Tag: UNC Tar Heels

ACC Network ranks UNC’s Omarion Hampton as top-ranked conference player

UNC football’s superstar running back secured the top spot on ACC Digital Network’s top players this season.

Ahead of the season opener on the road against Minnesota, ACC Digital Network ranks UNC football star, Omarion Hampton, as the No. 1 player in the Atlantic Coast Conference heading into the 2024 season.

Hampton amassed 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground last season. He also caught 29 passes for 222 yards which totals to over 1,700 all-purpose yards over the course of 13 games in his sophomore season at North Carolina.

With Drake Maye and Devontez Walker, two major offensive playmakers last year in the NFL, Hampton is the star of the show and is projected to surpass 2,000 all-purpose yards and 20 touchdowns on the season.

That is a large part of why he draws this No. 1 ranking of the top players in the conference. He beat out newcomers to the ACC Preston Stone and SMU, Ashton Gillotte of Louisville, and Xavier Restrepo of Miami, who were the No. 2 through No. 4 players respectively.

Hampton gets his season underway against Minnesota this week and with the weather projected rainy, might get all the work on the ground as one of the most stable pieces of this revamped UNC offense.

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Former UNC running back makes Houston Texans 53-man roster

Former UNC football running back British Brooks made the Houston Texas 53-man roster today.

Former UNC football players around the league held their breath as all NFL rosters had to be cut down to 53 men today. After a training camp and preseason roster of over 70 men, 20+ of them theoretically, had to be waived from 32 teams.

One of those former Tar Heels, British Brooks, was one whose name was easily on the chopping block. The running back room in Houston brought in Joe Mixon from Cincinnati and had Dameon Pierce, Dare Ogunbowale, and Cam Akers along with more.

However, Brooks was not one of the players that the Texans decided to cut and did enough in the preseason to warrant a spot on a team.

Brooks ran one time for negative two yards in the Hall of Fame game in his first NFL action. He proceeded to run two times for three years in Week 1 of the preseason against the Steelers.

Week 3 is when he exploded onto the scene rushing five times for 23 yards and two touchdowns against the Giants. He capped it off with a five-attempt, 25-yard game against the Rams last weekend.

Houston chose to be thin in other areas to keep five tailbacks on the roster, the four aforementioned ones, and Brooks.

Brooks will now have the opportunity to make a name for himself and North Carolina at the professional level for the time being!

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CBS Sports picks Kansas, Alabama as two most intriguing matchups for UNC

CBS Sports takes a look at Alabama coming into the Dean Smith Center as the highlight of UNC basketball’s schedule.

North Carolina’s non-conference schedule starts with Elon on November 4th and ends with Campbell on December 29th, both at home. CBS Sports picked two games that stand out among the entire non-conference schedule.

Those two notable games that RJ Davis and company will play according to CBS Sports include the road trip to the Jayhawks and the opportunity to see Grant Nelson and the Crimson Tide inside the Dean E. Smith Center.

According to Jeff Borzello from ESPN, Kansas and Alabama are the preseason ranked No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation respectively with North Carolina coming in at No. 10.

Alabama was the team that knocked North Carolina out of the NCAA Tournament last year in the Elite Eight winning the region. Both teams have lost talent and gained talent in the offseason.

 

 

Alabama retained Grant Nelson and Mark Spears who led the team last season. They also added two massive transfers Clifford Omoruyi from Rutgers and Christ Youngblood from USF.

Kansas kept Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams while adding Wisconsin transfer, AJ Storr.

Will the addition of Cade Tyson and Ven Allen Lubin paired with Ian Jackson and Drake Powell be enough to stop Bama from beating the Heels, this time at home?

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Former UNC star showing the value of NIL money for athletes

This former basketball star at UNC is putting on display just how valuable NIL money can be to the future of college athletes.

It is no secret to UNC basketball fans who Armando Bacot is. The center dominated college hoops for almost the entirety of his career in Chapel Hill. Now, he is moving that domination off the court in the next chapter of his life.

Just a few years ago, Name, Image, and Likeness” (NIL, for short) was introduced as a way to pay college players for the money they brought to prestigious universities.

It has since become a method that coaches and colleges use to recruit top talent to their programs. Bacot played college basketball during this transition and because of his rise to stardom early on, he was able to enjoy the fruits of the progress.

In an interview with 247sports, Bacot credits North Carolina with the opportunity to make “life-changing” money.

I had no clue [the effect NIL would have]. I didn’t know what I was doing. You go from [making no money] to being a millionaire fast. It was crazy. We didn’t realize it. I made $2 million-plus. I’m saying that humbly, though. That speaks of the brand at North Carolina. If I didn’t go to North Carolina, I wouldn’t have been doing those deals at Turbo Tax and others.

Bacot has since announced a partnership with a hotel company and breaking ground on his first hotel, he stated on his Twitter account.

The former star is not only using his basketball talent; he’s also using that business education and putting it to work early for a brighter future.

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UNC football head coach Mack Brown addresses retirement questions

How long will UNC football head coach Mack Brown be at the helm of the ship?

With the retirement of Nick Saban from Alabama, UNC football head coach Mack Brown became the oldest head coach in Division I football. The tenured head coach of the Tar Heels will turn 73 before the Minnesota game later this week.

Brown’s first head coaching gig came in 1978 with Appalachian State. With a brief offensive coordinator job with Oklahoma, Brown became the head coach of Tulane. His first stint with North Carolina came from 1988-1997.

He left UNC to be the head coach of Texas for 15 years before coming back to the ACC and the Tar Heels in 2019. He has been with the program ever since. This will be his 35th season as a head coach and his 14th in Chapel Hill.

He is also now the most winningest coach in college football with 282 wins as a head coach. With that type of age and tenure, the natural question that will start being asked is the timeline of retirement.

In an interview with Scott Fowler, Mack Brown had this to say about when he will retire.

Well, Roy retired at 70. Coach Saban retired at 72. Villanova’s coach, Jay Wright, retired at 60. So a lot of people are saying, “I’m not going to put up with this. I’m just not going to do it anymore.” And to me, it’s been more of I’m needed more right now than ever before. The game needs older people with experience that can help make some sense out of this stuff.

The kids need a balance. They need a soothing, confident influence. And I’m a better coach now than I’ve ever been because I’ve still got my energy, but I’ve got more experience and more confidence than I’ve ever had.

From the sounds of it, Brown is in this for the long haul, and despite getting the question asked more and sooner than ever, Brown is committed to the North Carolina Tar Heels and their football program.

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How does UNC football’s running back room stack up against the nation?

Looking ahead to the season opener, how does UNC football’s running back room compare to other top programs in the nation?

For years, UNC football has had a stacked running back room. From Javonte Williams and Michael Carter, who are now both in the NFL, to last year’s Omarion Hampton and British Brooks, the Tar Heels have had a dominant run game for years.

With Brooks now on the Houston Texans, Hampton was looking for a new backfield mate. Incoming transfer Darwin Barlow and senior Caleb Hood will serve as the committee behind the workhorse back.

Hampton has been projected to top his 1,500-yard season from last year while being named to every award watch list and draft prospect list imaginable for the upcoming season.

However, while top-backs like Ashton Jeanty, Ollie Gordon II, and Tahj Brooks all don’t have great second-backs in the room, North Carolina’s can be severely underlooked.

According to 247sports,  the peak of running back rooms this season has been season by Ohio State after keeping TreVeyon Henderson and bringing in transfer Quinshon Judkins. They are joined by Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen of Penn State and Jordan James and Noah Whittington of Oregon.

Hampton will be joined by Barlow who has never averaged under 4.5 yards per carry in his five-year NCAA career. It was highlighted by a 62-carry, 289-yard season in 2021.

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UNC women’s basketball adds five-star commitment

This weekend, the UNC women’s basketball team was bolstered with the commitment of this five-star guard.

The UNC basketball team is officially making waves in the Class of 2025 recruiting. Five-star wing, Taliyah Henderson, has announced her commitment to the program this weekend.

Henderson is the No. 21 ranked player on the espnW 100 and has played her high school ball at Salpointe Catholic. Out of the 20 players ahead of Henderson on the rankings, only seven of them have committed at this point and no college has more than one of those players.

UNC basketball now joins the ranks of the top recruiting classes of the year in 2025. The Tuscon, Arizona, product has a 96 ranking on ESPN which is only two points back from the top players on the rankings.

Henderson told 247sports this about her chosen program.

The best way I can put it is that I love everything about North Carolina. They checked all my boxes. One part was the academics. With that being said North Carolina is one of the top public schools with one of the top journalism programs in the nation. A degree from North Carolina means a lot and you know great people have come from that school. Another thing was the athletics and not just women’s basketball. It’s such a strong successful community and that’s something I’d love to be around.

Henderson chose North Carolina over Arizona, USC, Tennessee, and Michigan, among others.

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ESPN analysts predict UNC football’s year-end bowl games

ESPN analysts had this to say about what bowl games UNC football would take part in this year.

Some top analysts had already projected their year-end bowls before ESPN released theirs and the consensus was that UNC football would play in the Military Bowl on December 28, 2024.

Now, ESPN analysts Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach have released their predictions, and they disagree with where the Tar Heels will end up at the end of the 2024 college football season.

Bonagura has North Carolina playing in the Bronx, New York, at the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl against the Big Ten representative Maryland.

Schlabach followed most of the other analyst predictions around the nation and has UNC player against South Florida in Annapolis, Maryland, in the Go Bowling Military Bowl.

North Carolina is set to begin their season next week with a true road opener against Minnesota in Minneapolis. They are projected to win by 2.5 points.

Max Johnson and Conner Harrell are projected to split time on the field in the opener, according to head coach Mack Brown, and Omarion Hampton will lead the team on the ground and the offensive presumably.

There is a long to wonder about how this team will end up, but the hopes are on being one of the top 12 selected to the first expanded College Football Playoff selections for the upcoming year.

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UNC ranks inside Top 25 in 247sports Top Talent Composite

UNC football ranks high in talent composite rankings for the 2024 season, according to 247sports.

With the UNC football season opener just one week away from today, positive news came out on 247sports about the talent that surrounds Omarion Hampton on the team. UNC football ranks inside the Top 25 in their 2024 Talent Composite Rankings.

Out of every team in the nation, UNC almost made the Top 20! Alabama came in No. 1 with 1,018.28 points with Georgia and Ohio State not far being at No. 2 and 3 with 1,006.89 and 998.62 points respectively.

Alabama had 17, 5-star commits along with 50, 4-star commitments to lead the nation. The Tar Heels came in at No. 22 with a total of 794.99 points which was just three points behind South Carolina and five points ahead of Nebraska at No. 23.

North Carolina had two five-star commits along with 28 four-star commits coming in as freshmen for the upcoming season.

They were led by a pair of five-star recruits, offensive lineman Zach Rice from Liberty Christian Academy who was a .9937 followed by Travis Shaw, a defensive lineman from Grimsley at a .9900.

Desmond Evans, who is projected for a monster upcoming season, leads all the four-star recruits with a .9774 rating.

The Tar Heel season is looking bright and it’s not just UNC football fans that think so.

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Dyami Brown jolted into WR2 role after Washington Commanders trade

Former UNC receiver, Dyami Brown, rises in the depth chart after Washington Commanders trade.

Over the course of the offseason, we have been talking about the possibility of Dyami Brown heading into the season as a solid WR3 and even the potential for the former UNC football star to be the WR2 on the Washington Commanders.

Well, that day has come. Today, the Commanders sent Jahan Dotson, the presumed WR2 on the team, to the Eagles in exchange for draft picks. With Dotson no longer on the team, it not only vacates the position for Brown to step into, but it also vacates the targets that Dotson received.

Even with average play last season from former Tar Heel Sam Howell, Dotson received 83 total targets reeling in 49 receptions. Despite being nowhere near where people thought his numbers were going to be, that role was going to skyrocket with new quarterback Jayden Daniels drafted out of LSU.

Brown only saw 23 targets last year in just one start all season. With Dotson out of the equation, seniority would put Brown with the first shot at the WR2 role despite drafting Rice’s Luke McCaffrey, brother of Christian McCaffrey, this year as well.

Brown could see upwards of 60+ targets and could come nearly tripling all of his productivity last year if what the team and coaches have seen in him this offseason can come to fruition.

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