North Carolina adds 2026 IOL Da'Ron Parks to jam-packed class

Nitro (W.V.) three-star interior offensive lineman Da’Ron Parks has committed to North Carolina.

He chose the Tar Heels after decommitting from Florida State on Monday. He was pledged to the Seminoles since July.

Parks is the No. 442 overall prospect and No. 41 IOL in the 2026 cycle, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all major recruiting media companies. He’s also the top-ranked recruit in West Virginia.

The 6-foot-4, 360-pounder continued to weigh his options this fall and wound up on multiple campuses since committing to FSU. Kentucky and Auburn were among the other programs in pursuit of his pledge, but UNC got him to Chapel Hill and took the momentum from there.

“North Carolina’s staff is elite,” Parks told Rivals’ Hayes Fawcett. “I have a lot of trust in the staff, and I think with the right guys and the staff, they can go really far within the next few years.”

His decision brings North Carolina back to 37 total commits. It also landed three-star linebacker Jordan Avinger, a former Arkansas pledge, on Tuesday.

Head coach Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels staff really began to add names to their class in June and they haven’t stopped since. UNC easily has the largest class among Power Four programs, and with National Signing Day just over a week out, it is about to ink nearly 40 recruits.

UNC has huge OL class

With Parks now in the fold, North Carolina now has seven offensive linemen in its 2026 class.

Headlining the bunch is Winston Salem (N.C.) East Forsyth Rivals four-star OT J.B. Shabazz. He flipped from Tennessee in September and is now the No. 22 OT in the Rivals300.

“They never shied away when I didn’t commit to them or when I wasn’t showing interest — they still stayed, they still communicated, they still expressed that they wanted me,” Shabazz told Inside Carolina this month. “So it was easy for me to come back and say, ‘Yeah, I want to come to this school.’”

Shabazz and Parks aren’t the only O-linemen to flip into UNC’s class, either. Amidst a jam-packed June, it flipped IMG Academy (Fla.) three-star IOL Will Conroy from Oklahoma. Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic three-star IOL Zion Smith, Boston Dexter School three-star IOL Anthony Hall, Foxboro (Mass.) Belmont Hill three-star OT Nick Fiumara and Norcross (Ga.) Wesleyan three-star IOL Eli Rickell are also in the fold.

North Carolina’s full 2026 class can be seen here. It currently ranks No. 19 nationally, according to the Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings.