Recruit ratings in football can be wildly unpredictable.

Here's a review of five long shots who turned out to be among the best college players in the nation.

ECU football coach Ruffin McNeill continues to revamp his staff by adding ex-Buc Kirk Doll and Pat Washington from Southern Miss.

ECU football players Lance Lewis and Emanuel Davis have accepted invitations to play in the East-West Shrine Game and Pirate safety Bradley Jacobs will be in the Casino Del Sol All-Star game.

The East-West game will be Jan. 21 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. (4 p.m., NFL Network).

The Casino Del Sol game will be held in Tucson Ariz. (8 p.m., Fox Sports Southwest).

Lewis, a wide receiver from Concord, ranks third on ECU’s all-time receptions chart with 149 and fifth in yards with 1,716.

Davis, a defensive back from Manteo, had 230 tackles and nine pass interceptions during his career with the Pirates.

Jacobs, a defensive back from Long Beach, Miss., Jacobs ended his career with 151 tackles and 14 passes defended.

3 ECU football players accept all-star game invitations.

GREENVILLE -- The analogy Lance Lewis used for East Carolina’s main problem Saturday night was cancer. That’s what Lewis said each turnover felt like for the Pirates in the first half against North Carolina.

The feeling felt familiar for the Pirates, for they went down a similar path that has marred their season so far.

ECU turned the ball over four times in the first half, and though the Tar Heels didn’t turn those mistakes into 28 points, they did enough damage to build a comfortable lead. The Pirates never threatened the Tar Heels in the 35-20 loss in front of a sellout crowd that set a new attendance record at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

Updated 12:00 a.m.

GREENVILLE – Earlier this week, North Carolina cornerback Charles Brown said there’s nothing more fun than beating a rival that hates you.

Except, apparently, blowing one out.

Tailback Gio Bernard recorded his third straight 100-yard rushing game, quarterback Bryn Renner threw for four touchdowns, and UNC’s defense forced four turnovers to beat East Carolina 35-20 on Saturday in front of a record crowd at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

UNC and ECU have agreed to play a home-and-home football series in 2012 and 2013, the school announced. The Tar Heels will host the Pirates next Sept. 22, then visit Greenville on Sept. 28, 2013.

The rivals meet for the 14^th time Saturday.

 “We look forward to facing ECU over the next two seasons,” UNC athletics director Dick Baddour said in a prepared statement.  “For a number of reasons, this is a good game for the state of North Carolina and it’s an exciting game for fans of both institutions.”

North Carolina was one of 10 teams to score more than 40 points against East Carolina's defense last season.

Since giving up 56 points in the opener to South Carolina, ECU's defense has clamped down, giving up only 17 points to Virginia Tech and 23 to UAB.

UNC coach Everett Withers attributed ECU's improvement to a switch in alignment from a 4-3 last year, to a 3-4 this year.

N.C. State’s baseball team is headed to the Columbia, S.C., for its NCAA regional. East Carolina is traveling to Charlottesville, Va.

And North Carolina, as expected, will stay home at Boshamer Stadium to host for the fifth time in six years, as reward for earning the No. 3 overall national seed.

“Everybody’s doubted us the whole year, and people still doubt us,’’ said Tar Heels senior pitcher Greg Holt. “They say we’re too high of a national seed, that we didn’t deserve it, all this, all that. But now is the time to show people why we are the No. 3 national seed – we’ve won 40-plus games this season, and our trip to Omaha starts now.”

Tentative ACC nonconference football schedules for the 2012 season likely will not be much different from the 2011 slates that were announced Monday by the conference.