CHAPEL HILL – How does a college football team replace 2,385 rushing yards and 28 rushing touchdowns from the season before?
They don’t.
And how does the same college football team replace 4,321 yards and 36 rushing scores from the same tandem over the previous two years?
Again, they don’t.
Michael Carter and Javonte Williams combined to average 180 rushing yards per game the last two seasons, and that is not including 92 combined receptions for 896 yards and eight scores in that span, either.
North Carolina has a giant void to fill in its backfield, and as the Tar Heels are weeks away from the start of fall camp August 5, there is not an absolute rotation that has been settled of yet. It’s not just that trying to find the next Carter and Williams that is the issue, it is that Phil Longo’s offense has a bevy of talented backs, but only one has significant experience and that came at another school in a different conference.
“That room concerns me,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said last spring. “That room is not going to be as good, or probably as productive, as it was last year. I think we’ll be more like it was two years ago, but those two guys were special that we had, and we all know that, and you just don’t replace them.”
Okay, so the Tar Heels won’t replace Carter and Williams and it doesn’t appear they will try. No point because it won’t happen. But they can tweak a few things and use more players to generate enough offense that allows Heisman Trophy hopeful quarterback Sam Howell and his talented receivers to do their thing.
Carolina uses a lot of RPOs (run-pass option), but for it to work, the run game must be effective enough that opposing defenses respect it. So that means UNC running backs coach Larry Porter must find two or three players, at least, that are capable enough to keep defenses on their toes.
Aiding this effort is that UNC’s starting offensive line is back plus it has more depth than any time in recent memory. And the o-line a year ago consistently graded out higher in run blocking than in pass protection.
It also helps the inexperienced running back group has one guy who has been through the grinder, only that Ty Chandler earned his stripes against SEC defenses carrying the ball at Tennessee. The 5-foot-10, 205-pounder ran for 2,046 yards, an average of 4.9 yards per attempt, with 13 rushing scores as a member of the Volunteers.
“You can tell he's played in the Alabama game, the Florida game, the Georgia game, he's played against Auburn,” Brown said. “He's played in a lot of games, so he's not going to get the big eyes when he walks out on the field for the first time. And he can catch, he’s fast. He's about 209 pounds, so I'm really, really glad that he's here.”
Chandler might be the starter September 3 when the Tar Heels open the season at Virginia Tech, but he will have company. Perhaps next in line is sophomore D.J. Jones, who carried the ball just 11 times for 65 yards and a score last season. When Carter and Williams opted out of the Orange Bowl, Jones likely would have been the starter if not for an ankle injury that kept him from playing in the game.
British Brooks and Josh Henderson shared the load but did not produce much. Brooks, a former walk-on who is now on scholarship, ran the ball 15 times for 53 yards and Henderson, a former 4-star prospect from New Jersey, managed just 15 yards on six attempts.
Elijah Green won three straight 4A state championships in Georgia, but his team rarely passed the ball, so he spent last year learning how to play in a more pass-oriented offense, which included him learning how to pass block for basically the first time.
And freshman Caleb Hood was a quarterback in high school, but at 5-foot-11 and 230 pounds, is more suited to running the ball between the tackles and in tight situations, which could be his role in the fall. The group has skill and collectively is multi-faceted, says senior linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel, who understands the nooks and crannies of this team as well as anyone, and who has gone up against these guys in practice.
“They all have their own specialty,” Gemmel said. “Josh Henderson is so balanced, his routes are good, he’s good in between the tackles, outside the tackles, in open space. Caleb Hood is going to be one of our power backs along with British Brooks, who can put his shoulder down, get low, and he has really good balance bouncing off blocks in the hole.
“D.J. Jones, it’s a battle for that running backs spot, and I think that’s why we’re seeing so much jet in practice from the offense because the backs are stepping up and doing a great job, and I think Coach Longo might be implementing a little more two-back stuff since we have so many backs we can use.”
As for Chandler?
“I think Ty from Tennessee, he’s our every-down back,” Gemmel said. “I think he’s going to be our scat back out of the backfield when we want to go five out and spread the field out and have him coming out of the backfield fast and low.”
Longo knows there is a timeline for when a pecking order of some kind must be established, but he is also enjoying the range of skills in the group.
“There are so many talented guys in the room, we’ve got to figure out who we’re going to roll into the opening game with at Virginia Tech,” Longo said. “It’s fun because we’ve got guys that are competing hard, they’re smart, it’s a great room, and all of them have flashed at one point or another in practice.”
Flashes are nice, but in nailing down a trusted rotation, the staff will need more than that. They have some time, but a couple of weeks into fall camp must reveal something the staff can grab onto.
They won’t be Carter and Williams, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be effective.