Maybe The Next Men Up Are Now Ready?

Just because North Carolina fans know very little about the guys who will replace the four Tar Heels opting out of the Orange Bowl doesn’t mean a doomsday scenario will play out Saturday in Miami.

Thirteenth-ranked UNC faces No. 5 Texas A&M in a game that has lost some of its national luster with the Carolina quartet deciding to not play. And it is a blow to the Tar Heels.

Chazz Surratt, who led the Heels in tackles with 91 and was first-team All-ACC for the second consecutive year won’t play. Michael Carter, who ran for 1,000 yards in each of the last two seasons and is fourth all-time at UNC with 3,404 rushing yards, won’t play.

Neither will junior wide receiver Dyami Brown, who is the only Tar Heel to ever record multiple 1,000-yard receiving seasons; he's heading to the NFL. The same goes for junior running back Javonte Williams, who finished this season with 1,140 yards and 19 touchdowns, but also caught 25 passes for 305 yards and three touchdowns, giving him a single-season UNC record 22 touchdowns.

Williams ran for 933 yards as a sophomore, so this wasn’t exactly a fly-by-night campaign for him.

Each player is projected to go fairly high in the NFL draft next spring, so they made personal and professional decisions. Certainly, UNC would be better off with the quartet running out of the tunnel at Hard Rock Stadium, but just because they aren’t doesn’t mean their replacements won’t get the job done. It also gives the staff a jump on next season.

“I think the fun thing for us now as we get kind of a look at next year's team…,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said last week. “This gives us a chance to try some guys out here in the next 10 days. And tells us a little bit more about what we will be looking at going into spring practice. So, it is an exciting time for us.”

There’s a reason players such as Josh Henderson, Khafre Brown, Antoine Green, Elijah Green, and Eugene Asante are at Carolina. Highly regarded prospects in high school, they are talented but just haven’t played a lot, yet. But perhaps this might quell the concerns many with a rooting interest in the Tar Heels are expressing.

Let’s start with Surratt. When THI broke the story he was switching to linebacker, the response was more of laughter and criticism over the move. Practically nobody believed it would work and some suggested if the former quarterback could start at linebacker it meant the program was worse off than many expected when Larry Fedora was fired in November of 2018.

All Surratt did was rack up 206 tackles, 22.5 for a loss of yardage, including 12.5 sacks, and earn consecutive first-team All-ACC spots.

Dyami Brown caught just 17 passes for 173 yards and a touchdown as a freshman in 2018. Nobody projected a breakout season for him in 2019 to the degree of 51 receptions for 1,034 yards and 12 touchdowns. He repeated that effort this past fall and is the only UNC player to ever record multiple 1,000-yard seasons at receiver.

Javonte Williams ran the ball only 10 times for 46 yards versus FBS teams prior to UNC’s season finale versus NC State in 2018, when he carried the ball 16 times for 83 yards and a touchdown. He’s become a household name over the last two falls by running for 2,073 yards with 24 rushing touchdownsa while also catching 42 passes for 481 yards and four scores.

In each case, nobody expected Surratt, Brown or Williams to erupt and become major NFL prospects. But that’s where each player is, and it speaks to the reality that capable players are always waiting in the wings in successful programs. North Carolina is just that and it’s growing.

The replacements?

Asante has played just 93 snaps at linebacker this season but graded out at 73.0, according to PFF. A year ago, he played just 58 snaps. Asante has been a regular on special teams the last two seasons, getting on the field for 156 plays this year and 148 last fall, totaling 304 special teams plays. Combined, he’s been on the field for 455 plays.

Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman loves his potential.

“The hard thing with Eugene Asante is he plays behind Chazz primarily, so the challenge for me is how do you get Eugene in the game and not take Chazz out,” Bateman said earlier in the season. “That becomes part of our deal… He has put a tremendous amount of effort in and it shows.

“Now you've got a kid who's very knowledgeable, who's very confident with what he's doing who’s got a ton of ability.”

The receivers?

Khafre Brown’s numbers were similar this season to his brothers as a freshman: 13 catches, 297 yards, two scores. Emery Simmons started after Beau Corrales went down, but his numbers didn’t wow anyone, but he also wasn’t targeted a lot: 15 receptions, 201 yards and one score. He has played plenty of reps, maybe his next move is as more of a go-to guy.

“Like everything else, the sport goes on and the offense will have to go on, and it's going to require some of these younger guys... Antoine Green and Khafre Brown and Emery Simmons, all of whom have shown you flashes of what they're capable of,” UNC offensive coordinator Phil Longo said in early December, when asked about the possibility of not having his biggest stars for next season.

Longo is confident in his running backs room.

“I think they're all talented, they all have upside and not to say the same thing, but hey're going to benefit from a year of physical development…,” he said a few weeks ago. “We're excited about the talent base that we have in that room coming back."

So, while few people know much about Henderson, Brown, Green, and Asante right now, doesn’t mean they won’t be huge fans by next October. And they will get a sneak preview on January 2.