North Carolina’s defense clearly misses pass rusher Kaimon Rucker who has been out the past few weeks with an injury. After giving up 70 to James Madison, the defense played better last week for the first half before Duke rallied to score 21 straight points to steal the game.
But some help might just be coming sooner than they thought.
During Monday’s press conference, head coach Mack Brown discussed Rucker and where things are at following a procedure that was done on his knee. Brown said that Rucker has yet to be cleared but he looked ‘really good’ running with the trainer.
“We haven’t gotten the full report yet, so we’ll see in the morning,” Brown said via Tar Heel Illustrated. “He was running with the trainers yesterday and looked really good.”
Rucker had a procedure to clean up a torn meniscus back on September 9th per Inside Carolina. But he’s recovering well after missing four games and there’s a chance that he could play this week.
Obviously, that would require him to be cleared by the medical staff, something that hasn’t been done as of Monday.
If Rucker is cleared and can play against Pitt, it would be a huge addition to this defense that has struggled over the past two weeks. Rucker finished with 8.5 sacks, 15 tackles for loss and 12 QB hurries last season, earning All-ACC honors.
The Tar Heels really need a boost to their defense if they want to salvage anything from this season and get to a bowl game.
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