Sting Factor: Hakeem Beamon decommits from North Carolina
Every time a major program loses a key recruit Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local, regional and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
THE SITUATION
Rivals250 defensive lineman Hakeem Beamon had been North Carolina’s highest-ranked commitment before announcing his decommitment on Monday . Alabama, Clemson, South Carolina and Ohio State are at the top of his list right now, but other programs could also jump into the mix as his recruitment progresses.
LOCAL REACTION
UNC losing Beamon is big in that the program can't afford any negativity after last year's injury-riddled 3-9 campaign and a lot of late misses in the class of 2018. Plus, Beamon is from Virginia, a state the staff has been emphasizing again. The bottom line is UNC football needs positives, not negatives, and while losing Beamon came as no surprise to anyone, it's still a big blow. – Andrew Jones, TarHeelIllustrated.com
REGIONAL REACTION
Momentum is not on North Carolina’s side right now. Beamon was, by far, the highest-ranked prospect committed to the Tar Heels and now Larry Fedora and his staff need to fight out of this hole. To be fair, this couldn’t have been a surprise to the coaching staff because Beamon has been taking so many visits to other schools. They had to see it coming so, in theory, they should have been making moves to set up contingencies. – Rivals.com Mid-Atlantic analyst Adam Friedman
NATIONAL REACTION
Beamon was a key early commitment for UNC, a program that needs all the recruiting momentum it can get. This is a big-time prospect who had some major offers. UNC beat out some power players for his commitment, so to lose him really hurts. – Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell
WHAT'S NEXT?
Beamon named Alabama, Clemson, South Carolina and Ohio State his top schools and has visits to Alabama and Ohio State already lined up. He doesn’t have an offer from Clemson just yet but is setting up visits there and another one to South Carolina. Beamon wants to commit before the season but Virginia Tech and Penn State should play a role before then.