North Carolina Tar Heels Football Offseason Preview

The 2021 season was supposed to be a big one for North Carolina. The Tar Heels made the Orange Bowl in the 2020 season. They had Sam Howell returning at quarterback and a lot of skill-position talent. So much was lined up for this team to do well, but instead, the season crashed and burned. North Carolina didn’t win a division or conference championship. It didn’t make a top-tier bowl game. The Tar Heels were a mediocre team which then got blasted as a favorite by South Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Coach Mack Brown dramatically underachieved with that group. Now he has to find a way to regroup and overachieve in 2022. A lot of people will be skeptical of what North Carolina can achieve. Maybe it is the case that UNC simply needs to be a dismissed underdog in order to find the right motivation and the proper mindset. At any rate, this team has a lot to prove this season.

Key Personnel Lost

The Tar Heels lost Sam Howell, their star quarterback, to the NFL, along with Ty Chandler, Marcus McKethan, and Josh Ezeudu. Losing several players to the pros, including the starting quarterback, forces the Tar Heels to start over on several levels heading into this next season. Part of the story of these departing players, however, is that Mack Brown didn’t maximize their talents when he had them. This puts a lot of scrutiny on Brown and his staff: Are they capable of developing players the way they should? That is a huge question and a central part of the discussion in Chapel Hill this summer.

Important Incoming Freshmen

Mack Brown’s best trait as a head coach is that he is one of the best recruiters in the business. He has never lost the ability to recruit top players, even though his player development has often fallen well short of the highest standards. Brown has landed two five-star recruits for this 2022 cycle. Offensive tackle Zach Rice and defensive lineman Travis Shaw will give UNC significant heft and power in the trenches. Brown was able to add to those five-star studs by bringing in four other four-star prospects: running back George Pettaway, linebacker Sebastian Cheeks, edge rusher Malaki Hamrick, and edge rusher Beau Atkinson. There are a lot of players coming into Chapel Hill, but the question remains if Mack Brown will develop that talent.

Key Position Battles

Wide receiver is a position of need, since North Carolina is breaking in a new quarterback after Sam Howell’s departure. Finding the receivers who will work well within the framework of the offense is something Brown has to do. North Carolina needs cohesion and harmony and a smooth pitch-and-catch passing game so that the potency of the offense doesn’t fall off a cliff relative to last season.

Biggest Offseason Goal(s)

Last year’s North Carolina team was soft. There is simply no other way to say it. This summer has to be devoted to insisting on physicality and not getting bullied or outworked. Finding rugged and hungry players is the centerpiece of this program’s very urgent set of concerns going into the fall.