In context, Arkansas and UNC have put together 2 of the most impressive recruiting classes

Arkansas and UNC were awful this season. Both teams managed two wins, putting them in the bottom 12 of 130 FBS schools. They were 93rd and 96th in S&P+, respectively.

In Fayetteville, it was the first year for new head coach Chad Morris, who inherited a bad team. The Razorbacks got clobbered by North Texas, lost to a bad Colorado State, and went winless in SEC play. UNC, meanwhile, managed to beat only Pitt and FCS Western Carolina, prompting the school to fire Larry Fedora and rehire Mack Brown as his replacement.

The simplest way to turn things around at two-win programs? Improve their talent level. And as the Early Signing Period kicked off on Wednesday, both teams have done just that.

The Razorbacks had quite the productive first day of the signing period, which included flipping DB Gregory Brooks Jr. from divisional opponent Mississippi State. Their 2019 class has eight blue-chip players signed or verbally committed, like elite tight end Hudson Henry, and blue-chip wideouts Treylon Burks and Trey Knox.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Arkansas has the No. 20 recruiting class in the country, per the 247Sports Composite, and depending on how thing shake out by National Signing Day in February, they should in the top 25 or fairly close to it. The Razorbacks signed five blue-chip recruits, including the No. 12 dual-threat QB in KJ Jefferson. The verbals who haven’t signed yet aren’t guaranteed to stay around, but then, the Hogs might add one more, too. (They might be head-to-head with Texas for four-star safety Jalen Catalon.)

That’s impressive for a school like Arkansas in general, which doesn’t recruit near the top of the SEC. It’s really impressive for a team coming off a 2-10 season. Arkansas’ two-year recruiting rank entering this season was 41st, and its five-year rank was 32nd.

Brown was named UNC’s head coach on Nov. 27, 22 days before the Early Signing Period. The Tar Heels’ 2019 class so far is highlighted by four-star QB Sam Howell, whom the Heels flipped from Florida State on Wednesday. Howell is UNC’s lone blue-chip recruit of the 2019 class, but his commitment vaulted the class from 44th in the country to 36th.

That’s behind the Heels’ usual pace of about 25th ... but not by much for a team that just went 2-9 and hired a coach who’d been out of the sport for five years.

Leading up to and during the ESP, the Heels also flipped high-three-star offensive tackle Triston Miller from NC State and upper-mid-three-star safety Khadry Jackson from Pitt.

The Heels had 18 signees by Wednesday afternoon. They were sixth in the ACC, and everyone ahead of them had as many or more commits. (New coaches should be expected to sign fewer players during the ESP.) The class has grown and still has some room.

Let’s look back at every Power 5 program that won exactly two games over the last decade, then check to see how good their next recruiting class was:

Only Kentucky and Virginia in 2012 (under Mark Stoops and Mike London) came particularly close to where the Hogs and Heels are now. Most teams, even those with a new coach, finish in the 40s, or worse.

There’s another month and a half to go in the 2019 recruiting cycle, so finishing strong’s key. Even if both teams do, Arkansas still has to play against teams like Alabama, Auburn and Texas A&M every year, and UNC is still a 2-9 team that’s struggled to break through.

But compared to other programs who did as badly as they did in 2018, they’re off to some great starts under Morris and Brown.