After a decade of what-ifs for UNC football, here’s the Tar Heels’ all-decade team
The 2010s began with such promise for the North Carolina football program, with Butch Davis as the Tar Heels’ head coach and a roster as talented as any since the heyday of the mid-1990s. And then came a tweet from Marvin Austin and everything that followed and suddenly, amid an NCAA investigation and Davis’ firing, all that hope was gone.
Larry Fedora delivered on some of his promises when he was hired in late 2011. His offenses, at their best, were the most prolific in school history. His defenses — not so much. There was an 11-win season and Coastal Division championship in 2015 and nine victories the next year, before the program cratered with 3- and 2-win seasons before Fedora was fired in 2018.
It’s fair to wonder how Fedora might have fared without the NCAA sanctions, or the specter of them, hanging over him the way they did for much of his tenure. In a lot of ways the 2010s was the What-If decade for UNC football. What if Austin hadn’t tweeted? What if Davis hadn’t been fired? What if Fedora’s final two teams hadn’t been ravaged by injuries?
A decade that began with promise ends that way, too, though. After firing Fedora, UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham rekindled the past and brought back Mack Brown. And now Kenan Stadium is full again, and the Tar Heels are fun again, and they’re rolling in recruiting again, like they were in the 90s. UNC will enter the 2020s with optimism, and hope of greater things.
First, though, a look back. Here’s the Tar Heels’ all-decade team:
QUARTERBACK
Marquise Williams, 2013-15
Mitch Trubisky was the better pro prospect and Sam Howell could well be UNC’s quarterback of the next decade, but it was Williams who led the Tar Heels to their best season of the 2010s: the 11-3 finish in 2015, which included an 8-0 regular season mark in the ACC and a Coastal Division championship.
RUNNING BACKS
Giovani Bernard, 2011-12
He ran for 1,200 yards in consecutive seasons, compiled a long list of awards and recognition and his 1,981 all-purpose yards in 2012 still rank second in school history — but Bernard will always be most remembered for his game-winning, 74-yard punt return for a touchdown to beat N.C. State in 2012.
Elijah Hood, 2014-16
A physically-punishing runner who prefered going through defenders as opposed to around them, Hood ran for 17 touchdowns and nearly 1,500 yards during his first-team All-ACC season in 2015.
WIDE RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS
Ryan Switzer, 2013-16
He made his name as a punt returner during his freshman year, when he returned five punts for touchdowns (including two in a memorable victory at Pittsburgh) but by the time he left UNC, Switzer had become the most productive receiver in school history and its all-time leader in both receptions (244) and receiving yards (2,907).
Quinshad Davis, 2012-15
The coup of Larry Fedora’s very first signing day, just two months after his hiring, Davis played a leading role in each of his four years and left UNC ranked third in receiving yards (2,614), second in receptions (205) and with another one of the decade’s most memorable highlights: his touchdown catch, in overtime, in the division-clinching victory at Virginia Tech in 2015.
Eric Ebron, 2011-13
A gifted wide receiver in a tight end’s body, Ebron caught 102 passes for nearly 1,600 yards in 2012 and 2013, when he received all-conference honors twice (second team in 2012, first in ‘13) before becoming the 10th overall pick (to the Detroit Lions) in the 2014 NFL draft.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Jonathan Cooper, 2009-12
The Tar Heels’ best offensive lineman of this decade, and the most decorated in school history, Cooper was a consensus All-American and received the ACC’s Jacobs Blocking Trophy in 2012 before going seventh overall (to the Arizona Cardinals) in the 2013 NFL draft.
James Hurst, 2010-13
Along with Cooper, Hurst helped form the foundation of some outstanding offensive lines in the earlier part of the decade; he was a three-time All-ACC selection (second team in 2011 and ‘12, first in 2013).
Landon Turner, 2012-15
A four-year starter at guard, Turner earned first-team All-American honors in 2015 and led an offensive line that helped the Tar Heels average more than 220 rushing yards per game on their way to the Coastal Division championship.
Jon Heck, 2013-16
The son of a former NFL offensive lineman (and the older brother of Charlie Heck, another successful UNC lineman), Jon Heck was a dependable presence up front for some of the Tar Heels’ best offenses of the decade; he was a second-team all-conference pick in 2015 and ‘16.
Lucas Crowley, 2013-16
The Tar Heels’ center, he set the offense in motion with his snaps to Williams in 2015 and then Trubisky in 2016; in both seasons Crowley earned all-conference recognition.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Quinton Coples, 2008-11
One of several heralded defensive prospects Butch Davis recruited to UNC, Coples earned first-team All-ACC honors in 2010 and 2011 and his 24 sacks are tied for third-most in school history.
Sylvester Williams, 2011-12
Williams went from working in a factory to becoming a standout junior college player and, years later, a first-round NFL draft pick; along the way he became an all-ACC defensive tackle at UNC and one of the Tar Heels’ most inspirational success stories of the decade.
Kareem Martin, 2010-13
Martin’s 11.5 sacks in 2013 were the fourth-most in a single season in school history, and the three players ahead of him on that list — Lawrence Taylor, Julius Peppers and Greg Ellis — place him in pretty good company.
Nazair Jones, 2014-16
Another inspirational story, like Williams, Jones suffered from a mysterious illness in high school that rendered him unable to use his legs before regaining his strength and becoming arguably UNC’s best interior defensive lineman in the middle of the decade.
LINEBACKERS
Kevin Reddick, 2009-12
The 2012 season is when things started getting squirrely for the UNC defense (not coincidentally, it was also Fedora’s first season as head coach) but Reddick turned in a performance to remember on his way to first-team All-ACC honors: 85 tackles, 18.5 for loss, 6.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.
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Cole Holcomb, 2015-18
Undersized and largely ignored by most FBS programs coming out of high school, Holcomb arrived at UNC a walk-on and became an all-conference linebacker who was one of the few bright spots on some otherwise dismal defenses in the final years of Fedora’s tenure.
Chazz Surratt, 2017-2019
Once expected to be the Tar Heels’ quarterback of the future, Surratt switched positions before the 2019 season and exceeded everyone’s expectations with an ACC-leading 115 tackles, including 6.5 sacks, that made him an easy choice for first-team All-ACC.
DEFENSIVE BACK
Tre Boston, 2010-13
Memories of Boston’s time at UNC have grown more fond over the years amid his enduring NFL career and, even though he earned second-team All-ACC honors at safety in 2013, he’s probably among the Tar Heels’ more under-appreciated players of the decade.
M.J. Stewart, 2014-17
Things fell apart defensively for UNC in 2017 but when Stewart had more help — both in coaching and surrounding talent — he was among the ACC’s best cornerbacks, and he earned second-team all-conference honors during the memorable 2015 season.
Des Lawrence, 2013-16
Another good player who persevered through some less-than stellar overall defenses, Lawrence earned all-conference recognition during his final two seasons and, along with Stewart, was a key part of a formidable secondary in 2015.
Donnie Miles, 2014-17
A solid if unspectacular safety, Miles was a key contributor for four years and led the Tar Heels in tackles in 2015, with 128, and was third in 2016 (102 tackles) before an injury cut short his senior season.
KICKER
Nick Weiler, 2013-16
Weiler made 35 of his 44 field goal attempts in 2015 and 2016 and, along the way, provided the Tar Heels with one of their most jubilant and dramatic moments of the 2010s: his 54-yard, game-winning field goal as time expired at Florida State in 2016, after which Weiler sprinted the length of the field doing the tomahawk chop while his teammates chased him.
PUNTER
Tommy Hibbard, 2011-14
Hibbard was second-team All-ACC in 2012, when he was second in the conference in punting average (43 yards per punt), and he averaged at least 41 yards per punt in each of his final three seasons.
RETURNER
T.J. Logan, 2013-16
A versatile player who also excelled at running back, Logan was the Tar Heels’ leading kick returner in each of his four seasons and returned four kickoffs for touchdowns, including two in 2016 when he received second-team All-ACC honors as a specialist.
IN THE TEAM PICTURE
Trubisky made the most of his lone season as starting quarterback, in 2016, and became the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft; Howell, meanwhile, had the most impressive passing season of the decade (and, arguably, in school history) during his freshman year in 2019; at receiver several deserve mention: Bug Howard for his dependability, Mack Hollins for stretching the field, Anthony Ratliff-Williams for his versatility; defensively, Malik Carney was a bright spot at defensive end in 2017 and ‘18, when the Tar Heels especially struggled; linebackers Zach Brown and Bruce Carter stood out in the early 2010s, and Jeff Schoettmer, like Holcomb, went from walk-on to multi-year starter, and success story.
This story was originally published December 31, 2019 at 9:00 AM.
