that they were saying they were going to show.”
Both UNC and Clemson were looking at taking only one defensive tackle in this recruiting cycle. That played a role in Shaw speeding up his commitment timeline from during the fall to shortly after his June official visits. His visit in late July to the “Carolina Cookout” solidified that there was one place Shaw felt he belonged: Chapel Hill.
“North Carolina, they’ve recruited the defensive line as well as any program in America the last two cycles, and Shaw is as big a target as Brown has had since he has come back to Chapel Hill,”247Sports Director of Recruiting Steve Wiltfong wrote. “Right there in the same breath with Sam Howell, who was a program-changing win.”
When Brown hired defensive line coach Tim Cross, famously known for his introductory ‘Let’s get this work!’ chant, Aaron Crawford and Jason Strowbridge were pretty much all UNC had on the defensive line.
Now, with Shaw’s commitment, the Tar Heel defensive line is looking to feature a ton of talent: Shaw, Silver, Jahvaree Ritzie, Kedrick Bingley-Jones, Clyde Pinder Jr., and Myles Murphy are all four-star or better recruits.
North Carolina’s 2022 class moved up to No. 13 in the 247Sports Team Recruiting Rankings, with eight of its 13 commitments ranked a four-star prospect or higher.