North Carolina TE likes Hogs and SEC

Tight end Avery Edwards is looking to make a trip to Fayetteville.

Tight end Avery Edwards is familiar with Arkansas offensive coordinator and quarterback Jim Chaney after attending a Tennessee camp last year.

"After the camp he sat me down and said they were really interested," Edwards said. "He started breaking down his X's and O's and I was like 'Oh my God', he can creature so many different match ups."

Edwards, 6-5, 230, 4.6 seconds in the 40 yard dash, Raleigh, (N.C.) Ravenscroft School reports 10 scholarship offers, including Arkansas, his lone SEC offer. His lead recruiter is tight ends coach Barry Lunney Jr.

"He's definitely staying in contact with me on Facebook and has definitely sent the most handwritten letters from Arkansas," Edwards said.

The SEC and the support the schools enjoy is attractive to Edwards.

"Every kid dreams of going to a spring game and having 50,000 plus fans at the spring game," Edwards said. "I'm definitely going to make a trip to go see coach Lunney and coach Chaney and coach (Bret) Bielema. So I would say the interest is definitely high."

Edwards, whose father walked on at North Carolina for football, rarely left the field last year while playing receiver and recording 40 receptions for 490 yards, 6 touchdowns and rushing 12 times for 108 yards and a touchdown. He also played safety and had a team high of 65 tackles.

"Production kind of went down a little bit on the offensive end for me this year," said Edwards, who's expecting Lunney to visit his school today. "But I was definitely contributing to the team."

A 3.4 grade point average student, Edwards is considering business or communication as majors. He's also aware of the SEC and the league's continued success of having players drafted by the NFL. This year's draft saw 63 players selected from the SEC while the second place ACC had 31 draftees.

"You talk to any kid that plays football, right now their dreams are to play in the NFL," Edwards said. "That's definitely the greatest probability of making it to the NFL. I believe they have the greatest coaches in that league and as you can tell coach Bielema just switched over. He was winning at Wisconsin and he wouldn't have switched over for no reason. The SEC is where if you want big-time football and you want to make yourself better every day and play the best competition, then I think the SEC is definitely the way to go."