Auburn made a statement on the field Saturday, routing Arkansas to affirm that the Tigers wouldn’t take a step back after an earlier loss to Florida. Off the field, the hits kept coming with the decommitment of their top-ranked overall recruit in the Class of 2020.
Trenton Simpson, a 5-star linebacker prospect from Mallard Creek (N.C.) High School, announced his decommitment on Twitter Sunday night, re-opening his recruitment. The 6-foot-3, 224 pound force is considered among the best overall prospects in the Class of 2020 and a top-five linebacker prospect. As previously mentioned, he was also the highest-rated recruit in Auburn’s forthcoming class, sitting just outside the top 30 recruits in the country.
While it remains uncertain what truly inspired Simpson’s defection from Auburn, there is a growing suspicion that he will now turn to in-state North Carolina. Simpson recently visited the Chapel Hill campus, and the Tar Heels’ recruiting continues to surge in the first year of returning coach Mack Brown’s second tenure, particularly after the addition of 5-star defensive end Desmond Evans on Friday.
That scuttlebutt may be purely wishful thinking, or it could be the start of a truly remarkable class and revolution at North Carolina. What we do know is that the Carolina Blue pipe dream wasn’t possible Sunday morning, but by Sunday evening it suddenly was.
