CHAPEL HILL – Cedric Gray needs no introduction to North Carolina fans. Not to opponents, either.

He is “That guy,” or in younger parlance, teammates might say to Gray, “You’re him.”

Gray was a first-team All-ACC linebacker last year and is headed to another such honor this fall. He also made some All-America teams, and likely will again this season, before heading off to the NFL. He could go in the first two rounds in the draft, too.

Last season, Gray led the nation with 145 tackles in 14 games. So far this year, he has 35 tackles in four contests to go with 3.5 TFLs, 1.5 of which are sacks. He grades out right now at 77.1, slightly off from his remarkable 82.2 last season. But he’s ahead of the pace with STOPs, which are plays that result in failures for the opposing offense. Gray had 59 last season but has 19 now.

His skillset is loaded: Gray is a punishing hitter who can chase down opponents in the backfield; he can play sideline-to-sideline at an exceptionally high level; his pass coverage was good a year ago and is better this fall; and he is meeting blockers better, more regularly making his fits, and Gray rarely misses a tackle.

But it’s the other elements of Gray’s game that makes him truly a next-level player, as a collegian, and one who should have GMs projecting a very bright future in the NFL.

And it begins with Gray’s leadership.

“I have a pretty good level of respect from all my teammates, so whenever I say something, I feel like it kind of motivates them and kind of gets them going,” he recently said.

Not all voices are heard in locker rooms, sidelines, or on the field in between snaps. Gray’s is. But he has a keen sense on when to speak.

Gray doesn’t bark to his teammates so often they eventually tune him out. He knows when to strike.

“I just try to gather the defense up, so as I’m trying to gather the guys up, I might kind of think about what I’m going to say,” Gray said. “But like I said, it’s usually kind of in particular moments in the game where it’s just we have to get a stop. It’s one of those moments in the game when I try to speak up.”

The Charlotte native’s road to leadership began when he arrived in Chapel Hill before the 2020 season. His “O.G.” then was Jeremiah Gemmel, known inside the Kenan Football Center as “The General” because of his qualities in guiding and motivating teammates.

Gray says he basically didn’t know left from right in a college football sense, and Gemmel led him through those dusty and windy days on a path to clarity.

Now, Gray is returning the favor. This is part of what makes a program a program: It’s better when players teach players, and Gray is doing just that with the younger linebackers on the roster.

There is also a militaristic regimen Gray follows in a football sense. He never wavers. Not even a smidge from one day to the next. Each practice is a chance to win a championship, as is each game for the 15th-ranked 4-0 Tar Heels.

Gray applies that same approach to the film room. He studies the game like someone working toward their doctorate from MIT. He's a football junkie, and it shows with everything he does.

“He was an ROTC kid out of high school, two or three years at Ardrey Kell (High School)…,” UNC linebacker coach Tommy Thigpen said. “Ced gives you a big physical presence on the football field.

“And then he gives you like having a coach out there, because he can tell you exactly what everything is going on on the football field. He can tell you the splits, he can tell you the formation, he can tell you who got cut out, route combinations.”

Thigpen describes conversations with Gray on the sideline during games like speaking with a coach. He doesn’t miss anything. Pristine in pre-snap, nearly so in execution, and spot-on when chatting up to his teammates.

And he also wants a championship. That’s why Gray is still in Chapel Hill and not in the NFL.

“He would have been a high draft choice, he would have been second or third (round) probably,” UNC Coach Mack Brown recently said. “I thought he would leave, just about every young man here that’s had the opportunity to be at that level has left.”

But Gray came back, and is better than ever. Everyone watching can see that, as well as the guys at the next level.