UNC in an odd position for a top-10 team, still wondering who its playmakers are
For all the hype surrounding Sam Howell and North Carolina heading into Friday night’s opener at Virginia Tech, it remains the case that nobody really knows who’s going to carry the ball for the Tar Heels and who’s going to catch it.
Those are, to say the least, not insignificant questions to be asking about a top-10 team. They are not usually asked because not many top-10 teams have those kinds of questions to answer.
It’s a measure of the high regard in which the Tar Heels’ overall talent and Mack Brown are held that it’s just sort of taken for granted that North Carolina will figure it out, some way, somehow. The reality is, the four players who got the ball from Howell more than anyone else walked out the door, and while there are obvious candidates either groomed or acquired to fill those holes, they’re awfully big holes.
“I don’t think we can answer those questions until after the game,” Brown said. “You can’t figure out in practice who’s going to do well and who’s not. That’s the biggest question about this team. We won’t know until Friday night if we can replace the 4,000 yards of offense that we lost and who’s going to be doing it.”
The numbers are staggering. Hard to believe, 4,000 is actually selling the production gap short. It’s really closer to 5,000.
Departed running backs Michael Carter and Javonte Williams and receivers Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome combined for 2,406 rushing yards and 2,355 receiving yards last season, 84% of North Carolina’s rushing and 65% of the Tar Heels’ receiving.
And while North Carolina feels good about Tennessee transfer Ty Chandler at running back — pursued specifically to fill this opening and serve as a bridge to freshman Caleb Hood — it’s a lot to ask of anyone to replace not one but two running backs who ran for over 1,000 yards each and are off to the NFL.
“He’s been in these games,” Brown said. “He’s not going to get big eyes. He’s not a fumbler. He’s really good at pass protection. That’s why we signed him. We’re not big on grad transfers or transfers, but we felt like we needed that experience.”
There are more options at receiver, although Beau Corrales will miss the opener. Josh Downs is everyone’s sleeper and Khafre Brown showed flashes last fall. It’s not quite the blank space the backfield is, with more options and contenders.
But still: These are enormous holes to fill, absolutely massive, not merely a starter or two but extraordinarily productive players who were the driving force allowing Howell to thrive in one of the country’s most explosive offenses.
On just about any other team, this would be considered a critical failing, sufficient reason alone to question any elite credentials it might claim. But nothing seems to dent the hype surrounding the Tar Heels, in part because of Chandler’s arrival as a potential plug-and-play solution in the backfield, in part because of Howell, in part because of the belief that Brown will, somehow, figure it out.
They’ll have their answers Friday, one way or another.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
