The North Carolina Tar Heels football program lost a lot of talent from last season with Drake Maye, Tez Walker, and Cedric Gray going to the NFL.
They do return running back Omarion Hampton who is not only UNC’s best player on offense but he’s among the best players in the country. The running back had a breakout year last season and is back for another year in Chapel Hill.
But it took Hampton turning down more money from other programs with NIL to return to Chapel Hill.
In his Friday press conference ahead of Thursday’s game in Minnesota, head coach Mack Brown revealed that Hampton was offered four times the money to leave UNC and play elsewhere.
Mack Brown says that running back Omarion Hampton got offered four times as much money to leave #UNC than he got to stay.
— Ross Martin (@RossMartinNC) August 23, 2024
This is nothing new for North Carolina. There were rumors in 2022 that Drake Maye was offered A LOT of money to leave the program and play somewhere else too. But like Maye, Hampton remained loyal to the Tar Heels.
This is just the state of college football in the NIL era. Hampton wasn’t the first this has happened to and he won’t be the last. This is happening to North Carolina, a solid program as well as other smaller programs as well and will continue to happen.
Thankfully, Hampton stayed and the Tar Heels have their running back for another season.
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